Albania!

I'm writing this in an Albanian apartment on the 7th floor, over-looking the city of Elbasan. It's a beautiful city! It's my first time in Europe...very exciting!

I have quite a bit I'd like to say, but we'll see how much I actually get through. Sorry it's a bit spastic, but I'm at an internet cafe now and paying per minute. :)

First, I should probably describe what we're doing, since I wasn't really sure before I left. We're working with a church named Bethel Church. It's small, less than 100, but their passion could probably show up quite a few medium-sized American churches. But I won't rant about that now ;) The church has teamed up with World Vision to do a camp for some kids from a nearby village, Broshke. Its about 30 kids from the village and 10 from the church in the city. We start with going over the rules, which the kids made the first day. Then, we play a group game or do face painting. Then, the 4 groups go to a station (dance, drama, music, and art) for ab out an hour. After another game, we do a Bible lesson. Albania is 70% Muslim, followed by Greek Orthodox and Catholicism. The village is all Muslim, but they're lukewarm (which is a blessing for us!). Luckily, we haven't ahd any parents upset with what we're teaching their kids this week. That might, however, have more to do with the fact that there's almost zero parental involvement with the kids and most of the fathers are in Greece to find work. Anyway, after the lesson, we have lunch and then bus them home.

Unless you don't know me and somehow stumbled onto my blog, you know how much I adore Africa. No offense to Europe, but I would rather be in Africa. Yesterday, though, God beat me with the ever-familiar two-by-four of lov. The more I learn about the kids' lives here, the more my eyes are opened. Or maybe it's more my heart being broken. When it comes down to it, kids are kids. They need the same things and have the same desires, even if they're expressed differently in the culture. European kids need exactly what African kids need, which is exactly what American kids need: love, safety, protection, innocence, and something more than just being alive. While my ultimate dream is still for God to move me to Uganda, I think maybe He's showing me some things leading up to that dream. I don't know if He'll take me all over before Africa, but He's opening my heart to that possibility. He's given me a passion for making the broken whole, the wrong right, the captive free. Aren't there just as many broken, wronged, and captive in America, Europe, and Asia as in Africa? Who am I to say I won't serve them? WHo am I to say HE can't take me anywhere but Africa? I am s0 not that important!

I don't know what He's doing with this, but since about January, He's been laying something on my heart: the way my generation and those younger than me view Him. At least in America, so many teens and kids see God as boring. Maybe some adults too, but they're too stuffy and proud to admit it. Who knows? ;) Anyway.... How in the world can we see God as boring?! Have we read the Bible at all!! The Old Testament has fights, blood and gore, love, the most dysfunctional families in the history of the world, and stories like a woman turing into a pillar of salt. The New Testament has dead people coming back to life, healings, demons, more blood and gore, insults, teleportation, prison time, and a Savior with quite the sense of humor. I odn't know about you, but soap operas don't have anything on the Bible! I wish my generation would see how dangerous our Lord is! I think the issue is that we don't want to see it. IF we see HIm for who He is, we'll want in on what He's doing. And to get in on the action, thiongs have to change. We have to get uncomfortable. We have to lay our things down and pick up His things. And unless you've seen God, that doesn't sound like too much fun. But once you see him, truly see Him, it doesn't seem like a big deal to do whatever it takes to see Him again, to experience Him move again, to be used by Him just one more time. But unless you've seen Him, it doesn't make sense like that. Oh, that we would see His face! How huge an impact my generation would have if we surrendered to Him .

Isaiah 6. May we see Him in His glory. High and exalted. May He call us into the battle. May we put on the armor and go full speed ahead! No questions asked. No turning back.



PRAYER REQUESTS

• Rest of the time here (safety, etc)
• Travel home on the 8th and 9th
• For Bethel church (the pastor is Ilirian and his wife is Mirela)