When preparing for the World Race, they always tell you to be flexible. My team and I got to experience that first hand about two days into month one. Before you go into a country, a team is told a general overview of what they will be doing that month ministry wise. Before we headed to Albania, we were told that we would be doing prison ministry. Plans quickly changed. Yes, we may go to the prison once or twice in the next three weeks that we have here in this country but our ministry host has bigger plans for us. And so does God.
This month, we have been asked to go out and make contacts with high-schoolers or students in the age range of 15-18. Now if you have ever spent anytime with me you have probably heard at least one story about my time as a Young Life leader. Whether it be something that God taught me in that time, or something crazy that my high-school friends did while we were hanging out, or just something that I love about the relationships that I have gained from being involved in Young Life. If you know anything about Young Life, you know that college aged and older adults go into high schools and try to make relationships with the high-schoolers in hopes of connecting and creating a friendship, then being able to share the Gospel through that friendship. That’s exactly what I felt like our ministry host was asking us to do this month. Go into the community, make relationships with high-schoolers, and share the Gospel with them when the Lord presents that opportunity.
I truly believe that the Lord’s timing is not by accident. He plans out things in our life so that we may learn from Him, about Him, and through our day to day interactions with Him. This past week in my time with the Lord in the mornings, two verses stuck out to me. The first was about how I steward, or use, my time.
Ephesians 5:15-17
“Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Here Paul is talking to the churches in Ephesus about how they must use their time wisely. Using every opportunity that the Lord gives them to share the Gospel and carry out His will for their day. Here, in my quiet time, the Lord was clearly telling me and teaching me that my time here in Albania is short. I must use my time wisely every single day and I must take full advantage of the opportunities He gives me to share the gospel. That means taking full advantage of the times when I meet new students and being intentional with that time that I have with them. Each interaction is special. Each interaction is significant and can be used to glorify Christ in some way.
Colossians 4:5
“Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.”
In this verse, Paul is talking to the people in Colossae. Telling them that they must make the most out of every opportunity that is presented to them by God. I cannot help but feel the overwhelming sense of comfort in the fact that I have been in this place before. Seeing an opportunity to go, meet high-schoolers where they are and love them well. I also can’t help but feel an overwhelming feeling of fear. That fear of rejection when I do talk to someone, or the fear that those opportunities will never come. But I do not serve a God of fear. I serve a courageous God that says I can find strength in Him. I serve a God that says He will give me opportunities to glorify Him if I am obedient and willing to serve Him with boldness. And just as it says in John 4:18, “…perfect love casts out fear…”. Even that fear of rejection which can sometimes over take me and makes me miss out on opportunities that Christ has laid before me.
This month, where I get to do something that is so familiar to me but can also be so scary, I know that God will cast out that fear. I know what it feels like to rejected, but I also know what it feels like when God is gracious and blesses me with friendships with the high-schoolers that I have met. I know what is feels like to ask the same student over and over again and they still never show. But I also know what it feels like when that same student comes just that one time. And that same student smiles at your silly joke. And that friendship begins to blossom. And that friendship turns into your high-school friend coming and knowing and accepting you Savior as their own. Wow! What a feeling.
My prayer for this month, and please join in praying with me, is that God will bring those opportunities to my team and I. That we may meet some high-schoolers that are just curious about what 6 American girls are doing in Albania. That those high-schoolers may be intrigued and that friendships will blossom out of those first conversations. That they may get to know us and we may get to know them. That they may get to know Our Savior all through that one little opportune conversation that Christ allowed to happen. May Albania become a place where the Holy Spirit can spark a flame that never burns out. Pray that my team and I use the most of these three weeks that we have left in Albania. That opportunities may present themselves and that we can meet those opportunities with boldness that only comes from the Lord Jesus.
With love, Sav
