God gave team Relentless, my team and I a special opportunity last month in Albania.
Honestly, one of the things that really pulls on my heart strings are beggars on the streets–some of which look like their in bad health mentally and/or physically. Another thing I love are children–but when I see them not in the best environments, it also makes my heart sad.
But this past month, my team got to befriend two special little ladies.
The first week in Albania we noticed a little girl that wore dirty clothes, whose hair was messy and full of lice eggs, face dirty, and who was begging on this road where there are many restaurants (and were we frequented often). Through our local, Christian Albanian friends we hung out with, we learned her name was Lydiana, she had 4 or 5 siblings, she begged for her mom, and her mom lived in government housing, and she was Roma. It was interesting for me that first week because she was so intent on getting money from you–she was persistent and she even asked us for money.
But there was a change in her the second week. We started building a relationship with her. We occasionally bought her lunch (normally a suflaque-basically a gyro) and one day my teammate Sylvia had Lydiana join us on our lunch date on her birthday–we called her the cutest birthday date ever! She even came to our VBS one day and then for an hour another day. That was also so special: She went from being a beggar to a true 10 year old who got to laugh, dance, sing, play, learn, and even paint! And after that, whenever we passed her she would run up to us and gave us a hug. We all loved her! Then around week 3 we started seeing a younger sister hanging with her and we got to love on her too.
Also, this child broke my heart with the things she may have to see back at home and having to beg and what happens to her self-esteem as she often gets ignored or chased away from restaurants like an unwanted dog (which we saw happen often). But God allows us to literally love on the least of these. He reminded me that a beggar is a human: They deserve to be loved, listened to, hugged. And yes, beggars may differ from overseas to what there is in the US and yes, we shouldn’t always give them money. But sometimes simply buying them food, talking to them, etc–making them feel seen, is so important.
So I challenge you to find a simple, even small way to love them when you see one of them in your path–at least pray for them. Because aren’t they worth it also?
