Thanksgiving

Family Picture!

Here is our most recent family picture, which was taken in Dubrovnik, Croatia! Go to our kids' blog for more Dubrovnik pix.

Pictures from Easter

Justin with all the kids on our American team...Mommy and "Een"
Baptism #1
Baptism #2
Testimony and singing

Wow - a full weekend

I don't even know where to start with how to update you on everything that happened this past weekend. It has been a blur of activity. But each day was such a blessing!

On Good Friday, we had a very special service at The Refuge for our youth. After Justin shared a bit about the purpose and meaning of communion, the students were invited to spend some quiet reflection time alone with God, writing down their confessions on a piece of paper. Then they nailed their "sins" to a cross. After that they took communion by "intinction" (a harkening back to my Wheaton College days). This very experiential and visual way of confession is powerful, and I think the students really appreciated the solemnity of it.

On Saturday, our 180 Gathering (our monthly evangelistic meeting) met for a special Easter service. Justin, Fation, and Andi worked hard putting together a video incorporating interviews they conducted around Tirana. They asked the questions Who is Jesus? Did Jesus die on a cross? Did Jesus rise from the dead? and Where will you go when you die? Then the questions were answered in the video by clips from The Passion of the Christ and Scripture verses. It was very moving and very eye-opening to all the visitors that were present. Fation then presented the gospel.

On Sunday, of course we celebrated our risen Savior with the rest of the Church here. After the service, two ladies were baptized.

Monday was an especially neat day for me (Gretchen). I organized a one-day retreat for the youth girls on the topic of "Godly Beauty". It was really wonderful to be with the girls for a solid 7 hours and talk about lots of things. Jayne (volunteer youth leader) spoke about "Women were created to be feminine, beautiful, and for God's glory". I spoke on the topic of worldly beauty vs. Godly beauty. We spent a lot of time talking about modesty, too. This retreat was an extension of the Purity Ministry, and I hope that this kind of retreat can happen in more churches more often!

Thanks for checking our blog - we really appreciate you and thank you for all your prayers and support!!!

Jesus Loves Me

This afternoon I was sitting in the middle of lots of teenagers at our evangelistic outreach. Justin created a video especially for this Easter event, and scenes from The Passion of the Christ were appearing on the huge screen. Samuel was sitting on my lap, watching along with the rest of us.

I whispered into his ear, "Samuel, what happened on the cross?"
Samuel: "Jesus loves me."

That's exactly what happened on the cross! And so sweet to hear "from the mouths of babes".

And Can It Be?

Pondering the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ this week, this song has been on my mind.

And can it be that I should gain,
An interest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me who caused His pain;
For me who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?

He left His Father's throne above,
so free, so infinite His grace!
Emptied Himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.
'Tis mercy all, immense and free.
For, O my God, it found out me.

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
fast bound in sin and nature's night.
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray.
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.
My chains fell off, my heart was free.
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine.
Alive in Him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ, my own.

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?

Easter Weekend

This weekend for us is a big weekend. There is a lot happening and we would really appreciate you prayers as there is a lot of evangelistic opportunities.

Here is what is going on...

Friday Night: Our church breaks up into small groups and goes to different peoples houses. This is a time of reflection, and celebration for what Christ has done for us, and it is also a time us to share in the Lord's Table. We have some of the youth group coming to our house for this.

On Saturday at 3:00pm: We have our 180 Gathering event. This is our once a month evangelistic outreach that we do at the youth center. A few weeks ago a group of students went out in the streets of Tirana and interviewed some people on camera. They asked them 5 questions.
1. Does God exist?
2. Who is Jesus?
3. Did Jesus die on the Cross?
4. Did Jesus raise from the died?
5. Where are you going when you die?

All the people that we interviewed did not know the right answer. In fact some of people that we interviewed did not even know who Jesus was. We had a chance to share Christ with all of them before we let them go.

Sunday Morning: Our church is having one big service at a hotel near by, we rent out a room once a month so we can meet together (we currently have three services). Easter morning will be a time of testimonies, baptism and celebrating the Good News. There will be many new people there on that morning.

Monday Retreat: On Monday Gretchen will be bringing all the girls on a day retreat to talk about and fight for purity with the girls in our youth group. She has been working hard these past few weeks to get this ready. Pray that God would honor their time together, and that many of the girls come out renewed and ready to continue to fight that battle.

Thanks for praying!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I want to imagine heaven

How do you imagine heaven? Or don't you? That is precisely my problem. I (Gretchen) don't imagine heaven often enough. I am tooooo earthly-minded. I am so focused on the thousand little tasks I do throughout my day, my eyes pointed downward - toward my toddler and infant.

Justin and I started reading the book Heaven (by Randy Alcorn) together. And wow, what a breath of fresh air. To force myself to come to terms with the fact that the way I imagine has absolutely no biblical basis whatsoever! I picture Jesus on a throne and all the saints are surrounding the throne, singing, singing, singing. There are some angels flying overhead, and they're singing, too. And we all just sing. For eternity.

And I realized something. We as adults are not in the habit of exercising our imaginations. At least I'm not. Maybe you are. I remember when I was little and I used to play with my sisters. And we always had to decide what to "play" - store, house, tea party, bank... And we would insert ourselves into those scenarios, and our imaginations were so strong that we actually got excited about the corresponding real world opportunities!

If only I could abandon my shallow and boring and lifeless picture of heaven! After having read only the first couple chapters of Heaven that is exactly what is happening!

One of the girls in our youth group, Jona, recently read Alcorn's book. It had such an impact on her that she suggested to Justin and me that we do a Winter youth group retreat on the topic of heaven. We thought that was a great idea!! We are currently trying to find a venue for a retreat. So, please pray for this endeavor!


Oh yeah, and Happy Halloween!

Thankful

We apologize for the lack of posts recently! It just seems that this season of the year always flies by!! We are so thankful for you regular blog readers and will try to be more faithful in the future to our at-least-once-a-week-post promise!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving here celebrated with American, Albanian, and Korean members of our church. It was so good to gather together, enjoy good food, share what our hearts are thankful for, and sing together. There were about 40 of us gathered together in a large restaurant, sharing our potluck style meal. Thanksgiving is my (Gretchen’s) favorite holiday as it always reminds me of wonderful family reunions that took place in my family every year for 25 years! The last 2 years I have not been able to make it, but my heart is still thankful for such a wonderful Christian heritage.

Even though the Thanksgiving holiday is over, and we are all looking forward to Christmas, I thought I would share something, rather someone, that I am extremely thankful for. Tomorrow (December 3) marks the one year anniversary of my grandmother’s going to heaven. Athalda (Addy) Mull is still—and will always be—one of my heroes in the faith. Her life, perseverance, joy, character, diverse interests, intense love for individuals, her undying service to Jesus, were like a drink offering poured out to the Lord. Her words were generous and encouraging until the end, although made child-like by debilitating strokes in the end of her earthly life. To me her life was the perfect picture of one of my favorite summarizations of the Christian life found in 2 Corinthians 4. Here is the text, verses 11-16:

“For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”

Ask anyone who knew her – as Addy, Mom, or Grammie. Her abiding joy was Christ. Her mortal body certainly wasted away, slowly and painfully at times. Yet it was ever so clear that her inner spirit was being renewed day by day as she got closer and closer to gaining Christ in her death.

Thank you, Grammie, for your example in the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for such a great cloud of witnesses that surrounds me and has gone before me. Like Addy Mull, “let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”. (Hebrews 12:1)