Psalm 92:4-5"For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. How great are your works, O Lord, how profound your thoughts!"
Let me introduce you to a friend of mine, Diti (pronounced (Dee-tee). This picture was taken at a camp our youth ministry went too this summer; we were just having some fun!
I first met Diti at a sports outreach that our church held in 2007. At first he really connected with my younger brother, Jesse, so that was how I first met him. After the outreach we had for two weeks, he started to attend our weekly youth meetings that we began to hold in his neighborhood. I'm not going to lie, I didn't put much hope in Diti. The guy was crazy! He had almost no attention span and didn't seem to serious about anything. If anything, I would have classified him as a distraction to our meetings rather than boost to them. Though I saw Diti like this, God saw him a little different, or should I say a lot?
Diti eventually accepted Christ into his life, and slowly but surely this guy has become, in my opinion, the most spiritually mature Albanian guys in our youth ministry. For example....
-During camp, he wanted to get up early with me so we could read God's Word and pray together.
-He has shared his faith in Jesus Christ with his family and quiet a bit of his friends (many of the guys in our ministry, from what I understand when I talk to them, have not done this much).
-He has asked to meet up with me to talk about God's Word and spiritual issues.
-He is almost the most quiet, attentive guy in our youth meetings (quiet in a respectful way when other people are talking or sharing their heart).
-He has began to stop smoking after smoking about 10 cigarettes a day (he even acknowledges that God has given him the strength and is the secret to the success he's had).
Who God chooses to serve Him in His kingdom is beyond me. Those who I sign off as hopeless, He grabs and transforms.
Isaiah 55:8-9
"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'"
So there's my Albanian friend...onto my American one! This is Andrew...
I first met Andrew at a Servanthood project in....2004....maybe 2005. Anyways, he was the lead man for the basketball camp that we were going to run for younger kids. I was assigned to serve at the basketball camp, so he ended up being my leader. I've always said that basketball draws people together, and that's pretty much what happened. We would be playing ball a bunch, and I would be thinking "Dang, he's good!"
Whenever a pick up game was happening I was hopeing Andrew would be there to play.
So that's how I first met him, and really the only time I saw him during the year. I would chat with him on instant messenger quiet a bit(he claims it was always about girls but I don't believe him), and we kept in touch that way for the most part.
Then my family moved to Tirana, Albania. We would still chat every now and then but the thing I remember was that almost after every conversation, actually I think it was every conversation, he would ask me for updated prayer requests and how the past ones were going. Sometimes to help myself get through a hard time, I would count the amount of people who said they were praying for me regularly, and Andrew's name always came up. The impact his prayers have had on me has been great.
During our conversations, I would occasionally joke about how he would end up in Albania someday teaching at my school. I never was too serious, not until the beginning of this year. The need for teachers at our school was great (still is if your interested!). We were losing our only male teacher because he was being required by his church to come back stateside for a year before heading back full time. One day something just clicked...."Andrew!" So I asked him in an email if he was interested....pretty sure his first response to me was "Are you serious this time?" The result, Andrew is now in Albania short term for a year and will be teaching at my school. How crazy is that? I met the guy and hung out with him for a week, and I kept in contact only through instant messager being he was a student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. And now he is serving God in the same city and country as my family?
Let's look at that verse from Isaiah again....
"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'"
THIS IS WHAT OUR GOD HAS DONE!
Go God!!
ReplyDelete