Blast from the Past

When I left Albania as a child 14 years ago, I wondered if I would ever return. At that time, rebel forces were marching across the country and were just days away from taking Korca. As I fled my home and the people I loved, I remember looking up to the mountains above the city and finding comfort in the words of the psalmist:

"I lift my eyes up to the mountains -- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth" (Ps. 121:1-2).

It's hard to believe that God has brought me back to Korca to make it my home once again. So much has changed since I left 14 years ago, mostly for the better. The city now boasts in the fact that it has running water and nicer cobblestones for the streets and even broadband internet! The church, too, has grown in leaps and bounds.

And yet the gospel has just barely begun to penetrate the hearts of a nation that had no Christian witness during its years under communism. Though a cross marks the top of the mountain above Korca, staking out a claim for the Orthodox Church, the truth is that people are just as lost as before. Except now they are growing blind to their need for Christ. As long as the communist regime squelched all religion, Albanians hungered for God. Now, so many are running after the things of this world -- money, power, pleasure -- and beginning to grow calloused to their need for a Savior.

So here we are, not knowing really what God wants to accomplish, but confidant that there is still work to be done.