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Living Waters in Sweet Sweet Albania

I’ve found that in the light of Jesus, with eyes for the people around you, it is so easy to fall in love with a place. I have only been in Albania for three days now and this statement still rings true. I love this country already. What an absolutely precious place, with absolutely genuine people. The people here are KIND, hardworking, and devout. Just like everywhere else I’ve been on the race, I already don’t want to leave!

From my brief knowledge of this country and the ministry that my team will be partnering with, I wanted to give you an introduction! The same is true for a country as it is for people, I tend to love it more when I know some of its story.

So what is life like in Albania? There is a huge influence of the religion of Islam. In fact, my ministry host, Erion, grew up as a Muslim himself. I don’t know a ton about the religion yet, but my hope is to learn more to better be able to point people to Jesus in action and discussion.

In general, the country is very poor. Our host said that as a child, he grew up getting excited from finding used coke bottles on the ground, which his family would use as decorations in their home. This level of poverty is not uncommon, and it breaks my heart to think about.

Albania only ceased to be a Communist nation in 1992. Unfortunately, the country is still struggling both economically and politically. Each year there are thousands of people that emigrate out of the country in search of a better life.  It is a country with one of the highest emigration rates in the world. Every year, in just the US alone, there are over 300,000 Albanians that apply for citizenship and only 50,000 get cleared. The number of Albanians that apply for citizenship in the US does not even compare to the number that apply in other European countries such as Germany.

As far as school goes, many girls are taken out of school after the 9th grade. The purpose of this is to protect them until they get married. Heartbreaking really. For work, many men go to Greece or Macedonia for three months out of the year to work in agriculture. Many of the women who don’t have higher education spend their time canning food and storing it away. The reason for this is that the government only provides assistance when needed to pay for electric bills, not food bills. If you run out of food, you run out of food.

Life is hard in Albania, the way Erion put it: “If you don’t have a bigger call on your life than just doing better for yourself, you don’t stay in Albania.”

Enter Living Waters ministry.

Living Waters is a fricken incredible ministry. In fact I started crying as Erion explained its place in the community and how God has used it to change lives. Living Waters was started in 1995 in Pensacola, Florida. It then expanded to Guatemala, and then to Albania. Both countries that have my heart. It has now been in Albania for over 25 years.

The ministry is an adopt a child organization. Families come to the organization for assistance and Living Waters, thanks to monthly donors, attempts to meet both spiritual and physical needs of the children and widows in the program. Donors in the US, the UK, and Canada monthly sponsor individual children. This typically $30 a month sponsorship provides them with food and also spiritual teaching. Sometimes the sponsors even end up assisting children through college, and opportunity that realistically would not be attainable without this partnership.

Jesus was literally the bread of life, and he makes it clear from his personal ministry on earth that as followers of Him we are expected to the best of our ability provide people with both the physical and the spiritual. In Matthew Jesus provides people with physical food, he fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and two fish. “They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up 12 baskets of broken pieces that were left over.” -Matthew 14:20

He is a God that wishes to provide for our physical needs.

At the same time Jesus is the only way. “It is written: man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” -Matthew 4:4

People in this country need food, and for that reason it is an open door for this ministry to provide for their needs and also share truth. There are Muslim families in this community that send their children to Living Waters for food, end up hearing the Gospel, and entire families are changed. It shouldn’t be surprising, that’s the power of Christ! It’s beautiful.

I love Living Waters because they care about investing in lives. They encourage sponsors to come meet the kids they sponsor, and they are accountable to every dollar that is donated. They take a face on a page and turn it into tangible love, real relationships.

There are currently 1200 children in the program and so far only about 800 have sponsors. The ministry we get to do this month is so exciting I can’t even believe it! Our team will be spending the majority of our time meeting the kids in the program and updating and writing their stories. We get to write the bios for the kids to be adopted by a monthly sponsor. UGH I love that I am able to be a part of this! We plan on covering each child that we write a bio for in prayer. Is there anything more necessary or needed?

We are so excited and I can’t wait to share more stories as they are revealed to me. If you want to check out Living Waters ministry and what they are about, here is the link:

https://www.livingwateradoptachild.org/

 

2 Comments

  1. Courtney!! I love hearing about Living Waters and the ministry y’all are doing! It honestly sounds incredible and I love your heart for it and for Albania. Plus your host, Erion, sounds like such a cool man! Looking forward to hearing more updates!

  2. Living Waters ministry does sound great, so glad you get to be a part of it while you are in Albania. Love ya!

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