Ask The Lord: Albania Edition

God is love, and we are loved by God. How exhilarating it is to live a life founded on that truth! There is a profound security adopted when one truly believes they are a cherished child of God. You trust his provision, so you don’t fear when you lack, you grow in excitement knowing that with every shut door comes a move of God that simply can’t be explained away. You trust you are loved, so you don’t wither when humans tell you otherwise, you let the remarks, the neglect, the disapproval bounce off as you look to your father and are filled with his delight. You trust he is good, so you don’t give up when you’re hurting, you seek worship as a weapon against the enemy’s attacks, you find peace in the fact that God has won the war. To have a firm foundation gives you the ability to withstand the storm, to be nurtured by the roots of the Father. God, let me live a life that looks as if I truly trust you to love me, to provide for me, to fight my battles. Let it be so! Let your glory be displayed!

Months where we step into the unplanned future of ATL are the perfect place to live out the faith above. Stepping into Albania, trusting God to guide our steps, and supporting each other along the way has been the sweetest time as a team. Here’s a summary of how that all went! (pictures at the bottom)

• All of T-squad unites for a week of debrief in Vlore: We had our leadership team join us from the states for a time to reflect on the past few months and refocus our minds on what the lord has ahead of us!
• God knows we mess up, but he partners with us anyway: I wanted to keep this moment to myself, but I think there is a beautiful story behind it. While resting at a coffee shop, I witnessed a little girl weaving through the tables, asking for change without speaking a word. She would simply raise an open hand or lift a sad stare toward the coffee drinker. A kind man bought the girl a sandwich and without a word she walked out of the shop. After a while, since I tend to plant myself in one place for a good amount of time, she returned to repeat the cycle. I felt anger for the child arising in me. Anger towards whoever was forcing her to work, to beg, to provide for instead of being provided for. She approached my table and I told my friend she just got a sandwich, someone is using her, we shouldn’t enable the cycle, so we ignored. We ignored. That hit me almost immediately. It felt dirty, it felt neglectful, but I didn’t know the answer. How do you help a child like this? How do you not feed into the abuse? I think we like to complicate things to the point of excusing our action. I quickly began to ask God for another chance. I asked him to give me vision, to give me advice on how to show love to this child without hurting her, and let her come back. This thought then came to my mind, “She is a child forced to work. What is she missing? Her childhood. Play with her!” So while trusting the Lord to see my heart and bring her back, I began writing out a verse on a page and drawing all over it with my colored pens. When she returned, I reached the pens her way as an invitation to join the coloring activity. She hesitated, then grew a smile as she scribbled over the pages. She sat, and was consumed by the fun. She spoke, she smiled, and she simply lit up. She was a child. I had entertained and distracted her for so long that her mother ended up coming into the shop worried. Soften my heart for her lord. This was the women that used the child sitting on my lap. She sent a dirty little girl into a coffee shop all day long as she sat around waiting for more food, more money. She probably could work and just doesn’t want to because this does the trick. Nobody sees her. She doesn’t know what it is to be loved. Yet she loves her child. She wants a better life for her too. Ok Lord, you’re right. She needs love too. She walked up to the table as her daughter scribbled in my notebook. We smiled, and invited her to sit. Through broken language and hand gestures we were able to smile, laugh, and let them both know they were seen, they mattered to someone. When you find yourself immobilized by the complexity of loving someone, lean on the Lord’s creativity and do something!
• Time to move to Durres: After spending some time asking the Lord for guidance, team Abide made our way to the port city of Durres. We felt God inviting each one of us into a time of deep reflection and inner healing. He gave us a space to call home for the month and created a sweet environment for us to dive into the deeper waters of faith where his love and truth holds a beautiful power over the lies we sew into our identities.
• Grace Life welcomes us in: Though we knew the Lord was giving us space to minister internally, we also desired to find a local organization to partner with. After sending out a number of emails to local churches and organizations, we quickly received a response from the head pastor at Grace Life Church, a South African church plant located in the middle of Durres! The Lord answered so many prayer requests through this introduction. Grace Life was stepping into a season where they needed more hands to help within the church and we were eager to get on board. We were so warmly welcomed into their church family and got to walk alongside them as they created a new outreach to help bring the church to the community. In a predominantly muslim community, a christian church, let alone one led by a woman, is not something one should entertain or be found attending on a Sunday morning. So we decided to bring the love of Christ to the community via worship and a fun little children program in the park. Bringing the same ideologies and love found within the church to a safer environment allows people to hear the word of God without the shame and awkward experience of stepping into a building full of new people and new faith. Grace Life has decided to continue this outreach so please join us in praying that more long term hands become available to support this ministry!
• I spent 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a whale: Sorry for the cliff hanger but this one deserves its own post so stay tuned…its coming soon!
• Team Abide and Team Bible Bums come back together: As we enter the last continent of the race, our whole squad will be united into one team! We have now stepped onto the soil of Africa and will be calling Eswatini home for the next 6 weeks. Please be praying for unity, growth, sweet moments, open eyes and hearts to the Lords movement, and healthy processing as we start to live out the last moments of this beautiful season together.

God is good. Thanks for being part of this story.