Divine Appointments

“Ask the Lord” (ATL) is a phrase used daily on the World Race. We believe that God speaks to his children, and if we go to him with a question, he will be faithful to teach and guide us with an answer. We also have a day set aside every week that we fondly call ATL. On ATL days, we pray and ask God to show us what he wants us to do. We create space to hear his voice and then follow in immediate obedience to what he says. Every ATL day looks differently, and it is such a gift to have the time to intentionally seek the voice of the Lord and walk in partnership with the things he highlights to us.

My team’s first ATL day in Albania was on a Saturday at the end of our first week. We prayed throughout the week for God to direct our steps for ATL. Our team quickly noticed the deeply rooted coffee culture present in Albania. The way everyone meets up for coffee throughout the day, and young adults gather around a small coffee shop table to chat and mingle. Talk about a perfect place to share the gospel. With a new team in Albania, we had the opportunity to share our testimonies with one another. Sharing about how we first encountered Jesus and how he has moved in our lives. Revelation 12:11 says, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death”. There is a reality that our testimony holds power because it is evidence of Jesus and his work in taking death to life. When Saturday came, we felt directed by the Lord to go to a coffee shop together and share our testimonies around a table (Albanian style) with faith that God would move in the room. We were praying for gospel conversations to happen and for our hearts to be tender to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

Since it was still our first week in Albania, we had no idea what coffee shops were near, but we trusted that God would point us in the direction he wanted us to go. As we neared our first intersection in the road, I prayed and asked God, “Which way should we turn?” and I heard him in a quiet whisper, “left”. So we turned left and began to walk down the street. Honestly, it was cold. Really cold and rainy. My team wanted to go to the first coffee shop we found, and as we were walking down the road, I was praying, “God, what coffee shop do you want us to go to?” I heard him say, “Sophie’s cafe.” I internally groaned. The only Sophie’s cafe that I knew about was at least a 30-minute walk from where we were. I began to wrestle in my mind of whether to honor the physical needs of my team by finding warmth or whether to advocate for what I was hearing from the Lord in that moment even though I knew it would require discomfort. As I was going back and forth in my mind one of my team mates took the lead and walked our group to a little square. She pointed out a cozy coffee shop on the other side of the square. As we neared the shop, I looked up to see the sign read “Sophie’s cafe”. I immediately beamed. God knew. We walked into the cafe and decided to all sit separately for thirty minutes to pray and seek the face of the Lord before coming together to share testimonies.

I was sitting on a bench against the back wall. I had just opened my Bible to begin reading when I noticed there was a tiny table next to me where a mother and daughter were sitting. The mother was really highlighted to me by the Holy Spirit. I began to pray and ask the Holy Spirit what he was doing and how he wanted me to partner. After only a minute or two, the mother looks over at me and my Bible and asks if I am a student in Tirana. We start chatting, and she introduces me to her daughter, who is my age and is also spending a few months in Albania. We immediately connect, having both traveled and worked in hostels around the world. Both women carry such a warmth and kindness and they share that they are from Copenhagen, Denmark. We slowly transition into chatting about religion through sharing about the holiday’s and cultural religions of our countries. The Holy Spirit opened up door after door to share the love of God and the gift it is to have a personal friendship and relationship with Jesus. The daughter was so struck with the peace that the Lord offers to those who believe in him. She shared about feeling the weight of anxiety and how many young Europeans feel a deep heaviness and are searching for how to change that. An hour filled with talk about the Bible and prayer flew by. I asked them if I could pray over them and their eyes widened, sharing that it touched them that I would care about them enough to pray for them. I invited my team into the conversation, introducing them, and then we laid hands and prayed. As I prayed, the sweet mom wept, and the daughter’s eyes welled with tears. I could tell God was moving in their hearts. Our team chatted for another hour, and the entire time, I could feel the love that God had for them and was so kindly using our team as a vessel to pour it out. The daughter and I shared numbers, and we have been staying in contact ever since!

Be praying for these two incredible women. Pray that their hearts would continue to soften to the gospel and that they would create a relationship with Jesus. I am believing for their salvation! God loves them and knows them, and his hand was all over our team meeting them at Sophie’s Cafe!

Albania has been a time of seeing God’s kindness pour out. He has reminded our team that he is a father who knows and loves his kids. He has been teaching each of us how to hear his voice and to walk in bold confidence in it. The banner I felt God put over our team right at the start is that of friendship, and man, have I seen that come to fruition. Our team is becoming the sweetest of friends. We live in a way that speaks life over one another always and have cultivated a safe environment for vulnerability and growth. Our team is a true gift!

As we have been partnering with the Jonathan Center and ICF church, we have heard the same phrase over and over: “thank you for carrying joy”. Truthfully, as a team, we did not recognize that we were carrying joy until our church partners first pointed it out. She shared that Albanians struggle to experience and show joy. They walk in a constant state of seriousness. She thanked us for carrying joy to the students we are engaging with and for filling the spaces we are entering with it. Our team has spent a lot of time praying and soaking in that word of encouragement. Our heart is to be vessels of the Holy Spirit, and that his fruit would just spill out of us. John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full”.

Keeping in the theme of joy, I wanted to share a list of just a few things that have brought joy to my heart since living in Albania, so you can get a small glimpse into the blessings God has poured out!

-living in a city with coffee shops on every corner