Hope

Yesterday I had a Bible study with one of my teammates, Vanessa, at our favorite Cafe. This place is wonderful. The pastries are big and their Cappuccinos are amazing! Anyway, we're studying 1 and 2 Thessalonians and it has been so encouraging. We were reading through chapter 4 and came upon verse 16-18. It really touched me and almost brought me to tears. It's so wonderful to know that someday we WILL be in heaven with our Lord. He is going to take us up into heaven and we will dwell with Him there for eternity. PRAISE GOD!!! I find such joy in knowing that we won't be on earth forever.
Now, I have a confession to make. I've been having hard time lately and I haven't been handling it very well. I've spent too much time sleeping and being lazy. I've just been doing what I want and not what I need to be doing. It's just a little funk that I've been in and I'm trying my hardest right now to get out of that funk. That's where this verse has helped me. The end of it says to "encourage one another with these words" and that's what I'm going to do. There are way to many people out there that don't know about the hope that we have in Christ Jesus and it's time to get out there and tell them. It's defiantly harder to do it when you don't speak the same language but that will come with practice and time. Love is the greatest way of speaking to people. Just a simple smile can make a persons day and give them a bit of hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therfore comfort one another with these words."

2 Corinthians 6:4-10

Well, the newness has finally worn off. I've been here for 5 months and it feels like it's about time for me to head back to New Mexico. This is the longest I've been away from home and it just seems like it's time to go back. I'm missing my family a ton and wish more than anything I could be with them. My dad is coming in December for a little over a week and we'll be spending Christmas together so I'm really looking forward to that.
It's not that I don't not like it here or that I don't want to be here, I just really miss America. Italy is a wonderful place but it's not familiar. I miss the convenience of driving, speaking the same language, fast food, big cups of coffee...well, I could go on and on but that won't do any good. There are some things here that I really have grown to love though. For example, I have a favorite coffee shop that I love going to. I always get a pastry and a cappuccino. There's a man that works there who knows English and he loves it when us Americans come into the coffee shop so he can speak to us in English. I've done a couple of Bible studies there and he always seems SO interested in what we're doing so next time I go there I'm going to ask him if he would like to study with me.
The language is coming slowly but surely. I'm defiantly understanding it A LOT more than I'm speaking it. I'm really not good at saying things but my goal is to be able to hold somewhat of a conversation before my dad gets here in December.
When I came to Italy, I was expecting things to be perfect, and wonderful, and amazing, but it's far from that. What I didn't think about was that Satan is also in Italy. He knows that my team and I are doing good things here and he's doing everything in his power to stop us. It has been so hard for me because I've always had my family to run to but now that I'm thousands of miles away from them I've had to completely rely on God. This has been a HUGE blessing for me. Times have been really hard here in Italy but I have never felt so close to God. I am really having to be still and listen to Him. I'm just taking it one day at a time and allowing God to be in front of me as my shield and protector.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I miss you so so so much and I think about ya'll daily. Love you and God bless!!

Charise