Friday, November 9, 2007

Not Something You Want to Post

We were reminded this week of how fallen and depraved we are as humans and how desperate we are in need of a Savior. Whenever we see headline news coming out of Perugia our attention is immediately caught. Having lived there for nearly two years and with many friends that remain there our hearts remain burdened for the work and people in Umbria.

A week ago there was a British exchange student that attended the University for Foreigners that was murdered. When we saw the house where she lived we quickly recognized it as being a place we passed on our daily walks to school, just down the road from where we lived. We were saddened to hear the news but devasted when we heard this week that the suspect in the murder was a man we knew. Patrick was a very close friend of several GBU (Intervarsity) students and thus we met him through them. Our nanny, Renee, was even a guest singer in one of his band concerts. He was recently married after his girlfriend became pregnant and their son was born the same day as Luca in the same hospital. Although we were not close friends we would always stop to talk whenever we saw him. Patrick, an American girl and her Italian boyfriend are all being held as suspects in the murder. You can find more details on the BBC Europe site.

Our prayer is that Patrick will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and truly know the love and forgiveness that can only come through Him. Pray for his wife and child, we can't even begin to imagine what they are going through. Pray for our believing university friends that they might be able to have more opportunities to speak of the hope we have in Christ and how this is a realization of our utter depravity and the result of a life without Christ. Our hearts are heavy for all involved. Thanks for praying!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

wow thanks so much for keeping us posted on all of that. There's a reason you guys are in his life though so I'm excited to see how you're going to be used. I'm praying for you guys.

tara said...

Wow, so sorry to hear about that...how tragic. It really hits home when it's someone you know too. Praying for you all.

Ben and Melissa said...

Any new word on this story? We are thinking and praying for this man and for you guys and how God might you use you. Love you!