The last few weeks have been hard for me. On June 4, 2007 my cousin Natasha Settles died of a drug overdose. The pain that her death caused my family is horrible. She got into drugs at a very young age, but no one expected that she would die. She was 23 years old and left behind a 3 year old son. At the funeral I was so depressed at the hardness of my extended family’s hearts. My dad did the services and preached the gospel to them, but they sat there like stones from where I was sitting. Dad said that her brother and his girl friend were very tender, but they were not in my line of vision. Please, please pray that they will come to know the Lord. My parents, my sister, and I are the only people on this side of the family that are Christians. My grandma sincerely believes that she is okay even though she never has put her trust in God and she isn’t going to last much longer. She has about a half a lung left and she continues her chain-smoking while on oxygen… Just pray for them…

            I went to see three of my friends from Kentucky and discovered that one is already in a place where she will probably be dead in a few years and the other is headed in a similarly bad direction. Thank God that my very best friend is still doing fine. She is headed off to college now, but I think that she is going to be okay. In some ways I am glad that I got away from that group. I don’t know where I would be if I had continued in that crowd. I would like to think that I would still be the same innocent girl, but it’s not very likely. Sometimes when I am around these girls I feel like I am the only virgin left in the world, like I am the only one who still holds to the belief that sexual contact before marriage is wrong.

            Anyway on the bright side, I have enjoyed living up here. I met the most amazing person over a year ago and now we are inseparable. I’ve had the chance to go to a school that gives me plenty of options and I’ve been able to attend the church where my parents were married. My sister and I have both been baptized here and have grown a lot spiritually. I learned something very important through my move from Kentucky to Indiana, which is that God always knows what he is doing when things don’t turn out exactly how you would like them too.

                                    ~Liz~