Reality

Our team came into Albania this past month not expecting to see anyone come to Jesus, BUT we did come in with expectancy for the Lord to do wondrous works with His hands. I will lead this section with this statement: I AM GRATEFUL! The Lord has been so faithful and I pray daily for his provision to continue throughout this town, and for more waterers and planters to come in behind us, whether that be a new team, or new disciples. From the worlds standards, this month can be considered successful, but by the Lord’s standards, the harvest is plentiful but the workers are very very few. 

In our time here, we have seen numerous salvations, and have healed more than I’ve been able to keep track of. Personally, it is hard not to covet my team because I have taken on the role of storyteller and have chosen to write back to you all at HQ so frequently as well as document our time here. I have written a blog about one particular instance when nick prayed for a little boy that was injured during a soccer match, but for this report in specific I have a story from today that I think more properly outlines our time here as well as outline the mind and heart of most of the people who we have been in contact with. 

Me and nick were sitting in a hotel cafe drinking our usual cappuccino and cocoa, when Hannah calls us and ask us to meet up with her in close to the center of the city. “Come meet with us,” she said, “These men want to hear about Jesus.” So I went first, and Nick came second. These men were young, in their upper twenties and lower thirties. I came up and shook their hands and they immediately expressed their humor upon stating how funny they thought I looked. “You look like a baby with facial hair!” 

“Mad respect,” I thought. It was humorous to me how bold yet open and real they were. 

I sat most of the conversation just listening and interjecting where I felt the Spirit deem necessary. We talked about various aspects of life that were past the point of superficial, and we even talked about why bad things happen. This is when the futbol coach walked up. After a brief introduction and some small talk it was made aware that one of the men we had just made friends with had a knee injury from playing in a game the last week. He was unable to bend his knee beyond a few degrees without experiencing some significant pain and discomfort. Nick (God bless you nick) immediately asked if the man would like to experience healing. We explained to him how we pray and why, and that the Lord can hear us even within our thoughts. By the power of the Holy Spirit and only for the glory of God, the man was healed immediately after we said, “Amen.” Him and his friends were present and were able to see these wonders with their eyes. Every single one of them was in absolute shock. His friends didn’t even believe him, but he responded multiple times and assured that that it was in fact much better. He still had slight pain in the back of the knee, but was nonetheless amazed at the fact that he could painlessly bend his knee up to his chest as before. WOW! Praise God. 

It was hard for me (and the team) to stay composed for the rest of the conversation. All glory to God! 

I looked at the man and said to him these things: 

“It will be easy to wake up tomorrow and convince yourself that this never happened, but right here, and right now, you have experienced healing. I encourage you to seek for the truth. Much of my testimony has to do with the act of seeking for the truth; I used to care less about what God said because I just couldn’t believe He was real… as you can see this is real, and we serve a god that heals people.” I told him, “We would not sacrifice our entire lives for what we believe if what we believed was not real; we wouldn’t be telling you about Jesus if he was not real and knew he was fake. If you have questions, seek for the truth, because the truth will stand – you just might have to look for it… the Bible says to meditate on it’s words through day and night, but you can’t do that if you don’t know what it says! If you have questions about the Bible, then read it, and if you have questions about its meaning, then do not hesitate to reach out and ask someone who knows more than you do.” 

This man changed from someone who was very interested but skeptical to someone who was hungry for whatever it was that was able to heal him. We gave a New Testament to each of his friends and gave one to him as well. We prayed for his friend and then we parted ways to go eat a fat lunch one of Mackenzie’s friends prepared for us by surprise. The second we were out of earshot Hannah and I began to rejoice. Literally (and shamelessly) in the street in front of everyone passing by. We were grateful and in complete reverential fear of the Lord in this moment. “There is victory!” She said.