I walked to my Albanian Mom and Dad’s restaurant with an Albanian Bible in hand.
While I was walking with my teammate, I prayed for my Albanian Mami and Babi to come to Jesus that night. We prayed that their hardened hearts towards the gospel would be softened and their judgment would turn to curiosity for the Word.
I rushed to the back room where Babi jumped out of his chair with joy and greeted me with a hug and kiss on the cheek, as he did each time. I kissed Mami on both cheeks and put my things on the table so I could run to relieve myself.
I returned to the back room, and was shocked with what I saw. Babi was sitting in his chair with my Albanian Bible wide open. He was completely transfixed on the pages. As I walked near him to the fire, he didn’t even look up. His eyes were glued to the beginning of Matthew and he continued to turn the page. For five minutes, I witnessed a man full of hopelessness, wanted nothing to do with Scripture and was uninterested in the name of Jesus, completely drawn in as if he was the only one in the room. He looked up long enough to motion to me to eat the walnuts he brought out and went right back to reading the Bible. He read the Word, I ate walnuts completely astonished by God’s goodness.
He looked up at me with a new found hope in his eyes and said “shume bukur” (very beautiful). I smiled big and replied “Po! Po! Shume bukur” (yes yes very beautiful). He asked for my google translate and wrote, “this has many beautiful things” and proceeded to point up to the sky and said the name of Jezus Krishti. My heart melted and my spirit began to rejoice. I asked if he wanted me to share Jesus with him, and he smiled and said “Po!!”. Piece by piece, I began sharing the Gospel with Babi for the first time and watched his anticipation grow as he reached for the phone to read what happened next. He was so eager to know more and so open to receive all that the Lord had. After each paragraph, his face was filled with more and more hope and joy. After I finished sharing, my ministry contact happened to walk in and sit down with us. Babi excitedly began speaking with him about what he had just heard. All I could verbally understand was “Jezus Krishti” but his eyes said it all. Mid conversation, my ministry contact looked over with tears in his eyes and said “this is very good. Praise God!”
I asked him to translate to Babi if he wants to accept Jezus Krishti into his life. Babi, turned to me, full of excitement and exclaimed “Po, tani” (yes, right now). That night, we welcomed him into our glorious family and watched him take a seat at the kingdom table. With tears in my eyes, I gave him a hug and praised Jesus for my Babi’s salvation.
The next day I visited Babi and Mami, both having accepted Jesus as their Savior. The Lord transformed their hearts of stone and hopelessness to a heart filled with God’s love and hope. Before I left that night Babi pointed at his new Bible and translated “the Bible is fuel for my soul”. Amen Babi and thank you Jesus!!
God has been using my entire team for the last three weeks to pour into this couple, our Mom and Dad. We are rejoicing and celebrating the lost being found and our Albanian parents being adopted into our family.
H a l l e l u j a h
I am celebrating the faithfulness and movement of God in Albania. We have seen healings, drunkards stepping into freedom, atheists hearts opened, people who want to end their life ask about Jesus, people’s faces light up at hearing about Jesus for the first time, children hungry to read scripture and so many hearts touched at the name of Jesus. We are beginning to see an army of believers here that we believe God will raise up to be a part of His revival in this town!!
