Italy Adventures

Hey Friend! 🙂

I am currently in Sicily, Italy residing in a smaller city called Trapani. Nearby, there is a smaller town outside of Trapani where my great grand father, Bopichino grew up.

This time, as you may know is set apart especially for a time of reflection, processing, debrief, and really just wrapping up this season, to prepare my heart for the next. Above are some photos from the little Island I visited today.

It’s been so good, and I am grateful for this time. I sit here though, trying to sum up how I feel about this year wrapping up, what I have learned, how I have grown, and what I will be doing with this experience for the rest of my life.

But here’s the thing.

I can’t possibly wrap it up in one blog. It’s a whole year. A whole year of experiences that in some ways, gave me gray hairs LOL. A whole year of experiences, that probably added some wisdom(learning from mistakes, always adds new wisdom!), goofyness, maturity, discernment, and a deeper, more solidified, faith. It’s really hard to sum it up, harder than I initially thought would be.

Surely, I will do my best to provide glimpses for you over time—which is what it naturally will take, I’m sure. I think between now and next week, I will have a video blog for you to check out on “Re-capping the race”. 

For now, I do have several cool things to share about. They are a few highlights of God placing people into my life to do my best to love on well.

First off, the other day I went to visit the small town my Great grandfather grew up in. While it was so wonderful to explore and walk around, the end of the night was my favorite. Upon boarding the train to go back to my little cozy room, I met a refugee. This person came from Africa and was in the midst of looking for work opportunities.

We started chatting and then I came to find out his name was HOPE.

Wow.

Hope and I were able to chat for a bit & God totally allowed me to speak some truth and encouragement into his life. I was able to share that I have some friends back in the states from Africa, and used to work with refugee youth.

We also connected on a faith level. Hope is a Christian too.

But he said, ever since moving to Sicily, he has felt distant from Jesus.

After chatting a bit, we decided that it would be good for him to get connected to a Church family. So, after exchanging numbers, this is what we are working on.

I had an opportunity to pray over this man and remind him that He is also a messenger of the Gospel, loved, cherished, adored, and remembered (not forgotten) by God. It was such a joy to encourage this man & my heart really does go out to him, and the many people like himself looking for a brighter future. Let’s do our best to be the church to our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter who, no matter where. It’s totally worth it, and you never know who you might run into.

Please partner with me in prayer for this man. Our prayers are so powerful for one another. What a gift it is to be able to stand in the gap and fight through prayer for our brothers and sisters around the world.

One more quick blurb of a testimony. Long story short, last week, the housing that I thought I had booked in Morocco before I flew out for Italy the next day, was already booked. Upon finding that out… I was more aware and ready for whatever the Lord had. I thought to myself…there must be a reason for this little error. Turns out, there was! Instead of staying in my own little room of a guest apartment…I ended up staying in the house of the family who owned the apartment I thought I would be sleeping in for one night. Sounds silly, but it was like a total upgrade!!

This little error on my part, God turned into such a gift. The entire family spoke English. The daughter desired to learn how to play the guitar. The mother was so very generous. & it felt like a home away from home. I was invited to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the family, where we sat around for hours and chatted about life, faith stories, and the differences between Islam & Christianity (the family was Muslim). There were laughs, serious questions, deep thoughts, and new friendships built.

As felt led, I was able have some pretty deep conversations with them in a short period of time. I had an opportunity to help clear up mis-conceptions about the Christian faith, inquire/share some findings in my own research with concerns of the Quaran, and empower this family to do the research themselves…to not just take my word for findings, but to do the diligence of research too. It was a really sweet time.

Oh, and the cleaning lady of the house, decided to take me to the market, and there I was able to present the Gospel to her & help answer questions she’s had about Christianity for a long time too. She said something along the lines of “I have been waiting to talk to someone about these deep things for such a long time. We were meant to meet each other today!” We are chatting back and forth via message to this day. It was so cool!

Though the thought of challenging different faiths, or having conversations about such topics may sound uncomfortable…when you put on the lens of compassion… it’s really more of a gift and honor than a drag. For me, I’ve noticed that I often times feel genuinely more connected to people when we talk about deep things like faith, and can still have those conversations while respecting and honoring the individual, allowing them to feel cherished rather than attacked in any way. It’s wild being a believer. We are meant to walk in this sweet tension of truth and grace all at once. It’s a beautiful thing, but not always easy.

If you are interested more in learning about the differences between the Christian & Islamic Religion, I highly recommend the book called “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus” and the other book, “No God but one, Allah or Jesus?” by Nabeel Quershi. These are two great reads coming from a perspective of someone who has been fully devoted and well versed to both religions, at separate points of his life. It’s a great start to discovering more on these topics. 

So, what propels me to enter into these types of conversations? The last thing I care about is winning a debate. It is something deeply personal and weighty. I am convinced, from experience and a historical standpoint, this very personal relationship with Jesus Christ, is meant for everyone, not just me. If it’s that important to me, then I owe it to the World to share this good news too, the best I can.

I simply desire more love, intimacy, and obedience towards our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I am not ashamed, rather I can’t help but boast about it! Woot woot!

Romans 1:16 Says,

“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes–the Jew first and also the Gentile.”

May we live into this truth more and more everyday. <3

Coming up…

I will be renting month to month in the City of Holland, Michigan starting sometime in January. For this, I look forward to visiting with my sister and brother in law, along with friends and church family around the area. 🙂

As always, will keep you posted as more details fall into place.

Much love to you all,

Kailey