Ministry Reality

Well, no pics with this post. Hope it's OK if I just show some humanness if you will and relay a hardship of our ministry here.

Yeah, it's hard sometimes. I will admit the emmanuel center for gypsy children is one of the most difficult ministries I've ever been a part of. How are you supposed to fight against a mindset that has been ingrained in people for centuries? - that you are a beggar and that's all you'll ever be, so may as well be good at it. Don't try, don't go to school (cause then you won't be on the street making money), don't wash up (cause then you don't look pathetic enough to get money when you beg), have lots of babies and start when you're young (because it looks more pathetic and you get more sympathy when you have a dirty little precious baby at your feet or say "I have 8 kids to feed"). I will say how I feel. Just when I think I'm getting somewhere and connecting with them, they do something to remind me what a stronghold they're trapped in and can't get out of. Just when I was really feeling good about the day we had with them last week, they work as a team to distract me to get into my purse. ohhhh. Why? I honestly can't blame them. They are children. Children do as they're taught. The one girl that I really had hope for that stood out as different, has turned "bad" (as our Albanian co-worker put it) and stopped coming. Her mother and older sister are prostitutes. What is her hope? Whew. I know sometimes we like to post happier things, but I hope it's OK to show you the not so fun side. For me, the really difficult side. What makes you go on when you see absolutely no fruit and hardly anyone else wants to join with you in the ministry? When you feel like it's an absolute waste of time because there is no change or visible hope. The thing that keeps me going is this - because Jesus told us to. This is what Jesus taught us to do in word AND action, so we'll do it. We can't give up on these kids like everyone else does every day. Also, we serve the God of impossibility and hope in seemingly hopeless situations. I am so grateful for that. We can go on and perservere because of who God is. Praise Your glorious name, Jesus. Thank You for loving these kids more than anyone ever could.

Good times

We wanted to apologize to any of our blog readers who might have
read a comment on here about a week or two that was very vulgar.
We don't know this person personally and we are screening the comments
from now on.

And if the person who made that comment ever reads this, we just want
to let you know that we are not mad at you. If that is the way you feel,
then you are entitled to your own opinions. We also want you to know
how much Jesus loves you and that if you have a lot of bitterness
and anger stored up inside that He can take these feelings away
from you and replace them with love, joy, and a peace that only God
can give to you. We hope and pray that God will work in your life and
one day you can give your heart to Him. God Bless you!

Also, we apologize for posting Albanians as a "forgotten people". You're right. Albanians aren't forgotten by God in any sense. I think the reason we posted that was because this country was so closed off for so many years under Enver Hoxha's rule, and no other countries had access to it, it became in a sense, forgotten, because of it's inaccessability. Please, forgive us. We have removed that from this blog.

So at the end of April, we had a 4 day retreat in Macedonia. These
pics and video are from the beautiful ride through Albania while traveling.
(You will hear more about the retreat in our newsletter)

While we were there, we had some free time each afternoon. We decided to see
how good of drivers our girls really are. I think they need some practice :)

The city Ohrid that we stayed in bordered a big, beautiful lake that
separated Albania and Macedonia. We were told that back in the day it
was like the "Jerusalem" of the Balkans because of the amount of churches
and Christian history that came out of here. This was a castle at the top of
the hill that we walked to one day.


This was the view outside our hotel.
Definitely a refreshing change from our dusty city!



Got to get them trained early!!



Ahoy ye pirates! This pic and the ones below are from a pirate themed
birthday party we went to for an American missionary who lives here.
It was a lot of fun and also challenging to find pirate clothes here in Albania.



Even as a pirate she is cute!


Yeah, yeah. Don't laugh. We are on the mission field,
so this is the best that we could do. : )

So, I think we have a natural here. Watch how she goes to
play and puts her hand on the strings to play a chord. We
never showed her this, she just did it. Watching her try to
play and sing at the same time makes us think that she
might be a future worship leader! You never know, but
if God wills, that would be awesome!