We have an apartment!

We finally have found a place to live here in Tirana!!!!! It is in a great location, and we are very excited to move in a few weeks. We are working out the details of the contract with the owners now and hopefully will sign it in a few days. Thank you so much for all your prayers for the right place for us - it was well worth the wait. Actually, this is much earlier than we expected to find a place at all, so we're thankful to God for that.

It has been a wonderful weekend! This morning we heard a sermon from Acts 18 about how Paul planted churches in urban areas, specifically Corinth. Our pastor applied this to the city of Tirana. It was really, really good to be encouraged from the Word and to know that even as we choose our steps, God is directing our path. We have already begun to rekindle relationships here, which is a blast. And we've made new contacts as well. For instance, our realtor, Zamir, who took us all over Tirana looking for apartments came to church this morning and really enjoyed it! Prasie God for his soft heart and for all the time God gave us to spend with Zamir in the last week and a half.

Earlier this weekend we had a surprise birthday party for the only guy in our youth group, Eno. It was really fun to hang out with the youth and young professionals from the church. It is clear that there is a hunger for fellowship among them. It doesn't take much to gather them all together!

Eno with his mother and sister. Eno's father is a deacon in the church, and both Eno and his sister, Rei, have been part of our camps the last couple years.

Also, please keep in prayer the girls pictured below, Dona. She recently trusted Jesus as her Savior (in December). She desires to be baptized soon. Her parents are of the majority religion here (again, if you don't know, look it up!), but she really wants them to be present to be a testimony to them. Prayer for growth for her and for strength to be living a God-honoring, Christ-exalting lifestyle that is definitely "against the grain".

This morning after the service, there was a wedding in the church - the first wedding ever performed there! What we are especially praising the Lord for is that it was the first Christian wedding that many people had ever seen. Pray for this young couple - Marsel (Albanian) and Irena (Russian) as they also are now one light in the surrounding spiritual darkness. It's a long story, but they had to plan their wedding in two weeks, so I had the privilege of helping Irena get ready this morning, getting dressed, make-up, etc. Very fun! She is a sweetheart and I look forward to a friendship with her as we both navigate in a country, culture, and language that is foreign to us both.