She had a dream.
In the fall of 2022, Ariela Kraus, a sophomore at Carlisle High School in Iowa, cried out to God before going to bed one night that she was going to kill herself unless God showed her that He was real.
She hadn’t prayed in years, but had been going to church with her mother for about a year at that point. It’s a church that regularly preaches the truth about homosexuality and transgenderism, and after years of emotional instability, therapy, and being hammered into the lifestyle by her former middle school art teacher, Ariella is in a world of I fell in love with it. In fact, she had an affair with a transgender Satanist who she thought could not be bothered by her sermons, which she was trying to avoid.
But then the dream.
Two fields were set up facing each other. Ariela was standing among them. All around her was barren, dry ground and a single dead tree.
On the other side was God. He was surrounded by what looked like the very Garden of Eden in his field. And he spoke.
The truth will set you free. Even if you are isolated or bullied like Ariella.
“When he created me, he said I was perfect,” Ariela recalled as if it were yesterday. “He said he created me in his mother’s womb without any problem in my body.”
There she woke up, but it would be more accurate to say she was resurrected. She went to school the next day and broke off her relationship. The result was two years of rejection and constant harassment from her old friend group. It was very depressing to experience this new loneliness, this new rawness of the cross for about two weeks, but at that point she decided to dedicate her life completely to her dream and to be baptized. I fought against the darkness.
The clouds have cleared. eternally. She changed and speaks of her faith in her teenage years, just like Peter who was consumed by her tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost. and her capacity for compassion and deep insight into the school district that my book editor hails from. tod azenhad to save their own children…well, nothing else miraculous.
In what Ariella now calls a “war zone” in the Carlisle School District, staff members have been convicted of sexual relationships with students in the past three years, used secret and illegal library committees, and have been arrested by the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. was exposed by. , and a teacher from the Gay and Straight Alliance “resigned” in mid-year and was suspended from X.
“It’s always mind games,” Ariela said of the bullies she once called friends. “They can’t leave me alone and I stopped reporting because it’s no use. No one will do anything, so [LGBT group] Protected. But my old group of friends all have parents who are either divorced or just don’t care. They are broken homes where the enemy slides into their broken hearts. They feel like that’s the only thing they have to hold on to. ”
Looking back, Ariella realized that during the year she attended church and thought she hadn’t learned anything, she was exposed to the truth that “it’s not just about what we think will make us happy” and realized her dreams. I know that I have been helped a long time ago.
“Our church is not afraid to talk about everything that’s going on in the world,” she said. “Even though I refused, I can still hear it.”
How about that? The truth will set you free. Even if you’re isolated or bullied like Ariella. After her dream and baptism, the world wasn’t perfect, but she was happier than ever. And she wants you to tell her why.
More specifically, she wants you to know who she is.
“There’s nothing so serious that I can’t ask God for help right now,” she said. “Before, I couldn’t really talk to anyone. But faith isn’t easy. It’s relationships, and relationships are hard sometimes. But I know it’s not true, so I don’t want to talk to anyone anymore. You don’t have to feel alone.”
Amen, amen, I say to you. God bless you, Ariella. Thank you for your courage. May we all learn from it and act with the same faith, hope, and love. Because we need to.
