Purity Retreat Update

Praise the Lord with me for a wonderful weekend with almost 30 girls and women from my church here in Tirana. On Sunday morning we returned from a weekend retreat focused on the subject of sexual purity before marriage. The “Pure Freedom” retreat was a huge success, spiritually and logistically!! It will be difficult for me relay to you all the answers to prayer! There are so many!

We had about 19 girls (ages 12-33!), 7 “Spiritual Moms”, 2 Czech speakers, 1 organizer (me), and 2 babies! The girls were divided into small groups according to their ages and assigned to a Spiritual Mom. The Spiritual Moms are older (single or married) women that share their lives, hearts, and testimonies of struggles and triumphs in purity. The idea of spiritual motherhood was very important as we talked about issues of purity, in keeping with 1 Timothy 2.

Jana and Katka (our two guest speakers from the Czech Republic) did an awesome job
teaching us biblical principles. They taught in creative ways that really captured our attention. The girls were able to learn in many settings and many ways: small group discussions, large group discussions, alone/quiet times, and one-on-one with Jana and me.

I don’t hesitate to say that I think the retreat was life-changing for each one of us! Most of the girls have never received instruction in the issue of purity, let alone from trusted Christian women! They were eager to open up and share their lives with us.

The most powerful part of the whole weekend for me personally was the very last session on Saturday night. Jana told us a story of a little girl who asked her father for a string of pearls…
Her father gave her a string of fake pearls and the little girl treasured them for years. She loved them. One day some years later, without giving her a reason her father asked her if he could have the pearls back. The little girl was very hesitant and very sad. She clutched her pearls tightly, tears brimming in her eyes. Slowly, sadly, her father started to turn away. But the little girl suddenly ran to him, holding the pearls out to him in her open palm. The father smiled, hugged her, and took the pearls from her hand. Then he reached into his pocket and handed her a beautiful, priceless string of real pearls. “I just needed to know that you trust me,” he told his daughter, with love in his eyes. The little girl could not believe her eyes, and wondered why she was so hesitant to trust her father in the first place!

Jana told us that we also treasure “fake pearls” in our lives when real pearls are offered to us! Specifically, she mentioned the love that we females have for external beauty, attention of the opposite sex, fashion, the fleeting comfort of being in dating relationships, etc. These are all things that Satan uses to compete for our affection for Jesus, himself – the valuable real Pearl. Jana gave us each a piece of paper with this phrase written on it: “Everything costs something. One Thing costs everything.” Can you guess what this means?! The girls and the Spiritual Moms were each given time to spend time alone with Jesus, and they were asked to pray about what the “fake pearls” might be in their own lives and write it down on the piece of paper. Then, if they wanted to and in their own time, they were to come to a special room where Jana and I each sat. They gave us their “fake pearls” in exchange for a real pearl necklace! (Of course, we didn’t read the papers, it was only between them and God.) This whole exercise was really very powerful for the girls. Almost all of the girls walked into the room with tears already in their eyes, and it was very obvious that they had spent some meaningful, introspective time with the Lord! The Holy Spirit had spoken to each of them in his quiet voice, and they were listening! Of course, after having talked with and prayed for each girl individually in that room, I didn’t have dry eyes either. I prayed with each girl to withstand in the face of temptations, to remain pure, to choose to please the Lord when she is faced with a choice, that the Lord would provide her with a Christian husband in his own good timing, and that she would love and trust him with her whole heart. What a blessing!!!!

Here are some comments that were made to me during and after that last session:
“Thank you so much for organizing this retreat. I’ve never been taught these things, and I am so thankful that I have learned how to please God with my thoughts and actions.”
“You truly are my spiritual mom! Even though you don’t know, I look up to you in so many ways. Thank you for this amazing retreat.”
From a Spiritual Mom: “Even though I am much older than you, I look up to you in the Lord. Age is nothing between us, and I am so thankful for your example. You challenge me.”
“I’ve been to lots of other retreats, but nothing like this! Thank you for doing this retreat!”
“This time has helped me to make some big decisions in my life right now. Thank you for teaching us.”
Also from a Spiritual Mom: “I’ve never been able to talk with my daughter about issues of sex and purity. Now I think we can have a start. Thank you!”
“ I didn’t know all these things were written in the Bible! Thank you for teaching us biblical truths and for being patient with us.”
“I realize now that I have been living a life that seems pure on the outside, but my thoughts have not been pleasing to the Lord. I didn’t even realize this. Thank you for teaching us.”


I truly, truly, truly thank you (from the bottom of my heart!) for all your faithful prayers for this retreat!! Every detail was taken care of by the Lord, and it was incredibly beneficial for each person there! I am still recovering from the physical and emotional demands of the weekend – but I am even praising the Lord for that because he sustained me through it all. Having an 8-month old and hosting a retreat was not easy, but I have so much joy right now! I thank the Lord for each one of you. There were probably close to 200 women praying for this retreat!! I felt so confident going into it because of that.

I really would appreciate your prayers in the future for this Purity Ministry in Albania. I have already had 3 (three!!) other Albanian churches ask me (unsolicited) if they could have a similar retreat for the girls in their church. And they asked me before we even had our retreat!! So already this type of ministry seems to be taking off, and I need LOTS of wisdom and direction (and energy!).

Please enjoy the pictures below! Along with being a mom and the organizer, I was also the photographer, so there are no pictures of me, unfortunately! But I promise, I was there ☺



One of the small group presentations:

Small group discussion under the olive trees:

My dear friend, Lizzy, and her little Daniel:

The tea party:




Two Spiritual Moms: Rose (an American of Albanian descent) and Chelle (my teammate and good friend and my own personal spiritual mom here!):


The whole group. I love these girls!!







Vali, a Spiritual Mom, with my Samuel. She was a great "real" mom for the weekend so I could focus on lots of the logistics of the weekend. I am so thankful for her!


Familiar faces you might recognize: Fjori and Majlinda - I love them!


L-R: Alta, the translator for the weekend; Katka from Czech; Jana from Czech. Alta is from another city in Albania and helps to lead the youth group at her church. She wants to have a Purity Retreat for the girls in her youth group!