My family is finally back home from Italy! Praise the Lord that our return flights back went smoothly. With so many airline cancellations and mayhem, it is a concern for all travelers. It feels so, so good to be home. Home Sweet Home.

My sleep will take time to adjust since I am wide awake at 1am here at home. Italy is six hours ahead. Before I get busy with unpacking, laundry, food shopping, etc I’d like to write down what I’ve witnessed and felt while in Italy.

Firstly, being with my family 24/7 was very, very hard. Towards the end of our trip I was on the verge of losing it. Alex is fully back to her binging and purging, probably purging every meal and snacks. Howard didn’t want me to address anything regarding her ED until we got back home. (I’ll have to bring it up today so she can talk about it with her therapist. Please pray for my timing and grace when speaking with her today.). Alex was also mentally unstable displaying her anger mostly at her dad, hostile and rude to all of us. She also told me that she had a horrible time sleeping too. One morning she was so sad and crying without a reason. Long story short, I praise Jesus that I did not lose it. I was very, very close though. I did drink a lot of wine throughout the trip to numb my sorrows. I’ll need to detox now that I’m home and ask for prayers from good friends. Despite all this, I still cannot believe Howard wants to travel overseas next summer?!

I pray 🙏 that Alex will find herself a good work internship next summer so that it would not be possible. She needs stability in her ED care treatment, not an unnecessary and stressful oversea traveling for leisure. I just don’t understand Howard. None of us are enjoying this kind of travel and so I don’t understand why he insists on having them. Perhaps it’s to brag about it with others…? I just don’t understand. Ahh…the Holy Spirit is whispering to me right now that it’s also because he wants to have his kids company. When you are overseas, you are with your travel companions 24/7. There were moments of laughs and good conversations too. Especially when Alex was pleasant and in good mood.

Being with Howard 24/7, I also watched a lot of shows. I don’t really watch much TV when I’m home. We saw this teen miniseries called “The summer I turned pretty” I think it’s on Amazon Prime. Howard picked it. It was a cute show and probably very tame in today’s standard but it still glorified sexual fluidity, casual sex and multiple loves. Target audience is young teen girls. I felt so disturbed and sad to see that these kinds of messages are being broadcasted to our young teenagers. There is no references about God even if one character has cancer.

Another show we watched was a reality show about a famous Spanish soccer player and his family. His name is Sergio Ramos. His family values are good and moral but the message being broadcasted is all about fame, luxury, status and winning. There is no references to God or thankfulness to the Creator for their talents and looks. Perhaps if they ever expressed gratitude to God, it’s been edited out by the producers.

In the long flights to Italy, I watched several movies. “Mamma Mia 3” and “Sex and the City 2” are movies for my target age group. These chick-clicks also glorified casual sex and multiple loves. There is no references to God or seeking Him for tragic moments and challenges.

Howard thought it would be good to read together as a family a summer book for discussion during our trip. For Evan’s sake, one of his summer reading requirement book was selected. The book is called “Fahrenheit 451”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451 I didn’t enjoy the book but managed to finish it all in my flight home. In this book, the ruling government outlawed all books from society. The main character is a fireman whose job was to burn all books and homes of people who secretly kept books. This society’s people was controlled and manipulated by the constant entertainment shows. Anyway, it was interesting to read about this fictional society and also see that it is happening today in our society by the numerous entertainment that is available 24/7 through streaming TV. I remember growing up, we didn’t have cable TV and so I only had like 5 channels to choose from. Now it is limitless.

During the pandemic lockdown I did a deep study on the book of Revelation. I heard from six different teachers on this book just so I can be certain there’s a consensus. I learned from Derek Prince, Amir Tsarfati, Gary Hamrick, Greg Laurie, Stephen Armstrong and Westminster professor whose name I don’t remember right now. All agree that we are living in the last minutes of the last days. TSC pastors, late David Wilkerson and Carter Colon have been warning about this final hour of human history from the pulpit too. Billy Graham’s classic evangelistic sermons always preach this message too.

I found this messianic teacher, Christine Darg a few months ago and I try to listen to her as much as I can. She did a really great job of recapping the “8 signs of the Lord’s imminent returning”. Her message on “God’s ultimate revival” was also an excellent recap of past revivals and precursors for revival. Please give her a listen. I think you’ll appreciate her biblical knowledge, encouragements and her calming way of warning us too. https://jerusalemchannel.tv/categories/bible-prophecy/

While in Italy, a good ministry friend shared this message with me. It is a little freaky just so you know. I heard it twice. Not sure what to think about this, however it is another message for me how last our biblical timeline is towards the rapture of the church, revealing of the Anti-Christ and the 7 years of the Great Tribulation on earth. – https://youtu.be/uhRVhHBnbgI

All roads lead to Rome…I’m sure that the Catholic Church in Rome will be playing a vital role in the end times. I will be praying for Italy 🇮🇹 and that a wonderful and great revival will happen in this country so that many Italians will be saved before the day of the Lord’s judgment. Today most Italians have abandoned their religion and simply living for today’s pleasures and treasures. A pastor from my church told me that when he went to Rome, Italy 12 years ago for a missions trip, a local evangelical pastor told him that if there was a rapture of the church, most Italians would not know because so few people would be missing; while in USA many believers will be missed. 😳

On our last day there with a tour guide in Naples, we came across street evangelism! Young people attracted a crowd near the Royal Palace of Naples by their singing. Then someone went out in the center and started preaching with a Bible in his hand. I didn’t understand what he was saying but our tour guide said he is preaching, and perhaps he is being trained to become a priest. Our tour guide said there’s a great shortage of priests in Italy and so he supports Italians going into church ministry. I did not understand what this young man was saying but this group acted and sang like evangelical Christians, not a Catholic priesthood. It was a wonderful blessing to see this happening in Italy on my last day! Thank you Holy Spirit for showing me this beautiful light of your people in secular Italy. As the world gets darker and harder, I pray that these evangelical Italian believers will be brave and continue to preach and sing publicly. Fill them up Lord daily! Keep them safe from the many temptations for young people in their country. 🙏