Inner Ramblings

Starting my third week in Korca Albania and I must admit I see why so many who have come before me speak so highly of this city! The majority of people are so friendly, open, and eager to help, it really makes one feel right at home. My first week here I was able to observe different ministries the KontaktMission Staff have going on in Korca and one of the surrounding villages.

One of those ministries is a soup kitchen at the church that I get to help out with twice a week. This soup kitchen allows the homeless and poor to be able to get warm and have a hot meal. This ministry is a blessing to the people and definitely needed since finding a job is very difficult and the winter months are very cold and wet (its currently snowing). Watching the church body come together to feed and care for these people in need has been very encouraging. Wednesdays at the soup kitchen a group leads praises then gives a short lesson or testimony for the people coming to eat. 

Language lessons are still going on and I stand by my first thought about Shqip- It’s hard. But for only having 5 lessons I think it is going okay, I’m at least catching different words in conversations and if I think about it long enough I can have extremely simple conversations J                                       

There is plenty more I could tell you about what I have been doing so far in Albania but I wanted to share a little about what God has been doing in me in the 3 weeks I have been away from Carthage.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             I've been having a lot of "talks" with God about what exactly He is wanting me to get out of this trip. I have always had a heart for children and especially orphans. Children who have been abandoned, who are left without parents, who feel alone and unloved. Since I was young my goal in life was to one day have my own orphanage and show these children earthly love and safety but even more then that show them the father’s perfect love for them that makes my earthly love for them possible.

I feel much more qualified for working in an orphanage, or with children in general.  I know absolutely nothing about church planting (that’s the part of schooling that I avoided because there was no way that God would ever put me in a church plant ministry... - funny, right) 

Since being in Albania I've read David Platt's book Follow Me. I want to share just a little excerpt from this book that has really stuck with me since reading it. 

"The reality of the gospel is that we do not become God's children ultimately because of initiative in us, and he does not provide salvation primarily because of an invitation from us. Instead, before we were ever born, God was working to adopt us. While we were lying in the depth of our sin, God was planning to save us. And the only way we can become part of the family of God is through a love entirely beyond our imagination and completely out of our control. Christianity does not begin with our pursuit of Christ, but with Christ's pursuit of us. Christianity does not start with an invitation we offer to Jesus, but with an invitation Jesus offers us." 

I have seen from multiply families the process of adoption. The excitement and fear as the calling is placed on their lives to pursue a child that might not even be born yet. The up’s and downs of what seems like endless amounts of paperwork and home visits and physicals. The joy of being placed with a child and then the heartbreak of that placement falling through. I have seen the tears of discouragement and the tears of excitement and all of this inner turmoil is for a child that has no clue that they at this moment are being pursued, being cherished, being prayed over by a family that loves them beyond words, a family that they will be a part of forever.

The parallels between the story in this book, the stories that I have personally witnessed and the gospel are enough to bring you to tears. Seeing through the human eyes the pursuit and love that goes into a family searching and working to bring their child home and then realizing that God at this very moment is waiting to be united with his children that have yet to know that they are even loved by this crazy overwhelming all-consuming merciful God.  “Ephesians 1:5 says God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

Last night as I was sitting in Church listening to this room of people singing praises to our Lord, praying about what exactly it is I am supposed to be learning and doing through this next year of my life. It dawned on me that working in church plants is a lot like working in an orphanage. You are surrounded by people who have been beaten down, hurt, and feel abandoned and in many cases alone by a world that seems so pointless and hopeless. I see people every day that have no idea that they have a perfect father planning and preparing a place for them in his kingdom. That he loved them so much that He sent his son to die for their transgressions so that he can spend eternity with them.

That’s what this trip is about making Jesus famous and uniting God’s children to their perfect father. No matter the “child’s” age, nationality, or geographically location. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1

Cant you just see the celebration in Heaven when His children come home!

Please continue to be praying for the people in Korca
- the soup kitchen- they never really know where the funds to feed the people are coming from but they are faithful that God will always provide- and he has
- pray for the ministry in the village of Mboja that it continues to grow and that the children contine to soak in everything that they learn
-pray for Kenny and Heather 2 kontaktmission missionaries who are traveling this week back to Albania from the states
-pray that I continue to follow where God leads and for the times that I am teaching this week 
-pray that Jesus is made Famous among the people in Korca and all arouond the world!

#kutumamimi