Shkodër pt. 1-First “Scheduled” day of Ministry

Ok I’ve already shared a bit about what has happened in the city of Shkodër already in my last post, but there is more! God has been working so concentrated in our group and it is opening up more and more opportunities to serve and minister to the people of Shkodër, Albania. There’s so much so that I’m going to have to spilt this up into a type of series of posts describing what we’ve already seen and what it looks like He is preparing us to do.
I left off with a Rollercoaster of a ride for a travel day and a night of what I can only call Holy Spirit magnetizism, again check out the last blog to hear about that experience it’s crazy!
Ok the day after the Holy Spirit magnetizism experience we had to spend some time find a place that could house us for a longer period of time and get some more groceries. We also spent some time in intercession and worship, praying over future plans and thanking God for the work that He had already done! The next day we worshiped in the morning and did a small Bible study and then we set out for a prayer walk around the town. Before we had come to Shkodër I felt like God had really pressed on my heart to COVER every part of our ministry in prayer, so we as a team decided to start our city ministry by COVERING, what we could of the town, in prayer. We split into 2 groups; Chris, Elizabeth, and I went one way into more of the center of town and Madison and Isaak went another way which was more on the edge of the city.
Chris, Elizabeth, and I walked for a little bit saying hi to the people as we walked by, when we came across a soccer stadium. I felt like we should go pray over the stadium, so we headed that way. When we got to it we felt like we should walk around the property boundaries of stadium and pray over the whole property. We prayed for a change in the atmosphere, that people would feel the presence of the Holy Spirit when they would enter through the gates. We prayed for future missionaries to come and have opportunities to share the Gospel. We prayed against any spirits that were not from God, binding them and casting them out. We circled the stadiun mimicking the walk of Joshua walking around the building, praying that God would work!
After that we walked even further into the center of town. As we were approaching what looked like the most populated part we had seen so far, we heard the Muslim call to prayer and Chris felt lead to go where we had heard the noise coming from. We were lead to one of the many Mosques we would encounter here in Shkodër. Once we arrived at the front gates, Chris felt prompted to go inside and pray over the building! He talked about how often times the LORD would honor his walking in boldness. Elizabeth wasn’t sure the rules and thought it best if she stayed back so she wouldn’t offend anyone. I decided to stay back so she wasn’t alone. Elizabeth and I prayed over Chris as he walked up to the Mosque and into the building. We met up maybe 30 minutes later once we saw that he was walking out of the entrance to the Mosque.
He talked about how he stated his belief as soon as he was asked and that he had anointed a few of the entrances and prayed over the building! He also asked that we pray over any spiritual forces that may have latched on to him being in the building, just to be safe.
From there we walked to a Catholic church that we could see from the Mosque. Once in there Chris talked about the stark difference between the two atmospheres.
We prayed that the people that entered into the church would come to know the true God and what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. After that we began our 40 minute walk back to the hostel continuing to pray as we walked, but also excited to share our experiences.
After our trek back and preparing dinner we sat down and shared what had happened, both sets of us excited to tell the other what the LORD had been doing. We started off telling our story, with each description Isaak and Madison seemed to grow in excitement to share what had happened with them. Once it came to their turn they began with praying over communities and certain buildings that stuck out to them. But then their finale, they said they had felt like they needed to pray over a pregnancy clinic that was on a side street. After they prayed over the building they came across a teenager that had been playing some music, once they approached the girl they found out that she could speak great English and that the girl was practicing for worship for the following Sunday! She said there church was an evangelical church and that she had recently started helping them with their worship. She invited them and the rest of our team to their Sunday service!!
But check this out, she gave a flier to Isaak and Madison and on the fliers it said that they were going to have a guest speaker that was from America!!! What! It felt like God giving us a neon sign that said, “This way.” God is so good!!!
And it gets better!
Fast forward a couple of days, after church and getting to meet the elders and the pastor of the church, we were invited to coffee with the lead pastor and his wife and the head of a CRU team and her team leader. We took them up on their offers believing that God was continuing to make a path for us. First up was the pastor and his wife. We greeted each other and got to know each other. We were asked how we came to Shkodër and ended up at their church and we got to share some of the cool things that the LORD had been doing. We told him that we were in the Midst of an ATL month and that we felt the LORD highlighting Shkodër. We said that he had given us vision for Children’s ministry, Muslim ministry, and prison ministry. Once we mentioned this the pastors face changed. he seemed surprised by that statement. Not about the divine encounters with the teenager and how it just so happened to be before a week were there would be an American guest speaker. He seemed surprised about the vision God had been giving us. After we laid it all out, he said it is crazy! We had been praying for missionaries to come and their church has been getting more and more missionaries that come and help. Then he talked about what made his face change. He said that you guys are looking for these types of ministries and our church is positioned in a Muslim neighborhood, we have a children’s ministry that meets 3 times a week, AND we just started a prison ministry!!!!!! WHAT!!!
I’m literally so blown away by the way God has been working in this and through all of these things.
God is Alive and Working!
Helpful tips… Pray. Listen. Act/Obey

Stay tuned for our other meetings with CRU and another day of ministry we had planned!!!

1 Corinthians 10:20
Proverbs 2: 1-5
Mark 4: 24

Please, Please, Please, continue to pray for me and my team.
Please pray for the LORD to continue to use us and that we would be able to hear HIM clearly.
Please pray for Gusti the head pastor of this church and for his ministry
Pray for MORE faith for me and that He would align my will to His!!!!

I can not thank you enough for your prayers and hope that you are encouraged by how the LORD has been working.