oranges, a missing phone, & a woman named Salvation.

Hi friends!

While living here in Albania, our ministry has looked a bit different everyday. Sometimes we help our ministry host with inventory & planning church meetings, other times we meet up with the local high schoolers & hang out & disciple them. And on some days we visit the villages & distribute food boxes to the families there. But one of my favorite ministries has been “ATL” which means “Ask the Lord”. Basically we wake up in the morning and pray together & ask the Lord for vision about where He wants us to go that day-  “Because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.” 1 Thessalonians 1:5

Last week I was praying one morning and I felt like the Lord was saying “Orange” & that we’ll be invited into the home of a shopkeeper. 

So! Kaylin and I started off by walking to the main street, and we had to go through the fruit market to get there. When I saw oranges, we met the man selling them and spoke with him for a bit, bought some oranges & left. 

Okay now let me back track a little to last weekend. We were traveling from another city nearby, and after Philip got off the bus, he realized he left his phone on the bus seat. So we were all a bit stressed about finding it & wondering if he’d ever get it back. 

Then back to this day, Kaylin and i were passing the bus station and decided to take a shot in the dark and ask around about a missing phone. A man who spoke english named *Phineas* started to help us out. We gave him pictures of what the bus looked like & what the phone looked like. And then he told us to wait for a bit as he called the driver of the bus to come. And as we were waiting & talking with him, I realized that the bus which Phineas drove was orange!! 

Eventually, the other bus driver came back and pulled Philip’s phone out of his pocket! We were so thankful to have it back so we had to buy the driver espresso, of course. 

After this we kept walking and were about to go meet up with our team when we decided to stop in this small tourist shop. Kaylin had already met the shopkeeper, Salvation, but i hadn’t yet. We got to go in & talk with her for a bit. She is the only Christian in a whole family of Muslims, so she was elated to talk with us. We shared with her about why we were there and she shared with us her hardships and joys of following Jesus. 

Then I asked if i could pray for her, her husband & her children and she had the widest grin on her face. We prayed and she wept. She said she was so encouraged to know that there are other believers fighting for her. Then she said to us “Would you like to come to my home one day? I would love to have you all!” 

A few days later we went & it stands today as one of my favorite days of ministry. We got to go into her home, listen to her story, ask questions about her family, cry with her, worship, pray with her, anoint her home as a place of peace. 

Philip mentioned how this was a picture of church. Acts 2:42 says – “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” And that’s exactly what we got to be apart of. 

I was amazed about how each thing the Lord said came to pass. I got to know the name of the man who sells oranges, who i wave to everyday now. I got to make a new friend in Phineas, who still wants to take us to get more espresso & get to know us more. I got to be invited into the home of a woman who is giving up everything to follow Jesus, and we encouraged her to not give up. I was even encouraged by her to walk more & more with Jesus, because there is no one like Him. 

*names were changed for privacy reasons* 

Thank you for reading !! I hope you were encouraged to know that God is still speaking today, and we can trust Him.

May His favor be upon you, 

• M