Why Do You Have Jesus?

Today I want to tell you a story about a man my team met in Albania. For the sake of privacy we will call him Abe. Now before I tell you about Abe I’ll set the scene for you.

When we got to Tirana we moved into the “Art Hostel”. The idea of living in a hostel wasn’t super appealing at first, but it quickly began to feel like home. We got to make friends with the guests that were living there longer term as well as people that worked around the hostel. Ministry quickly moved into our home in addition to our time sharing the gospel on the streets of Tirana. I am really thankful for our time at the art hostel and the friendships we made. It was a place of refuge for our team during our time in Albania.

As we established a routine, our walk in the mornings to start ministry was the same every day. We quickly made friends with all of the shop owners along the way from fruit stand owners to craft store workers along this road was Abe. Abe owns a small shop with snacks, and cigarettes (fairly common in this area of the world). Over the course of our time in Albania I had the absolute privilege of watching the grounds of the mission field on this very road soften.

One day as some of my team was coming home Liv and I stopped to grab a coke for Carol at Abe’s store. He pulled out his google translate and the first thing that he said to us was “Why do you have Jesus?” I was shocked at the direct opening that the Lord gave us in this moment. Google translate doesn’t work well at all with the Albanian language so we kept it sweet and simple. We talked about the joy of the Lord and the friendship of the Lord. Eventually we ended up asking him “Do you have a bible?” He responded “no, I have a Quran”. We asked him if he would like a bible and he replied “sure”. After we finished our conversation we went on our way.

When we got home we were greeted by one of our hostel friends who attends the church that is on the top floor of our hostel. We asked him if he knew where we could get a bible in the Albanian language and he ran upstairs and returned with a copy and handed it to me. I was so excited!

I had each of my teammates sign it and write verses that they liked in the front of the bible. I delivered the Bible to Abe’s wife because he wasn’t there when I stopped by. I decided to return later to talk to him about the Bible. As soon as I walked in the store he pulled out the bible with a big smile on his face. He asked me “Is the story real?” I told him that it was and he asked “are you sure?”  and I said “yes of course!”

A couple of days later I went to visit him and I asked him if he was reading the bible. He told me that he was and that he really liked the story. After that he did something that encouraged me in my own faith. He pulled out a newspaper and a history book on Albania. He typed into google translate “Jesus is history too”. I was blown away. God used a muslim man to remind me that my faith is also history. Thinking of the conversations that I had with Abe in his little snack store will always be my favorite memories of Albania.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account

Hebrews 4:12-13 ESV