A Christmas Story

This past Saturday my family was celebrating Christmas all together. I had just bought a webcam, so I was excited about being able to be seen my family. My brother's fiancée, Karla, had also downloaded Skype (the greatest invention ever made!) and borrowed someone's webcam- I was going to be able to "be there" as they celebrated!!! One problem...my electricity! It doesn't like to be on very much, and there is pretty much no way to predict when it will be off and when it will come on.

As I previously told you, I am currently reading in Exodus. Well, that morning I was reading about God's provision: manna, quail, etc. He gave them just what they needed- no more and no less. Just enough. My heart began to turn to my own situation- oftentimes, my lack of trust in Him. I like to insulate myself with money, people, and many other things so I don't ever have to fall flat on my face. I love to pray, but most of the time I don't pray big prayers. What I mean by that is: miracle, God gets all the glory prayers! Those are hard, because it takes child-like trust and makes you so vulnerable. But how God longs for us to pray those prayers! To show Him big, majestic, and so beautiful to this world that needs Him! He longs to provide us just what we need, when we need it, no more, and no less. Dependence upon Him; such a beautiful thing! Well, Saturday morning, I decided to pray one of those prayers; to go out on a limb and trust God fully and completely.

Here was my prayer: "God, you know my heart's desire. You know I desperately want to be there with my family as they celebrate Christmas. But You also know what I need. I trust in Your provisions. I know it is humanly impossible, but I am asking for the electricity to go on at 8pm when they first are getting together. I also pray for it to stay on for a few hours, so we can celebrate together. I trust You fully; if this is what my heart needs, You will indeed provide that! I surrender my desire to control the situation or to worry about it to You.”

At one minute past eight o’clock my electricity turned on! The funny thing, I wasn’t even too shocked by that. He knew what I needed, when I needed it, and He got the glory out of the situation. If my story stopped there, it would still be amazing, but God kept going that night; making Himself so visible to me, my family, my roommates, and now everyone who reads this. My electricity stayed on for a few hours while they opened gifts, chatted with me, and showed me things up close (haha- Skype is amazing, did I already say that?). Then, all the sudden, the lights began to flicker and fade on and off. First off, that never happens. When the power goes off, it just switches off suddenly, without a warning. A few minutes later, the lights just faded out all throughout the house. The only thing remaining on was my little lamp next to my computer and my computer…with my internet! That lasted for about 20 minutes, and finally I called my sister over to see what had happened. I panned the camera across the pitch black house and then back to my well-lit area. We both just had to laugh at how utterly amazing God is. It eventually shut off completely, but not before I had a chance to tell them I loved them and said goodbye once more.

It is such a crazy story, but reality is that it shouldn’t be. God longs to do things like that all the time. We don’t ask, and we don’t believe He can and will do those sorts of things. But why don’t we believe? Is it because we lose control of things? Is it because we don’t truly, in our heart of hearts, know that He desires our best at all times? He isn’t trying to ruin our day, rain on our parade, or be a party-pooper. But I think most of us think that. If I surrender everything to God, He will take away the things that I truly want, and give me something terrible. Yes, He does prune us and mold us (Oh, how I know that as of late!), but it is for our good. After every thing that God has pruned and pried from my hands during the past months, I have to say that it was for my good. And not only was it for my good, it was something I prayed about earlier. God, I want to be more humble. Father, help me to be a better communicator. My Abba, how I long to be like you- full of grace, compassion, and love. Teach me, teach me! Rip away Christina, and replace it with more of You. I prayed those things, and He is answering them. He is faithful; maybe not in ways that I understand or even like. But His is faithful!

So, I hope my story touches your heart, and gives you a better picture of who it is that we love and serve. I pray He gives you faith, just the size of a mustard see, to believe He loves you and wants your best at all times. Will you surrender to His love and His plan? I sure hope I can do that more and more each day!

May God richly bless your next year: Happy New Year 2009!!!

Winter Has Struck...

And for living in Kosova, even though it is the 21st century, that means there is little power most of the day (though it does like to be on all night). So, bear with me as I can't respond to emails very quickly, blog as much, or even look presentable in the pictures that I do post (haha). I pray for you all a lot and think of you just as much. Hope you are doing well! Much love from half way around the world...

~Immanuel~

Wanted to share my Christmas with you this way,

since I couldn't be there in person.

This is my friend's Father of Charlie Brown's

Christmas tree- best Kosova has to offer (well, that they will sell you!).

My roommates and I on Christmas.

Christmas dinner- most things were a "first" for me, but that made it special!


Still no snow that will stick in the city, just on the mountains.


Operation Christmas Child shoebox delivery with the Samaritan Purse. It was pretty hectic and chaotic, but it was a good experience.

Waiting in the rain...so cold!

The teachers and school staff- building relationships for future ministry there. :)

The shepherds we made for the nativity in Art class- he's my favorite artist!

Half the children that came for our Christmas program...and to get a present. Over 300 came- it was exciting, but super stressful.

We had a drama and sang some Christmas songs.

My team leader's face in the back mirrored

how all of us felt!

The girls from our meeting preparing for the drama they would do for the children.

After the children's meeting, we brought the girls to our house for a party. It was pretty much the biggest party flop in history! One of them stole my phone and the party turned into pretty much a police interrogation led by one of the older girls...diaster! Such a long, exhausting day.

He is the ONLY reason for celebrating-

He is all and He is in all!
Glory in the Highest: He is with us, Immanuel!

Hope you found more of Him this year

at Christmas...I sure did!

Wilderness Journeys

This morning I was reading about the calling of Moses and the liberation of the Jews from Egypt. As I was reading, I kept being struck by the same thing through different portions of the story. Moses was a rescuer by nature- the Jewish slaves from the Egyptian taskmaster, the shepherdess' at the well, probably his own sheep during the 40 years he was working with them...But he was not leader material- he simply wasn't ready. So, God took him to the wilderness to train him and to grow him. Funny that even after all the years of pruning him, Moses still argued with God whether he was ready or not. God got angry with him, but He didn't give up on him. He used him in such a mighty way!
Then I was reading about the Jews, enslaved for hundreds of years to the Egyptians. They had been given massive promises by God, yet here they were: slaves. So, when Moses came on the scene, that was their mentality: a slave. I am pretty sure they didn't really want to be that (in fact it says that God heard their cries, begging for freedom from the oppression). But when freedom came, they didn't know how to be free. Their mind hadn't pictured it to be like that. I think when someone is under oppression or enslaved to something, the mind plays out this beautiful picture of freedom and joy. Truly it is, but what that picture is often lacking is responsibility. We want to ask and ask and knock and knock on God's door for things, but we forget to be seeking. That means taking action- we play an active role in being free! So, here the Jews were, finally free; it didn't take long for the rose colored glasses to disappear. Freedom sometimes is hard. It often means that you have to take trips to the wilderness to turn your complete focus onto the Freedom Giver. I am reminded of the passage in Hosea where it talks about God taking His child to the wilderness so He will no longer be called Master, but Husband; Beloved. That is a difficult, completely vulnerable place to be. The Jews weren’t willing to go there, so they paid the price by wandering around for another 40 years; trying to learn the same lesson.
So, where does that leave me? These past months have felt a bit like a wilderness. Last year I did a lot of asking and knocking on God’s door for things. I wasn’t willing to seek with all my heart though, and the answers He often gave me didn’t suit what I thought should be His answer. So, coming here was a cold, hard blow to my system. Was I really serious about the things I was asking for? Did I truly want those things enough to be like the persistent widow; knocking and knocking? Was I willing to give my whole heart to seek after Him and pursue Him at all costs? Step by step, day by day, ever so slowly I have been able to answer a resounding yes to each one of those. I want True Freedom and Joy at all costs. I want to be known by Him, to know Him, and to make Him known. That is my earnest heart’s desire. It has taken coming to the wilderness to find that out… but hey, after you get over the fact that you have to eat bread with every meal and often there is just a pillar of light for you to see by (might be stretching it for my candle...) and you have to wear the same clothes every day and sometimes there is no clean water to drink…it is a beautiful, amazing place to be!

Peja Facts

Just wanted to give y'all a quick glance at some things that depict the normal life here, but seem different to other cultures.

* If it doesn't snow much in the winter, there will be many shut offs of water during the summer time.
* It is rude to not stand to your feet when someone older than you enters the room.
* The electricity turns off many times each day, and everyone acts like nothing has happened. Life continues on as normal until it turns back on in a few hours.

* If it rains for many days, the tap water will be dirty. The water plant's filters get flooded and can't clean it all.

* Every time you enter a house or meeting place, you must remove your shoes! They think Americans are so dirty to wear their shoes inside someone’s home.
* It is common to cook over a gas stove, like the ones that you take camping. The electricity is off most of the day, so everyone is used to that. Plus it is so strong, things cook much faster.
* It is perfectly normal to throw your trash on the ground. In fact, you are extremely weird if you don't do so. Sadly, this beautiful city has many ugly sights because of that.
* It gets dark here at 4pm during the winter. Life pretty much stops for the locals then.
* Fruits and vegetables are seasonal. There is nowhere to buy strawberries other than the market for the three weeks they are in season during summer time.
* When you greet someone, you hold hands and kiss each other's cheeks three times if you aren't good friends and four if you are.
* The children wear their pajamas under all their clothes for the entire winter- you can often see them peeking out (so cute!).

* It is very much a male dominated society, so the boys get away with pretty much anything at home. The mothers wait on them hand and foot along with doing the same for the father- sickening!
* The children only go to school for four hours each day. There is not enough classroom space or teachers to go longer.
* Women rarely leave the house, only occasionally for special reasons.
* When you greet someone, you must ask about six questions: How are you? Are you good? What are you doing? Are you tired? How is your family? Is anything new?
* The answer for the above questions is always: Good. Yes. Nothing. A little. Good. Nothing much. (I am not joking! These are always the answers)
* Shoes are probably the most important part of the outfit, so you must have them clean. However, this is almost impossible since most roads are extremely dusty or unpaved.

* There is a 70% unemployment rate here.