Wow!!! Where do I begin? Well I guess I’ll start with a week before we were scheduled to leave Shkodër my team and I sat down to pray about vision for our next country, which was going to be Kosovo. Well during our prayer time some some members on the team had felt like we were supposed to stay longer in Shkodër. 2 of us on the other hand didn’t really here that specifically. So we decided that I would talk to our Squad Mentor and ask if it is even a possibility and then depending on what she said would be a way that the LORD would either open or close a door. Well turns out once I asked the mentor she said she didn’t think it would be an issue and we got our answer, we were going to stay an extra week in Shkodër, Albania. We moved forward believing the LORD had something else for us in Shkodër so I contacted a new person I had met and asked if there was anything that he would like us to help with in our official last week. He said yes and boy did he have some stuff that we could help with!!!
Our week started on Tuesday where we were able to take about 25 senior citizens out to a picnic. We took them about 40 minutes outside of Shkodër to another town that was more wooded. We were able to talk with them and love on them. I met this lady named Mariah who had had an injury that caused her to walk with a cane.
This is Mariah
I was able to pray for her knee and ask the LORD to touch her. She called our “new contact,” Fredi over to translate and said that she was touched by the prayer and was very thankful. We ate lunch with them and picked chestnuts and roasted them. Once we finished with the picnic and the drive back to Shkodër, we joined made some PB and Js for a prayer meeting and joined them in praying for our original contacts church.
These are all the senior citizens we got to hang out with!
Wednesday we started our day loading a truck bed full of baby food and taking it to a food bank where we were able to hand out the baby food to families for about an hour.
This is the truck of baby food!!!
Then Fredi took us to a development center where they house people and kids with mental and physical disabilities. Fredi told us that a lot of the residence were outcast or had been given up by there families. So we got to love on the residence in the center and pray for a bunch of them.
Here is Elizabeth with a resident.
Then the staff gathered us up and had us play a game of volleyball with them. The staff was surprisingly very encouraged by the game and asked Fredi if we could come back the next day and play again. After we finished there we went to a CRU meeting where they gathered some high-school students together and did a youth activity with them.
Thursday we decided to take some time and try and get some things figured out for travel to Kosovo the next week. So that is what we did the majority of that day. We also got to spend some extra time with our original contact, who is the pastor of a church in Shkodër.
Friday we started the day taking some orphans, ages 0 to 6, to an indoor play park. We got to love on them and play with them for half the day. We were able to pray over a lot of them and show them that they are worth love. After that Fredi took as to a couple of the Roma communities where we handed out baby food to some of the families within the communities. We also got to play games with the kids and minister to some of the families!
Saturday we went and helped the church host their kids ministry and then we worshiped with some of the memebers of the church for awhile after and prayed together.Sunday we went to church and the congregation prayed over us and gave us a blessing moving forward. After church we were able to eat with Fredi and his family at his house. Then we ate dinner with our original host considering it was our last night with them. We spent some time praying over their family and their ministry and then I prayed Matthew 10: 11-13 over them.WOW!!! I am so thankful the LORD kept us an extra week. Meeting Fredi and seeing him engage in his ministry was such a blessing to me and then getting to spend more time with Gusti and his family was amazing. The LORD really gave us a treat by calling us into another week in Shkodër.GOD IS SO GOOD!!!
Please pray for me as we spend our next bit of time in Kosovo. Pray that the LORD would fill me with His grace so that I may pour it put on everyone that I encounter. Please pray Ephesians 6 19-20 for me!
Psalms 100:5
1 Chronicles 16:34
Phillipians 4:4
So good to read how you are splashing Jesus on all your encounters! Praying for you nephew!
Anthony, I pray that the Lord would indeed overflow you with holy boldness. He has given you a spirit of power, love, and self discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7) Thanks for the update. You and your co-workers are in my prayers every day.
Anthony, you are sooo cool. Love how you trusted your team to hear from God and empowered them to continue in ministry for another week. Definitely the mark of a good leader- one who trusts his people and helps them grow and develop. Also you were being a good leader by not thinking you had to know it all- such humility. You are a good example, my friend to your squad and the people to whom you ministered.
Hey Brother, I heard you had an altercation with a sinful canine. You are in my prayers regarding that also. I love you, man!
Thank you!!! So thankful that the LORD has made a way. Love you!
Amen! Thank you for that scripture I will be mediating on it for awhile now.
Thank you so much
The LORD has been taking me on a journey for sure.
I hope he continues to use me and grow me through the whole process.
Thanks brother, ya I’m actually going to write about that on my next post 🙂