Well, I have hesitated to write all that we did, but several friends have actually asked me to please post what I wrote when we were in Italy so here goes. If it is boring, you can go back to watching golf on television,ha!

We flew into Rome on Wed, Sept 10th after a wonderful smooth flight. We met our friends, Ken and Reny at the airport there and proceeded to our Hotel San Carlo which was about 2 blocks from the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. We ate lunch at an outdoor pizzaria, which I will tell you up front, we ate every meal outdoors except one, in Lucca because it was raining. The pizza here is so yummy because it is on crust as thin as crackers and lots of sauce and cheese and artichokes are very popular as a topping.

The next day we did the typical “tourist” sightseeings of the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and I must say that it blew me away to see the colors, the scenes, the gold, the talent.  No words can explain just how truly awesome this is. It made me think of God’s gift to Micael Angelo. According to the tour guide, history tells us that he did not even want to do the chapel and was forced by the King or his family would be at risk of dying, since the King told him that if he didn’t paint, he would attack Florence, where Michael’s family lived. The guide told us that there is so many artifacts and art pieces there at the Vatican that if you stood in front of each one for 3 seconds, it would take 12 years to see it all. I stared at the art, the beautifully brightly painted scenes of our Lords life and thought about something. Since we heard that Michael Angelo didn’t even want to do what our eyes were beholding, would it have been even better had his heart been in it? I cannot even imagine how it could, but it also reminded me of my obedience to God. How many times have I felt that God asked something of me and I gave it a half-hearted attempt? What would have been the result if I had given it my all? Because of His love and grace, God still takes my life of half-hearted plans and desires or gifts and uses then for His glory. Just think of what could be accomplished if we gave Him our best?

Our hotel there in Rome had a rooftop garden where we came at the end of each day and I would sit and write what we had seen. Looking out at the houses around me, hearing the street sounds below, blessed my heart. It was just a time of putting my feet up, sitting in the cool air and just thinking about all the history which we had encountered each day! That was such a great part of the day. We would then go walking to find “just the right” place to dine and talk about what we had experienced, practice what little Italian we knew and laughed and enjoyed friendliness of the people we met.  Will write more tomorrow!

It is so great to be back home and back  in the kitchen to cook some of the gorgeous dishes we experienced while in Italy! I took a notebook with me to keep a journal of my days there since I had could not access the internet. I am reluctant to write all I wrote because no words can truly capture the feelings and adventures I experienced when walking down narrow roads, looking up at different colored beautiful homes built hundreds of years ago. The story that I feel needs writing is the one in which I feel is a gift to me from God.

Let me begin by telling you what God allowed Randy and I to experience 5 yrs ago on our first trip to Italy. We were on a tour bus seeing Rome. We noticed a beggar on the street below and as we sat there on the bus, we both felt that God was telling us to get off the bus and give this man some money. He had no legs and from what we could tell, we thought he might be blind, but we were not certain about that. We hesitated wondering if we really needed to get off to do this, as we had seen many just like him. Randy decides that he needs to do this, as the Spirit was leading him and as he stands up to go down the stairs and off the bus (we were on the open air top deck of the bus) the bus takes off. We are both ashamed that we took so long (we had been at that bus stop for about 25 min) being obedient to what we felt God was asking us to do. This man stayed on my heart all night and I told God that if He gave me another chance like that, I would be obedient immediately. The next day, touring the town again, we see the same man in a totally different part of town. The bus did not stop there and we were not able to get off the bus, but because we saw the same man twice, we felt that God laid him upon our hearts to pray for him and still do to this day. We named him Jeremiah and we bring him before the Lord and ask that God save him and we expect to see him in Heaven one day.

Now that brings us to this trip. Because of that situation in which we both felt that God had placed this man in front of us twice in two different places of town, I asked God to give me another “Jeremiah” on this trip. And He did. We were in Milan at the most beautiful duomo (church) and we are getting ready to go inside when I see a young lady sitting outside leaning on the wall of the duomo. Her face was listless, she had clumps of hair which had fallen out, she looked either to be high or a little “off” or so downtrodden in her life that people just walked by and stared. I wanted to go up to her so badly, but fear of what others would think of me, and a little “unChristian” attitude of “how could she allow herself to be dressed like that, with her blouse falling off her shoulders” skirt hiked up in front” I thought she might be a prostitute. Feelings of pity, disgust, sorrow, “how her mother must be so worried about her daughter, maybe not even knowing where her daughter was”. All these mixed feelings came and as we go inside the church and are marveling at how people built such awesome structures which were just indescribable” all I could do was think of this young lady. We were there with a couple who are not Christians and I kept wondering what they would think of me going up to her. That is hard to admit, but I went on my merry way. The next day, we are out walking and going up and down the streets and as I am coming out of a store, I look and there she is. My new “Jeremiah”. The Lord was giving me another chance. I went and found Randy, who was down the block from where I had been and told him I needed some euros to give to the young lady we had seen yesterday. He immediately gave me the money and I had brought a couple of tracks with me on the trip “just in case”. I went up to “Lucy” (the name I gave her) put the money on top of the track and told her that “God loved her”. I don’t know if she read English or if she might have been an American, she looked like she might have been, but she was still looking at the track when we walked out of another store. All I know is that in my spirit, I felt that God put this young lady in front of us twice, just like Jeremiah, for us to pray and lift her before the throne of God.

Seeing people once sometimes gets our attention, but when we see them twice, in different places, it just becomes so real that God has allowed this to make an impression on our hearts to think that maybe, we are the only people who would be praying for them. So this is my story of the trip……we had asked God to lead us to another person and He did.  Each of us cannot “save the world”, but we can be used one person at a time. Where might you find your “Lucy” or “Jeremiah” today? Go and be a blessing.