The First Encounter

Hey friends!!! Reporting to you from Eastern Europe in Albania. 

I never thought I would be sitting in a coffee shop in the freezing cold here writing about life. Life here is much different than the past four months I have spent in Central America. Here, the team I am with, is staying in an apartment by the Adriatic Sea in a town called Vlore. We spend most of our days doing ask the Lord evangelism and have had the opportunity to meet travelers from all across the world. My friend Gabi and I were handing out homemade Christmas cards one day on the beach and wishing people a Merry Christmas. While we were out we stopped to talk to a girl who we would later have the opportunity to meet up with for coffee. As we started talking to our new friend we began to learn that she too was a traveler from New Zealand. She had been biking through the country during COVID and got stuck here for some time. Little did she know this would be the place where she would have met her future husband and now us! Gabi and I had the privilege of swapping stories about religion and life with her. During our conversations her interest was sparked about Christianity. I fully believe we were able to plant the first seed that we know the Lord will send someone to water later on in her life. Thank you Lord for sending us here so that we could have an encounter such as this!! This first encounter allowed us to cultivate a loving friendship and create a good perception for future Christians that meet our new friend. 

Our team has also been going out in smaller groups to a village in the mountains where our host teaches English. One day, I went with our host and a few other girls to pass out Christmas boxes to the high schoolers. While our host was inside teaching English that morning, me and the other girls sat right outside in a small cafe. We had the sweet pleasure of hanging out with some local men and women from the village as well as many of the teachers between their classes. A few of the people that came in and out spoke English, but for the most part everyone spoke the local Albanian language Shqipe. We tried all kinds of sweet treats, juice boxes, and Turkish coffee that the locals bought us. Our goal was to make the locals feel loved. This area is an unreached people group that the pastor will later have the opportunity to share the gospel with because of the relationships we were able to cultivate. I played cards with all the old men and laughed and smiled until my cheeks hurt. We couldn’t speak much due to the language barrier, but I know they felt loved by me just as I did by them. After hanging out with the locals we went into the small school and handed out Christmas boxes for the high schoolers to have a Christmas gift. It was such a joy to hand a student a gift and wish them a Gezuar Krishlindjet! These first encounters with the local elders, teachers, and high schoolers opened up the door for our host to later share a gospel that will be well received. 

We also had a day where we visited the local Monastery. The views were absolutely incredible. The area reminded me quite a bit of the marshes in Louisiana with a beautiful dock across the lagoon that spilled into the Adriatic Sea. While us girls were hanging out on the dock nearby we asked a local to take a group photo of us. He began asking us questions about what we were doing here and why we decided to be Christians. He acted as though he was a Muslim and began asking us deeper questions about the Bible and arguing with us. After some time of chatting and answering questions we were able to share the gospel with the man. Shortly after we shared the good news with him he began smiling and told us that he was a local Christian missionary who worked with Campus Crusades. He wanted to test us and see how we would present the gospel to someone who claimed to be a Muslim. This was such an eye opening opportunity for us as we were given feedback on how we presented and points to add in future conversations with Muslims. This first encounter with this man allowed us to practice our evangelism skills as well as pray for a missionary who may have been feeling burnt out. 

With these first encounters I feel as though I need to ask you…

Each day as you pass by others on the street or sit next to locals in a coffee shop… what are you doing with your first encounter?

May this encourage you to be bold in the good news and eternal life you have. What better gift to give others this season that the gift of eternity in heaven!