Praise the Lord for this new day. I get a great thrill reading from Revelation 11: 15, "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever". (King James)
Praise the Lord for the way He rules and reigns in truth and beauty. Praise the Lord for the way He has called to be about His business. He has given us His authority. He has given us the promise of His presence even to the end of the ages.
In the words of John Stott (of London), "His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in Heaven gives us our only hope of success. And, His presence with us leaves us no other choice."
One of the early Church founders, John Chrysostom, who stood in the gap for the Bavarian Goths of the Balkan States, trained and sent missionaries to each of them. He defined his world vision for Jesus in this way, "We have a whole Christ for our Salvation; a whole Bible for our staff; a whole Church for our fellowship; and a whole world for our parish."
One of my mentors during my days in Bangalore, India, Theodore Williams, said, "We face a humanity that is too precious to neglect. We know a remedy for the ills of the world too wonderful to withhold. We have a Christ who is too glorious to hide. We have an adventure that is too thrilling to miss."
Many of you are praying for Sunita's and Andy's trip to the Balkans. I am forwarding one of her recent letters that she sent to us.
Hi Friends,
This is a note to say what you already know: Jesus is AMAZING!!!
Andy and I have been in Albania for about 56 hours and have already been richly blessed in numerous ways. We overnighted in Istanbul Thursday night and with a little Sominex were able to sleep 12 hours straight--I can't remember the last time that happened! :) Our short time in Albania has been a great combination of getting over jetlag, getting oriented to the city and the World Vision team here, and having Jesus wow us with this beautiful part of His body, the move of His Spirit in this land, and the incredible connections we've already made.
Even before coming to Albania, through a short skype chat, I felt a quick connection with my main point of contact for World Vision Albania, Erisa. She is 23 or 24 and wise & godly beyond her years. Growing up in a Muslim family, she had a dream around the age of 8 or 9 where Jesus appeared to her in a dream; actually she had an image of his feet and of him calling her to him and decided to become a Christian right then, even though it was a number of years before she would be able to attend church. In addition to just connecting with Erisa's free, fun loving spirit and devotion to Jesus, we have similar passions for the Church, for economic development and of all things, for INDIA! Ever since she can remember she's had a heart for India, and had actually taken a job in Calcutta after college before feeling like the Lord was calling her back (from 5 years in NYC) to Albania. She hasn't been to India yet but is confident the Lord has something for her there. Amazingly, her sister, Gerta, who also works for World Vision, also has a heart for India and is married to an American, Tim, who grew up as an MK in Nepal. We made the connection over dinner that he is the nephew of my colleague (Wynn Flaten), which was a very fun discovery. All of them live in the same house with their parents and sister, though in 3 separate units, and have an amazing story of Jesus' work and redemption in their family. One by one they'v been coming to Jesus and their dad, the last one standing :), is getting very close. We had an Indian dinner with Erisa, Gerta, Tim and Isaiah, their brilliant 2 year old, Saturday evening and spent hours together talking and just enjoying each other. I think all of us feel this won't be the last time we see them. They have a dream of starting a Christian school in Albania together and I just have no doubt that Jesus is going to birth this dream and do mighty things through the three of them.
On Friday, I had a lovely conversation and time of prayer with a World Vision staff member (an ADP manager for WV friends) who had delayed her vacation by a day in order to meet with me. I was SO blessed by her heart and the ways that she and her team bathe their work in prayer and tirelessly love and serve the children and families in their communities. They love the kids in their communities, know them by name (2000+ kids) and daily go above and beyond any "work requirements" to bear witness to God's transforming power.
We decided to stay at a missionary run guesthouse because it was a half to a third of the cost of the other hotel options, but also sensing we might make some neat connections here. While we are quite "cozy" in our little room with twin beds, no internet and a lot of ants, we are so thankful for the people we've met here so far. As we sat in the cafe checking email Saturday morning, we overheard a group next to us talking for hours about Jesus, revival and the work of the Holy Spirit. As we eventually introduced ourselves, we met an amazing group of Texans (with a German and Californian thrown in) whom the Lord had told to come to Albania several years ago and who have been coming since and just letting the Lord lead them. A number of them are connected with the Global Awakening network, which is the group that Andy & I attended several conferences with over the past year (Bill Johnson, Graham Cooke, Heidi Baker...). They are a wild, crazy bunch who just love Jesus and are up for going wherever He brings them and doing whatever He says. I remember hearing in the nineties about the ways the explosive growth of the church in Albania after the fall of communism. That growth seems to continue,and although Christians are a minority here the church is vibrant and its witness powerful (in spite of the normal messiness of Jesus' faltering bride). We joined the Texans for a service tonight (Sunday) at a church near our guesthouse. We had also attended a service in Albanian this morning. As we worshipped with the tiny congregation tonight all I could do was smile and recognize that this is one of my deepest, if not the deepest, joys--it's fire in my bones and air in my lungs to fellowship with believers across culture, border, race and language. It's a passion that Jesus has put in me and I feel so full and alive in these experiences.
The American team went around praying for people at the end of the service. Andy and I both had prayer and prophecy over us and both had significant and yet very consistent things spoken over us. I'll have to save that for another email, but I will quickly say it continues to be confirmed how much your prayers are powerful and effective, and how much we will need them in India.
We will be heading out tomorrow to visit some of our programs around the country and will probably be back in Tirana on Thursday. I'm not sure what our internet connection will be but hopefully better than in our current room :) Know we are very well and loving our time so far. I think it's accurate to say we're both falling more in love with Jesus and just want more of Him, more of His heart and are stretching out our arms wide open for whatever He has for us. We're so, so thankful.
Our love to each of you!
Sunita & Andy
http://youtu.be/vO_bKR2Wzhk
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