Flowers, Watermelons + Our Faithful God

As I am writing this, we are wrapping up the month that was spent in the country of Kosovo. There is so much to share about our time here, and I promise I will! 

However, I would first like to share more about our time in Albania last month. As a team, we grew so much and trusted the Lord daily to guide us. My last blog shared about one of the most amazing days I’ve gotten to have so far on this journey. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s a longer one but sometimes it’s hard to summarize all that God is doing! 

After going to the village with the owner of our Airbnb, we returned to the town of Vlore and continued to pray about how God wanted to use us there. Every day looked a little different. Some days were spent walking in town and starting conversations with people, usually with our phones as translators and sharing the gospel with them if the door was opened to do so. I want to admit here that street evangelism is not the most comfortable or easiest ministry I’ve gotten to do. The thought of approaching strangers can be terrifying, especially with the language barrier. While we were on the bus into town I’d be praying and asking for boldness. There was one day that I was nervous. As I was praying I felt led to simply sit on the bench, smile at everyone who walked by and see if anyone came to me for a conversation. At least this way I knew they had time and wanted to talk. Is this the best approach to evangelism? Maybe not. But it’s what I did that day and a man from Italy approached me after a simple smile. We talked through my translator app. I got to share why I was in Albania and got to share the gospel with Him and let him know that He is loved by God. I was so thankful and realized talking with random strangers in other countries doesn’t have to be as scary as I’ve made it to be! 

My team and I also felt led to hand out flowers with scripture and encouragement attached to them to woman in town who we had met and connected with. As we wrote these notes at a coffee shop, my team leader felt led to give them to 2 woman sitting at a table near by. That led to us having a 2 hour conversation with a Muslim woman. We got to meet up with her again before we left as well! 

At this point we had about a week left in Albania. Some of us on the team really felt like we were supposed to go back to the village and spend time there. However, all 5 of us did not feel peace about returning to the village. Some had concerns about safety and also felt like we were brought to the city of Vlore for a reason and we should spend our time focused there. We spent hours in prayer together as a team and asked God to give us unity and direction. It was one of the most beautiful moments I’ve gotten to experience. It was decided to spend half of our remaining time in the village and half in Vlore. Everyone was at peace with this decision. It was truly beautiful! 

We packed up our things and headed to the village for a few nights. Getting there was a whole blog post in itself… The short version is we got on the wrong bus, had to climb a hill next to a busy highway to get on another bus and THEN found the correct bus… 

Once we arrived in the village the reality of the language barrier hit us. We couldn’t communicate with any of the people who lived there. We would try to use our translation apps but most of the people could not read. We spent our time being completely blessed by the generosity of the people. With little to no communication, we were loved on and blessed. We thought we were going to the village to bless them and help, but we ended up being cared for. Before leaving we wrote notes with scripture and encouragement for the people we met in their language in hopes of being able to bless them and share the gospel. We delivered these notes the last night we were there in the pouring rain with strong winds, but we were determined! After returning back to the house there was a knock on the door and someone was delivering to us 2 watermelons after we gave them the note. They delivered this in the pouring rain. It was another one of the most impactful experiences I’ve gotten to have.

Similar to how we can not out give God or earn His love, we couldn’t even try to out give the people of this village and we did nothing to earn their generosity toward us.  

This was our sleeping arrangement in the village! 

A few days later our Airbnb host organized a trip for the children of the village to come to the city where we were staying to spend the day with them. In other words, our Muslim Airbnb owner was organizing ministry for us and with us… We were truly in awe. He drove 6 hours that day to go pick up the kids and bring them home that night. We got to see more of his heart and to call out the wonderful qualities that God has placed in him. We also got to spend time loving on the children. Many of them had never been to the city or out of the village much. 

The following morning we treated our Airbnb host to a farewell breakfast and thanked him for the time he spent with us and helping us to translate throughout our time there. He truly went above and beyond. Each of us wrote a card for him and many of us shared our hearts and scripture to point him toward the love of God. He was thankful and told us that he hopes to see us again one day or meet others “like” us. Please continue to cover “Luis” in prayer. 

Our time in Albania was truly beautiful as we depended on the Lord every day for every step we took. He is faithful and showed up in amazing ways. 

My next update will be on our time in Kosovo which was our location for this past month of ministry. In a few days we head to the Ukraine for a month! Please pray for our time there as we partner with a church in the western part of the country. 

A  quick personal update: I am currently doing a Bible plan that is going through the Bible chronologically for one year! I am learning so much in the Old Testament that I never made connections of in the past. I’ve learned a lot in the past 4 years, but seeing the Bible as the start to finish story that it is has been a true blessing. God has been showing me so much and that His plan was always to send Jesus. He is so faithful and gracious. I have never been this consistent in my time with the Lord and I pray that my hunger for Him and His word only increases. The World Race so far has been a beautiful experience and I’m very thankful for that. I will say that I surely miss home and so many people who I love dearly. Some days are harder than others. Overall, I’m at peace and content with being where God wants me, but I am trying to be more honest with myself with where I’m at emotionally. I tend to put a positive spin on my emotions and ignore them! It’s okay to admit that I miss the beautiful community that the Lord has provided to me! I am also very grateful for the new community I am in during this season. God is so good to bring me from one beautiful season to another. Thank you for being a part of this season and experience that the Lord has brought me to! 

“The Lord bless you, and keep you [protect you, sustain you, and guard you]; The Lord make His face shine upon you [with favor], And be gracious to you [surrounding you with lovingkindness]; The Lord lift up His countenance (face) upon you [with divine approval], And give you peace [a tranquil heart and life].’”

Numbers 6:24-26 AMP