Ask The Lord!!!

Hear this!
We spent the first 2 weeks in Albania in Durres, Albania participating in a debrief. Debrief is a time to decompress from the first month and be filled by some of the AIM leadership. It was great! The LORD really used it as a time of emptying of myself and He uprooted some of the deeper things that I struggle with. Some things that I didn’t even know were an issue. The LORD pushed the issue of pride to the surface and gave me an opportunity to confess to my Squad and ask for prayer in that. After the first couple days of refining, the LORD really filled me up through the teachings and time with my team.

Here are a couple of picture of Durres, Albania.

Debrief was about 2 weeks and after that my team and I headed to Shkodër, Albania. We were entering into a month that the World Race community calls an ATL month, which stands for Ask The Lord. So the Goal for the rest of this month is to seek God and attempt to be lead be the Spirit in ministry and location. Some of the vision we had as a team was to participate in some children’s ministry, prison ministry, and Muslim ministry.
So we moved forward knowing that God would provide and reveal His purpose in each of those visions.
We set out on Tuesday the 28th of September having done some research and expecting to hop on a bus and take it to Shkodër. Well we arrived at a bus parking lot and immediately we were approached by someone trying to sell us a spot on a bus to a town near Shkodër, which was weird but we told him no and that we were going to get a ticket for the bus to Shkodër. Well it didn’t seem like there was a bus station of any kind and we didn’t see a place where we could purchase said bus tickets. So we started discussing as a team, Should we wait until the bus was reported to leave for Shkodër that we saw on the internet or should we jump on this bus with a guy that said he would take us close to Shkodër. The guy also came back multiple times negotiating price for the bus and then he even offered some other deal that wasn’t clear at the start. After some discussion we decided to jump on the bus and at least end up nearer to our destination. Well after about an hour and 30 minutes the bus pulls over and the driver tells us to get our stuff out of the compartments. I start thinking about how we need to get the rest of the way to our final destination, which according to Google maps is still about 40 minutes away. Well I get down and the bus driver goes over to a van and motions for us to go over and points to the top of it. I assumed he wanted us to pack our stuff over to his van. My hope was that this was the negotiation that had gone down when we got on the bus. I hoped and prayed that he would take us to the correct destination, but not knowing with complete confidence that that was what was going to happen. We continued in faith that the LORD was working things for our benefit. So we moved forward 6 people and 10 packs packed into this Volkswagen van and drive, I keep a close watch on the Google maps just making sure the driver is going the right way. 40 minutes later we get to Shkodër and I am able to breathe a sigh of relief, God had us the whole time.

Here is a picture of the hostel.

We get to the hostel and get all of our stuff into the place we would be staying for the foreseeable future. After the settling we needed to figure out food and some of the other things we were going to need for living. Once we were figuring the logistics out we saw some issues that would need to be addressed. We didn’t have access to a fridge or stove, which would cause some issues in our budget. So we moved forward assuming that we would need to find a place that would be able to sustain a longer stay, but still getting the necessities for a couple of days. While we were figuring some of those things out we were offered some food by a couple from Poland. We decided to join them for lunch before we headed to the store to pick up the things we needed. The couple was so kind and we thought that we should return the kindness and offer to cook dinner for them. After lunch we left for the Market to pick up groceries and planned to get some extra things for an American cookout for the Polish couple. Once we met back up with our new friends we started preparing the food. I was on the grill cooking up some hamburgers and hot dogs and some of the girls were cutting up some tomatoes and getting the other fixings together. After the first round of meats the Polish couple offered to throw some Polish sausage on the grill. If you ever have the chance to try Polish sausage please take it, you will never be the same. It was delicious! After all 7 of us ate to our fill we engaged in some conversation getting to know each other better. In the midst of the conversation there was a question that is referred to as a “slow pitch soft ball” where we have an opportunity to hit a home run and talk about Jesus!
They asked why we were traveling. That question gave us our in to talk about being missionaries and sharing the Good News that we want to bring to the whole world! This sparked more and more conversation. We stayed out talking long enough for another person to come over. This gentleman came over out of interest in the American accent. He was from Ukraine and was traveling with his family through different parts of Europe. He came and joined our party with his wife. A little later the conversation circled and we had another opportunity to bring up the Gospel and engage in more apologetic type conversation with the younger Ukrainian couple. More time passed and a man from Israel came by and joined the discussion. He grew up Jewish but didn’t claim any religion, so we had another opportunity to share the Good News!!!
God is so cool!
The first day we made it to Shkodër we had this ministry opportunity to share the Gospel with people from different parts of the world and we engaged in some defense/support of the faith.

Looking back at this experience the LORD held the team so close and allowed us to join in the work that He had for that time. I got to see how contagious the Holy Spirit can be and how it can act as a magnet in gathering people. Through one act of kindness not even starting with anyone from my team we got to go on this journey that allowed for some seed to be spread in people lives!
Praise God!
Thank you to everyone who continues to pray for this ministry, I hope you get to hear about the fruits of your prayers!
Please continue to pray for this next month.
Specifically for continued wisdom and discernment when it  comes to hearing from the LORD.
Also please pray that I may receive more faith. There are many people that are stricken with physical ailments and I want to have the faith to pray and believe for the healing of these people. I want to continue to see Christ through the way He lived.

1 Corinthians 4:20
Galatians 5: 22-23