Cheon Il Guk Albania Missionaries: go out and find what God is guiding us to

Përshëndetje! Si Jeni?

During our first week of outreach to the people here in Albania, our CARP center leader, Ardit shared with us some words of wisdom, “Knock and it will be opened.” God has so much prepared for us missionaries… all we need to do is to go out and find what God is guiding us towards.

We were all a bit nervous as we started off. The people here are very different from the people we are used to seeing in America, and it was such a different atmosphere for us to be in.

However, every morning, we were given words of inspiration such as, “knock and it will be opened.” This helped us to stay focused on a higher purpose and reach out to people. After a while, we were very moved by the friendly and kind hearts of the people here in Albania.

We have learned a lot so far as we started our mission work. It is a really small country, but the first step

we took was to have trust in God in what He has prepared - for each of us, for Albania, and how we can become trustworthy people.

The gentleman sitting on the bench is answering our anketë, which includes seven fundamental questions, such as: “what are some good qualities you can offer to help society?” or “How happy are you?” After the survey, we would share about CARP; how it is a group that supports individual growth. (From the left is Chris, on the right is Anduel.)

Our second week of witnessing was amazing! It was a time centered more around the team. We took time to learn and understand more about ourselves, each other, how we can support each other, and how we can improve. Some words of inspiration were chosen to center ourselves on:

“He would look at people and say, ‘I will do the best I can for these people. How will I make them happy and joyful?’ He would keep thinking about how he would do this. Eventually he would find a way to be good to them.

We say God is all-powerful and all-knowing, that He knows everything and can do everything. But such a concept can only be explained through love. God is such a being.

We also want to become all-powerful and all-knowing, the owners of true love. “ — Mrs. Gil Ja Sa Eu

The message we received from these words was a focus we had as a team, and throughout this week it was something we held onto and practiced, whether it was in the CARP center, with the CARP members, or with the new guests that we met and talked to. There was a lot we recognized about our relationships, our love, how important we each are as a team being here in Albania, and how important Albania is to God.

This week, we also had our very first guest come in! It was a guest Chris invited, and he gave an introduction to him about W-CARP.

“This was such a new experience because this was my first time ever to give the introduction of CARP to a guest so I was nervous but what kept me calm and have confidence was knowing that spirit world is working and guiding me and my guest.” — - Chritopher (3rd year on GPA, 1st year as CIGYM)

There is only four more days left till the long-awaited event: the essay contest and celebration of the 5th anniversary of second Tirana center. The essay was on the topic of being, “A Peace-Loving Global citizen.”

There was a lot of preparation happening during these few days. Our team supported the CARP center and members through passing out flyers and inviting more guests to come. We also practiced singing, “The Rose,” as a performance we wanted to give during the 5th anniversary celebration.

It was such a beautiful and creative event!

There were many young people like high school students, university students, and families participating in this event to celebrate peace. It was very hopeful and heart-warming to see, and be a part of. There were lots of performances as well - traditional Albanian dances and songs, singing, opera, violin… many musical and artistic performances! What a great way to bring people together like one big family! Here is a quote from one of our emcees at the event:

“I was very happy to see a lot of the students from my high school come to the event, because the people in my neighborhood are very traditional (north of albania; Paskuqan) so they are not so open-minded to new things so it’s very hard to reach out to the people there. But we did something new and reached out to the high school, which was easier to share with them and invite them.” — Besa (she is a CARP member for 9 years, she was the emcee at this 5th anniversary event with Ardit)

Thank you! Felimindarit! See you soon!