Mission Possible Week 3 Village of Pojan


Mission Possible Week 3

Ministry in the Muslim Village of Pojan

As the Korçë team had their VBS, Cave Quest, this week, we left for the Muslim village of Pojan.  On our arrival we had a children's festival and the rest of the week we conducted a kids club, daily soccer camps for the boys, and ESL classes for the girls. 

The soccer camp started at 10:00 in the morning and just as if it was a pop group singing at a concert, these enthusiastic boys would gather at the gate every morning at 9:00. It was a delight to see all of the kids starting to gather so early and brought much joy to our hearts that they took such pleasure in it.  

The girls had lots of fun learning English and playing games at the same time. Even though both the soccer camp and the ESL classes were different from what we had been doing so far it did not exclude the Gospel.  We found out that all of the girls in the ESL class were from Muslim families, but many of them knew Christ as their Savior.


Kids Club to Muslim Kids in Pojan
On Thursday some of the team walked around the village of Pojan and prayed for the village.  On the way back to the house they stopped in the local store and one of the men that has become familiar with Paul said in his broken English, "Rain stop today.", but Paul heard, "Iran stop today."  So Paul thought that the man was talking about the World Cup and responded, "Oh, is Iran out of the World Cup?"  A lady in the store overheard the conversation and spoke to Paul in English and told him what the man actually said.  Paul was surprised that she knew English so well and asked where she learned and exchanged casual introductions. Paul then asked she if she died, if she knew she was going to heaven.  She said that she was a Muslim and believed that she was going to heaven because she goes to the mosque on Fridays and prays five times a day. I love how God sets up these divine opportunities.  Placing that man in the store, along with the lady at the perfect time for Paul and the team to come in and start a conversation.  Do you think that could have happened by chance?  It's only by God that chance happens.  He brings everything into place for these moments in time according to His will and plan. Paul shared the Gospel with her and she left deep in thought with the things she had just heard.

Please pray for fruit in the continuing ministry with the Albanian church plant team here in Pojan and for the VBS, evangelism in the gypsy neighborhoods, and the lady in the store, Katerina. - CA


Working Hard for the VBS
This trip has had a lot of great memories so far, but I’m going to share one of my favorites. So for the first 2 weeks in Korce we had been going around telling kids about a VBS they are doing at the church we have been working with. We had been having fun going around with friends and that was a great time of fellowship. It blew my mind how many kids showed up for the first day on Monday. There were 260 kids that showed up! I was so glad to see all the kids excited to learn about Jesus, and singing about Jesus. It made me very happy. I’m sad though because we had to leave for another town to do ministry. We don’t get to see how the whole thing turns out, but we get to hear on Sunday when we go back. I’m glad to see God working in Albania and I can’t wait to see how God’s will and His plan works for us here in Pojan. - Garrett


Citizenship
This week, as we were doing our group devotions, I was able to see a correlation between our devotions and our experience here in Albania. We have been studying Philippians on the trip and recently we looked at Philippians 3:20 which says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,“. This verse really speaks to me when it says “our citizenship is in heaven”. My thoughts were similar to what Pastor Powers was preaching before we left: We are citizens of heaven who are temporarily residing on earth. When I made this comparison in my mind, it reminded me of our present situation as Americans who are temporarily residing in Albania. When we walk down the street, people know that we are Americans because of what we wear, what we say, and how we act. It is natural for us to bring our American culture along with us as we serve here in Albania. It should be the same way with our heavenly citizenship. People should be able to look at us and know that we are members of God’s kingdom based on the way we act and the things that we say. We should naturally incorporate the culture of heaven into all that we do on earth. Recently, we were walking back from the market as a team. As we walked down the street, some of the Albanian kids with whom we have been working started to follow us. They followed us and talked to us all the way back to the house. This should also be the way it is with our heavenly citizenship. People should desire to follow us because of the way that we treat them. I love it when God is able to help us connect the dots of things that we think might be unrelated and show us how it all fits together. Please pray that we can continue to represent the Kingdom of God well as we serve the Albanian people. - Christian




ESL Ministry
Our first week in Pojan was a drastic change from Korçë. In Korçë we had to walk 15 minutes to ministry, but in Pojan most of our ministry is in the same place that we live. I think the most drastic change was the ministry we were doing. While the boys helped with a soccer camp, the girls lead ESL classes. Prior to the first class I was thinking that the girls weren’t going to know any English. Turns out most of them knew basic English, so we had to revamp our lessons for the rest of the week to help accommodate the wide variety of levels of the students. We started out with the basics and progressed on to more advanced English throughout the week. I even learned some things myself and found out that I don’t know English as well as I thought. When teaching the girls I tried my best not to say words strange like how I say the word "water." I even had the chance to share the gospel with a wordless bracelet and colors. Teaching ESL was probably one of my favorite ministries I have done in the three years I’ve been going on missions trips. I hope that God can continue to use me in this way on both the rest of Mission Possible and in the future. - Katie









Pojan Festival
God Uses All Things
This past week we have been doing a soccer camp at the indoor field which is adjacent to the house that we are staying in. And let me tell you, the potential for this ministry is beyond imagination. Almost every kid that I see walking around Pojan (which is the village where we are residing) has been to the camp. Pojan is a small village, but we had more than 45 kids (including boys and girls) make an appearance. By the way, soccer is by far the most played sport here. They live, breath, and love soccer in a way I have never seen. However, the bad thing is that they fight all the time. During a 2 hour camp, there is an average of 10 fights or skirmishes. On the third camp day (ironically), Toni, who is our host, shared the gospel with the kids. I also loved the way that he went about it. He used the colors to talk about the cross, burial, and resurrection, but he didn’t just use a book of colors. He used a soccer ball which had all the colors imprinted around the ball. So he shared the gospel with the kids while relating to them with the soccer ball. God is working in amazing ways so please pray for the ministry and the kids! We are so blessed to be here and we are eagerly waiting to tell you all about it when we get home! - Jonathan


Gospel Presentation to the Soccer Camp on the Last Day


Kids Club










Our new friends


ESL Class
Greetings

Bingo
Learning Colors



Animal Game
Alphabet




Sites of Pojan




































































Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mission Possible Week 4 Pojan & Greece

Meet the Team!

Mission Possible Week 1 Korca