Volleyball with the young adults..
Store ladies..
My awesome host and dear friend Beta!!
My bad at not updating the blog this month!! I have just been basking in the Presence of God up in the mountains embracing every second I have here this month in Albania. Staying present in the moment and loving those that God has sent me to. With every month it has gotten better and better.
This month we have been up in the mountains where we hike a couple miles to a village to teach English during the week and in the evening we play volleyball with the young adult guys and have a meeting with them once a week. They are crazy like New Yorkers so we get on real good haha!!
On Saturdays we go to another village and sing some songs and play with some precious little ones. Two days a week we have gone to the city for church and to work with the kids in a down syndrome center helping them with working skills in the cafe, watering plants, some art and of course playing some basketball. Btw the building is the house mother Teresa used to live in. Didn’t know she was from Albania!! Cool hey?!
I have been overwhelmed by the goodness of God to be in such beauty of His creation where I have the afternoons free to go up to a high point over looking valleys and mountains to meet with the Lord for more worship, prayer and just basking in His Love. What a perfect month towards the end of this trip to be able to reflect on all God has done this year and is about to do. It has truly been bliss!!
I have been given once again the best hosts, but not only hosts a now dear friend and family who I will come back and visit. I have had a blast not only serving and loving my new found friend Beta, but just hanging out being crazy, rolling laughing, because these Albanians are crazy fun!! They know how to laugh, carry on and mess around! I have had the time of my life just hanging out on the farm with her learning how to be a country girl..lol. Pulling garlic and onion.
I thank God for the community, and fellowship I have been able to have this month just edifying eachother in the Lord, being able to talk about the goodness of God and doing life together–iron sharpening iron. So thankful for this God connection. Wow these relationships are so vital and important and I am amazed at the friendships He has given me with these amazing people all around the world. Not only has God wrecked me in prayer with His intense compassion and affection He has toward these people–He has also wrecked me by loving me through these people. Ahhhh how I have felt so at home, so accepted and loved here. Even by the strangers who shout at me as I go by on my morning runs.
The first week I was here I instantly connected with my host Beta, first of all she reminds me of one of my–I guess you can say my Lithuanian aunt’s on my uncle’s side. A lot of Albanian words are Lithuania words too and her English sounded like how my aunt would talk. And then gestures and things she would say was exactly like my dearest friend from the country Georgia. So in case you don’t realize–imagine every month it could be a little uncomfortable arriving to a new country with people you never met, and not knowing the place you’ll lay your head. And your still emotional from leaving the bonds you made in the country before. But God just comforts me with a familiar sound of people that are dear to me making me feel right at home. It’s the small things that are really big to me ya know, but then again nothing He does is small?
So the first week Beta tells me her niece and nephew just called and they are coming to stay for the week as well. Full house!! So I end up sitting one night at the coffee bar with her niece totally not even knowing what Holy Spirit was about to do. I personally am not good at small talk. I like to go in for the jugular. I’m interested in the depths of a persons life not surface stuff. Well I’m not sure how I got in there–Holy Spirit of course. I think she must of said her father was Muslim and me having the heart I do for Muslims, I got excited. I don’t even know all that I said except that I pretty much unloaded on her about how awesome God is and all He did in my life and I just kept testifying of Him. I had asked her at some point what she believed in and she really wasn’t sure what she believed, but she didn’t have Jesus in her life. But after a while of Holy Spirit just literally taking over my mouth and the anointing so strong on me to just open my mouth and Him continue to pour forth, she was like a sponge, totally receptive, attentive and responding. Oh how precious this girl is in the eyes of the Father. Telling her that this God is a real person, and religion is junk!! I remember I kept apologizing cause I didn’t know what just came over me. I was so excited and it all just poured out like a Mighty rushing river!! But she seemed like she was totally loving it which is why felt liberty to keep going.
Wow I was done for–if I came on this trip just for this precious girl it was worth it all. God has continued to wreck me in prayer for her and when I say wreck it’s all good–you just feel His heartbeat, love and His longing to be in relationship and fellowship with someone who doesn’t know Him. It’s so intense, strong overwhelming, and at times so grieving that you find yourself uncontrollably weeping over their soul–oh that they would really come to know Him–Jesus!! And usually the outward manifestion is me just constantly hugging that person–I just kept grabbing her niece and squeezing her telling her how much she’s loved. Of course I wanted to just grab the nephew and do the same, but I figured I better not freak him out, haha even know at times you want to because God’s love for them is so strong ya just want to grab people up and hold them because your feeling the heartbeat of God towards them and want to express it.
These are people I just met, but ohh how I know this is one in the spirit when I prayed years ago before I even knew I would travel around the world on this trip, and sit at a coffee bar in the mountains of Albania telling this girl about the Lover of my soul–Jesus!! Ohhh the orchestrations of God!! The set up of God for her niece and nephew to call out of the blue and say they are coming to stay that week–wow God knew….
For the week they were here I just hung around them the whole time. Praying and believing that they will encounter this Love-this intense Love He has for them and longs to be in intimate fellowship with them so He can lavish all His goodness on them.
I’ve had a blast with these store ladies…This one lady doesn’t speak a lick of English, but yet I feel like I have this bond going with them just laughing with them and giving hand gestures saying a couple of words in Albanian, oh how the love of Christ is so simply and can shine through just a smile or hug. And all they would see is Jesus!!
So we leave for Spain in a few days. Pray grace for me to leave because it’s so hard when you get so close and connect to people. I will be back to Albania and praying now about mobilizing teams to come out to these countries with me in the future to serve.
Pray also for our accommodation we don’t have a places to stay when we get to Spain. Everything booked up, but God makes a way when there is no way. Also we don’t have a host so I’m believing for divine appointments and orchestrations of God to share the gospel with those I come in contact with.
I finish out mid-August with this trip and my friend from my home church will meet me in Italy and the plan is to travel through Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Then hit Northern Ireland to visit my dear friends. Believing all along the way people would encounter the love of Christ and the power of His resurrection!
Love you guys and thank you for walking this journey with me!! Keep you posted with testimonies from Spain!
