WOW!
This is our last full week in Pogradec, Albania! Also, don’t begin to ask me how I feel about leaving. I’m not talking about it just yet so I don’t break down in tears. This has become a home very far away from home, and I’ll cross the “goodbye” bridge when I get there at the beginning of next week..
In the precious meantime, here are some tangible ways you can support the ministry we’re part of with Christ for the Nations in Pogradec and their local church Open Doors:
1. One of the interns Aurela has had a battle with thyroid cancer and is still in recovery from some operations and treatments she’s had in the past.
She is in pain almost every day and isn’t able to afford the best medication for her situation. PLEASE pray that: (a) she is completely HEALED from head to toe, cell by cell from any cancer cells or other illness trying to be in her body where it doesn’t belong. I trust that by Jesus’ stripes for her, she is fully healed from any remission, or pain, or side effects that remain from any treatments; (b) that Aurela would be surrounded with friends, church family, or anyone else who might be able to help assist her financially for a while to get the best medicine for her; (c) that her beautiful voice (she leads worship at the Open Doors church and plays some mean guitar…) would be strengthened to continue to worship Jesus so purely as she does each day despite her circumstances.
Aurela told ME just yesterday that she was praying for MY healing because I had a runny nose…. Seriously!?!? She is a selfless, caring, lover of the Lord Jesus. Please pray that Jesus would continue to be her only hope in each moment and that He would continue to provide for her needs as He so readily desires to do and has faithfully done.
2. Claus and Marie, our day-to-day ministry hosts who are committed to at least 5 more years working with the local church and the Bible school here, are trying to sell their home back in Oklahoma. Please pray that as they get some final touches done on the house, the Lord would be preparing the right realtors and searching eyes to see this house and buy it quickly. The home used to be an income property as they rented it out, so pray it sells quickly so that they don’t have to worry about any extra finances. Our team is praying that it sells by the end of the month, so please join us in prayer for that!!
3. Another one of the interns, Dorina, is leaving her last year of internship in August, and she is asking the Lord what the next steps are for her in this next season. Pray that He speaks to her with clarity and opens doors of opportunity to get her planted in the next season He has for her. Pray the Lord establishes steady community for her there as she begins to partially transition out of this one.
4. Finally, the Bible school is building another facility that is supposed to open in January. Pray that this continues smoothly and that the Lord stirs more hearts and churches to partner with this project that is discipling SO many men and women here in Albania! The funds for the new facility are already 70% raised, so PRAISE the Lord for his faithfulness in giving the CfN (Christ for the Nations) leadership this vision and for bringing in the resources needed to watch it become a reality! This transition will change their school set-up for this next year, so pray that this period of change will be orchestrated and settled by the Lord when they move into the new building and start classes a little differently than before.
FALEMINDERIT! (THANK YOU in Albanian..)
Some pictures for you:
(Open Doors Church, Pogradec, Albania)
(inside church, Aurela practicing before worship)
(some of the interns, a few of us racers, and some Albanian believers at a small group meeting in a nearby village)
(sweet Aurela picking apricots behind the sister church to Open Doors in another village)
Your prayers are such a tangible way to be part of the Lord reaching out to people here in Albania, and they accomplish SO MUCH!
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.” -James 5:16
Jesus WILL be beheld and seen as Lord. We pray these Albanian men, women, and children made in the image of God will be reconciled back to Him and belong to Him on that day that He returns.
Would the Lamb of God receive the reward of His suffering!
