God’s Beauty and Wonder!

God is so good! The week before leaving Nicaragua, my squad was planning to go to Colombia. But, due to COVID, we got rerouted to Albania, in Eastern Europe! I was super excited once I heard the news. I have always wanted to do ministry in Europe! I believe it was a huge blessing to be placed here in Albania. My squad has been in Albania for over a month now. It has been an amazing experience thus far. 

For one, doing ministry with a new team in a new role is an honor. My new team has been loving me and encouraging me so much. I really appreciate my squad leaders fighting for me to be placed on this team. I enjoy being in my team’s presence and fully expressing who God has truly made me to be. Also, being asked to be treasurer for my team has been enjoyable. It gives me the chance to really serve my team well. 

Something that I wanted to grow in with my new team is intentionality and vulnerability. I feel that since being in Albania, I have taken steps to get to know my teammates on a deeper level and share my heart with them. I got to hear their passions and dreams and encouraged them to be their true selves. I found out from one of my teammates how she has a passion to speak life into and empower inner city African American children in their true identity and destiny. Another teammate is super passionate about business and is discovering with the Lord how to incorporate ministry in the business world. I have another teammate who has a desire to see women’s lives transformed by helping them to see the beauty in themselves that God already sees in them through fashion or providing life coaching. I had the amazing opportunity to encourage this particular teammate in how God sees her. I told her “I really appreciate your intentionality, joy in your spirit, and your boldness. Never stop being yourself.” She lit up right away and was very grateful for the compliment. 

Vulnerability is another growth area I am pursuing. The night of Gabi’s (one of my teammates) birthday, I was walking home with her and I shared that my mom was going through a tough time back in the States and feeling stressed with Talaya and I not being there for her in person. Gabi immediately prayed for me as we walked home. That meant so much to me. I also shared a part of my testimony during church service. I felt from the Holy Spirit to share a message on “your freedom can be someone else’s permission”, “permission to step into a level of freedom, boldness or any area of life where they may be struggling”. I started that morning at church dancing during worship with my worship flag. Then I shared how growing up I loved to do choreographed dance but when I worshipped, I felt very reserved and not free to worship with my whole body. A year or so after joining the church I attend now, I met a friend who is a professional dancer. She danced during worship, not choreographed but with the Holy Spirit. Her dancing captivated my heart. Her freedom in dance gave me permission to be bold and not hold back with the Holy Spirit. I then shared a part 2 of my testimony how I used freedom in my gift of dancing to be my students’ (in Beijing, China) permission to be free to express their gifts and talents during a “show and tell” talent lesson in class. At first, no one wanted to participate, but as soon as I finished dancing in the room, the atmosphere shifted and the students were very eager to show their talents to the class such as singing, dancing, and playing guitar. It was a beautiful experience.

Ministry in Albania consists of truly being led by the Holy Spirit for every encounter. Why?…Because Albania has a huge Muslim population so it has been very important to rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance, wisdom and the best way to love the people around us. My team and I have been so blessed to encounter God’s beauty and wonder in the people we had the pleasure to meet.

During our first week we arrived to Albania, my team had the privilege to meet a group of people from YWAM (Youth With A Mission). They were already in Albania for a month since we first arrived, partnering with locals to spread the love of God and build relationships. On Christmas Day, we spent a few hours with them, getting to know them more, hearing their stories of why they joined, praying for them with their next part of their journey to the country Georgia and encouraging them with their mission and what it looks like to partner with the Holy Spirit. It was a sweet moment. One of the girls even mentioned how we were answers to her prayer for God to send more missionaries to Vlora, Albania to spread the love of Jesus! 

On the night of Gabi’s birthday, one of my teammates and I went into a pastry shop to order a cake. There we met a girl name Joanna. She was helping us with the order. I immediately was drawn to her personality and the way she served us. She was so sweet and kind. After we placed our order, the Holy Spirit prompted me to share prophetic encouragement to her-speaking life into her and how I see so much passion and joy within her. She told me thank you. I didn’t realize at that moment what I said would make such an impact in her. A few days later, I visited her at the shop and that’s where she told me that she is Albanian but grew up in Greece and went to school in Sweden. So her Albanian was not the best, but because of that, her coworkers makes fun of her. She is also a Christian working with Muslims so her coworkers would take advantage of her gentleness and kindness. She then told me that the encouraging words I shared really blessed her because she was feeling down that day due to her coworkers’ treatment of her. I offered to pray for her because she seemed so stressed with her coworkers, and working so much while finishing her studies to become a nurse. She was very grateful for the prayer. She told me that she was almost to tears because of how nice the prayer was and the encouragement I gave. Thank you Jesus for this encounter and pouring out your love! Since that day, I visited her multiple times- sharing identity statements and scriptures with her, giving her a drawing of a rose with more encouraging words based on it and continuing to love and empower her as much as I could.

Another encounter I had was going on a home visit with a teammate. As soon as we arrived to the home, we were amazed at the hospitality and kindness we received. The grandma that owns the home-Flora-was very sweet. Her son and daugther-n-law translated for us as we shared more about who we are and got to know them more. Flora gave us Turkish delight and made us orange juice. She showed us some of her paintings that she made. They were so good, you could easily find them in an art gallery. After she showed us her paintings, she brought out 2 more art pieces and told us to keep them! She wanted us to put our names on them, so they could be ours forever. During the entire time, she treated us like we were a part of her family. We encouraged her and shared how her kindness and love for us really shined through. She was touched by it and invited us to paint with her the following week…

Painting with Flora was so much fun! She brought so many supplies. She gave my teammate and I a canvas to paint and she painted one next to us. We were showered again with love by her. To sit in her presence and just “be” was such a delight. I felt overwhelming joy as we painted outside, taking in God’s beauty and wonder. Thank you Lord for that experience! 

My team and I had plenty other encounters during our time in Albania. We had opportunities to speak life into and encourage high school students and young adults. We played volleyball with them and really got to know them. We went to a few villages during the week of Christmas and celebrated with the church family, having dinner and dancing with the kids and adults. We were led by the Holy Spirit in other moments to pray for people, either on the streets or within the ministries we partnered with. We worshipped and danced at a skate park in the city as people went by to release joy and freedom in the atmosphere. We did so much! Everything we did and the people we encountered were so worth it because we did it all with the Father’s love, the hope of Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is such a joy to partake in God’s beauty and wonder!