A Personal Message

This weekend I felt discouraged because of some unfulfilled desires and longtime prayers that still haven’t been answered yet. I do believe that God will answer this prayer and I am usually fine with handing this matter over to Him but sometimes … sometimes frustration just takes over. So when I went to church on Sunday morning I wasn’t really in the mood for it. I couldn’t even join in the first song. But when worship time started I made a decision to praise God even though I absolutely didn’t feel like it.
And then, in the third song, I got a personal message from God. I’ve sung this particular song many times before but now it hit me. There is a line which translates something like this: Whatever you give to me, whatever you take from me, you are and will be my God.
I can’t really explain why but this put everything back in order for me. It was just what I needed to hear from God that morning. This experience was overwhelming and brought me close to tears. I didn’t even pray for this and yet I received exactly what I desired. What a great God we have who cares about me and who makes sure I get the message that everything will be fine!

For my friend, Evis

To me giving hope to someone it can be as easy and simple as doing something nice for that person. It might give hope that kindness still exists, that friendships can be real, that nice gestures can be done just because...

What I am doing for a friend of mine this weekend is throwing a bitter-sweet farewell party. She was in the States for a year as a visiting scholar and at the end of the month, her time will arrive to return back to her home country, Albania. It's sad in one hand because we developed such a strong friendship and got so used to seeing each other once a week at least, chat, encourage each other, confess to each other, pray and share joys and sorrows. On the other hand, it's exciting to see what the future holds for her and how God will use her either in her country, or back here, or somewhere in Europe...

What makes me think this is a occasion to give hope and show Christ's love and kindness is the fact that there will be a fairly big crowd coming to this farewell party, people my friend Evis came in contact with throughout the year here, colleagues, older friends from Albania even who are here at the moment, co-workers, some friends from our church etc. It's a diverse, very international and fascinating group and just thinking how blessed I am to host all these wonderful people, reminds me of that verse in the Bible: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it" (Hebrews 13:2)