This month has been one of my favorite months. It could be because of the beautiful scenery or maybe the excellent (and cheap!) food. But something tells me it’s more about the fact that my team has encountered incredible people and tremendous hospitality in our first week in Albania.
This month my team has the privilege of doing Unsung Heroes/Ask the Lord month. We were not given a contact or a place to stay this month. Instead this is a month where we allow the Lord to lead us wherever He would like us to go. It’s an opportunity to see the Lord’s provision in really cool ways.
Most of our month is focused on meeting with ministries throughout Albania and hearing about what the Lord is doing through those ministries. It has been so encouraging to spend my last month of the Race hearing about all of the ways the Lord is working in this country.
I want to tell you a little bit about someone my team has been blessed to meet here in Albania. Fatmir Spahiu is the pastor of Living Word Church in the village of Thumane, just outside of Tirana.
Fatmir is passionate about the people of Albania seeing who Jesus truly is. His heart is for the people in the village he serves to feel the love of Jesus through relational ministry. Fatmir believes strongly in the importance of befriending people and allowing them to see Jesus through these interactions.
The generosity Fatmir has towards other people is so evident that it can’t help but seep into everything he does. In just one hour of knowing us, Fatmir was writing his information down and telling us if we needed ANYTHING, we shouldn’t hesitate to call him for help. As we talked, I felt so blessed to be able to talk about the vision the Lord had given him.
Because Fatmir blessed us so much when we met with him, I wanted to take a few minutes to bless him in a small way. I also want to give you the opportunity to bless Fatmir and his church.
As we met with Fatmir, he told us about one of the main concerns for the church. Right now, the building that they are in is in need of some major reconstruction. Because I am not all that savvy in construction, I will try to word this simply and accurately.
The building has very thin walls that cannot support the weight of the roof properly. The church is in need of both major construction and electric rewiring. This project will take a lot of money, a lot of manpower from a skilled team, and cooperation from the government. Here is where you can help:
1) Please PRAY! Pray for Fatmir, his church, and the community he serves. Pray for favor and blessing from all of the people that Fatmir needs permission from in order to continue in the construction process. Pray for doors to be opened and for the process to go smoothly. I love seeing Fatmir’s faith that everything will work out because of God’s faithfulness, please join us in believing in great things for this church.
2) Get involved. If you or somebody you know has construction or electrician experience and would be interested in partnering with Pastor Fatmir please contact me through this blog and I will get you connected to him.
3) Share this blog. Even if you don’t know somebody with the experience to help Fatmir, you never know who your friends know. My team came into this month with only one response for potential contacts. But here we are a week into ministry and we have yet to have a day without meeting potential contacts and/or being involved with local ministries. This is all because we posted a few Facebook statuses, and because of connections the Lord had set into place long before we got to Albania. Help me and my team help Pastor Fatmir!
Thank you so much for your constant prayer and support. Please continue to pray for my team and the people we will meet for the rest of this month!
