I reckon that most people who read the title would wonder what the general point of this blog post is going to be about…well you are just going to have to wait. lol. Living in Lezhe, Albania has been nothing short of a pleasure and honor to serve in ministry here! My last blog I wrote about the upcoming camps we were having and I just wanted to give you all an update first of all about what ministry has looked like and what these last 2 weeks have been like.
When Monday, July 6th rolled around, I was super pumped to be able to dive in and minister to the kids of Lezhe. Now I would like to preface beforehand that ministry is not always sharing the Bible in totality around the world. Ministry, as in being the hands and feet of Christ, looked a lot like playing with kids this month and working on a farm. Anyways, when Monday had rolled around, I was jazzed by the opportunity to get to love on kids. However, I soon began to realize that my communication skills would be put to the test due to the language barrier. Therefore, despite the jokes from others about my selfie stick, I plopped it out and just starting being a little weird and snapping photos of everyone. Very easily, it seemed I had won their trust. From that point forward, a hairspray bottle, google translate, the selfie stick and my jams (my Ipod) had the kids investing and diving into the ministry with me. Nevertheless my crazy antics to get kids out of their comfort zone of Albanian people only, my loony American self made it a point to love the heck of of these kids and be ridiculous to the point that my embarrassment would get them to feel comfortable. To get a grasp of the cultural condition of the kids here in Lezhe, the average family lives on less than 2 USD a day to survive on! Also, there is a lot of broken homes and just an absence of love for some of the kids. Therefore, while our ministry was not directly a vacation bible school where we would get to teach the Bible, the kids knew we were Christian missionaries who came all the way to a forgotten land to love on them! I guess you could say that the turn out was quite good of LightForce International Ministries. In the wake of the communist regime that used to dictate the land here, the Christian organizations are labeled as an “occult” place on the map. Therefore, our goal here in Lezhe was to build relationships and serve the kids so that eventually through enough planting, that the gospel would be eventually shared with all those what came through our camp.
When it came time to serve the kids, I was a leader would guide, play and mentor the kids through various activities such as a swimming pool, table top pool, zip line, bounce castles, connect 4, soccer, rock climbing, and a few other events. And while the perception may seem that it was all fun and games 24/7, it was not. There were tough times! Boys do not tend to treat girls with the most respect here, and thus fights broke out. Furthermore, there were kids yelling at each other and such. Through it all, being the mentor and leader, I had to try to love on the children in the utmost of ways. Turns out, that’s all most of them really wanted…to feel acknowledged by someone! Now I do not want to limit the nature of what we did. It was fun!
Through the camps, I was blessed to be able to make great friends with about 4 of the kids. You could say that our bond grew so close in 2 weeks that there were tears shed when it was over and we were saying our goodbyes! Xhekson, Erdi, Arlindi, and Ardi were incredible kids that I would just love to share a snippit about each one of these fellas.
Xhekson: This boy is my everything! I can not describe our relationship and more than we are truly best friends and I am foundationally going to be rocked when I have to say goodbye to him later this week. Xheku, is a kid with a huge heart. He has the tenacity of a lion, and actually has quite the parental support. I honestly do not know what brought us to together, but Xhek is the kid that I have gotten closest with. Even though he speaks absolutely no English, it did not seem like a problem for us to communicate. And if you ask any of my teammates who is my top “mini-me” it would be Xhek. He has a deep love for guitar and for learning English in the future! Through our friendship, I have been over to his house several times to play and minister. His family is sooooo great! I pray and hope to stay in touch with him! Ugghhh this makes me sad even writing this but I am thankful for the short time I have had, and definitely know it will not be out last time meeting each other.
Erdi: Goodness, Erdi is my “mini-me” in the sense that he would copy everything I did. He was quite the reserved kid, until some kids picked on his older sister! His inner warrior came out and I knew immediately I had to try to get to know this kid. He is all about family, so it took a few hours for him to gauge me, but once he let me in the rest was history. He made me laugh constantly, even though he also spoke no English. This boy has stolen my heart for his simplicity and desire to love back!!!!
Arlindi: What can I say, this boys love is limitless. He would give me massages without me asking, pat me down dry with his towel after the pool, serve me, and in many ways acted like Jesus in a 10 year old boy. I get some of the things may seem different, but its culturally different. He served with a full heart and loved on me just as much as I loved his little self! Due to his ability to speak pretty darn good English, Arlindi knows so much about me! We got to know about each others lives! Tearfully writing this back, Arlindi’s last words with me were “I love you Justin, please come back to Albania! I loved our time together and you are my best friend! So long Justin, love you.” How could I bare to just be emotionless as a 10 year old is crying and pleading for my behalf. I am going to love and miss him!
Ardi: This boy was simply amazing. He was an English speaker and just so interested in me as a person, Christian and American. He showered me with gifts like an Albanian Jersey, Albanian soccer shorts and some other small items. I just cant say enough about him. He is the hope of Lezhe and someday going to be the pride of Albania in soccer. He plays for Albanian soccer club here in Lezhe on the junior team and it noted as one of the best upcoming players around. Nevertheless, this boy is unassuming but intriguing and a witness for Jesus.
* All the kids, I would like to share are Christian (Catholic) and I pray that they would continue to be activated in faith! Please join me in praying for them!
In the end, camp was incredible and God has proven himself time and again here! When I signed up for the race, I didn’t place to much thought into the European countries! However, it is evident that God has done a 180 on my heart. I an tethered to Lezhe, Albania and the people/kids here! God used a place I had totally overlooked to transform my heart and bind me to such a place. I could not have imagined a better outcome here during camp and building relationships past camp that has led to home visits and hanging out during our free times with the families and kids here! To God truly be the glory for this month here in Albania and for future visits to this WONDERFUL country!
Love you all! Do not cease in prayer! God is moving so don’t forget to marvel about him!
** If you would like to donate please click the support me tab! I gave a little over $4,000 left to raise! Thank you all for this life transforming and God jaw-dropping, awe filled life of service to those in the the name of Christ around the world! You all make this possible!
Final note! Shout out to my sister for giving birth. Welcome to Earth Gavin Dean Jonsson. May God bless you and be the guiding light/focus of you life! Amen!
