I haven't blogged for a while - to put it bluntly, I haven't made time for it. However, I felt that the last week warranted a bit more of an effort.
Yesterday, I returned from an 8 day tour in Albania with the Kerith team which was utterly incredible. But the point of this blog isn't really to talk about what we did. If you are looking for that sort of information, Stuart explains it brilliantly in his own blog - click here to read that.
Instead, I wanted to keep things short and talk about a song that we sung at church, entitled "Came to the Rescue" by Hillsong United. In the refrain, the lyrics proclaim the following:
In my life, be lifted high
In our world, be lifted high
In our love, be lifted high
The highlighted line is what particularly spoke to me today. We had the immeasurable privilege of singing four of our own Kerith Worship songs entirely in Albanian. As one of the songwriters at Kerith Community Church, words can't really explain what an honour that is. We got to live out that highlighted lyric in an entirely new way. A short distance from the enormous lake, and with the breathtaking mountains that surround Pogradec as our backdrop, we worshipped Jesus with brothers and sisters from an entirely different culture. I loved that, whilst we spoke two very different languages, we shared the incredible understanding of the joy of salvation.
Stuart mentioned some of the statistics - I pray that we see lasting fruit in Albania; that hundreds, thousands, millions of lives are transformed in the country and throughout the world. I pray that I can continue to play the part that God has given me in this world, fulfilling some minuscule contribution to the Great Commission and becoming more like Jesus in my journey to achieve it.
Please pray for Albania too - I truly believe that God has big plans for the country.
