Where is your home?

Home is something that I have been contemplating lately since I have been away from my family for 6 months. Where is my home? More importantly how important is your home to you? Most of us live in comfortable houses with electricity, running water, and bathrooms. These are things that we take for granted every day. We store up our little treasures and keepsakes in our homes. We make memories in our homes with our families. When it is time to move to a new home we feel a little sad about leaving our home.

We work with the poor children of Kavaje. They recently have been kicked out of their homes and had to start over from scratch. The government has given them a shell of a building to rebuild their homes in. They have to take what they could salvage from their old homes and build new homes. They don't have electricity, water, or bathrooms. 

Irena & Moza

Irena and her daughter Moza invited me into their home. They were very excited to show me what they had done with their house. One bed, one old sofa and a small shelf was all that they had but the house was clean and they were very grateful. We take lots of pride in our house. Ultimately our house is not here on earth. Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20, So, store up your treasures in heaven! 

Things are going very well with the ministry of Kavaje. We currently do not have a building to have the kids club in but we are meeting outside for now. Our main focus for the month is to help the families with physical labor and encourage them. Arian did take time this week to sing songs with the children and play a little bit of soccer with the boys. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time! 
The church of Kavaje is growing as well. We have for the past two weeks had 20 people attending the church service. They are growing in faith as well. It is amazing how this small church helps and serves each other. They treat each other like family. 

The ministry of Durres is going good as well. We have many people who are wanting to be baptized in the sea when the weather gets a little warmer. Praise God for the spiritual growth of the church! Thank you for your prayers!

Member Spotlight: 
This week our member spotlight is for Rozeta. Rozeta is very new in her faith and has been coming to the church in Kavaje for about a year. She is very excited to tell people that she is a Christian now. She has yet to be baptized but we are praying for her to know the Lord as her personal savior and be baptized soon. Rozetta lives with her brother and takes care of his two children Amanda and Veri. Rozeta always has a great personality, smile, and loves Jesus! Help us in praying for Rozeta and her salvation. 

Praises/ Prayers: 
* Pray for Ilir and his family they attend the church in Kavaje. Ilir's father passed away.  
* Pray for continual spiritual growth in the church. 
* Continue to pray for Juli, he is now in Turkey on the mission field. 
* Pray for Stefanie as she continues her pregnancy now 6 months!  


We would love to hear from you! God bless!
Serving in His name, 
Arian & Stefanie Kosta
kkdurres@gmail.com
Address: L3 Rr Skenderbej AP:1043 Durres, Albania 

If you would like be added to our email list please email us!    

   

 

Puppet on a String

About a month ago we saw a street performer with a puppet singing and dancing. We stopped and were amazed of the creativity and talent of this street performer. The man holding the puppet had the biggest smile on his face as he made the puppet play the piano and even kiss a small child. There was so much fun and joy that you were fully captivated.
I want to be a puppet on a string for God. I want God to look down and smile because I am doing His work with His help and guiding hand. I want people to be captivated by what God is doing in my life. But sin causes us to break free from this love that God gives us and get caught up in the sins of this world. We get tied up and led by worldly strings. Even in our house we allow sin to creep in. Bad words, sex, and materialism fills our television screens every day. As you walk down the street in Albania you are bombarded by casinos and sport gambling. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith. 1 Peter 5:8-9 We all have a choice to make and I choose to be God's puppet lead by His loving hand!

God's hand is guiding us every step of the way and every day we see the proof! Every Wednesday we go to the old home to have a bible study with the residents. Usually we have 10 residents who come to the bible study. We go and visit the other 40 residents after the bible study and take them a snack and ask them how they are doing. Fatmir is one of the residents there and he has many muslim pictures and writing all over the wall in his room but we continue to tell him that God loves him. A couple of weeks ago he was having a problem with his bladder and one of the residents told him that he needed to ask Arian for prayer. That week when we went to his room he told Arian that he wanted prayer and please pray to Allah. Arian told him that he only believed in God and he would only pray to the one true God. Fatmire said ok and Arian prayed for him. Now Fatmir is asking more about our God and wants to know more and more. Praise God that a door was opened to speak the word of God to Fatmir. Please help us in praying for his salvation.

God is also blessing us with the growth of the church. Since many of the new people do not know about Christianity or the Bible Arian has started a new class about Christianity. We are very excited about this class and every week we have 1-3 people in attendance. Jako who is 15 has been coming very faithfully and is very interested in the word of God.

Member Spotlight:
This week I would like to tell you about Drita. Drita has been so faithful in letting us use her house for the home church in Kavaje. Now Praise God we are in a building but Drita is still very faithful and helpful in preparing communion and getting things ready for the church service. Drita has  two adult children Ervin and Ornella and a daughter Ana who is handicapped that is 18 years old.  She also has two grandchildren Romina and Jonny. Drita just had a birthday January 31st and turned 51. We are very happy for Drita and pray that God continues to bless her for many more years. We are very blessed to have Drita in the church!

Praises/ Prayers: 
* Continue to pray for Klara. She is still waiting on word from the doctor. She is currently in the hospital getting blood treatments. 
* Pray for continual spiritual growth in the church. 
* Continue to pray for Juli as he is in school, he will be going on a mission trip 
      to Turkey Feb. 17th.


We would love to hear from you! God bless!
Serving in His name, 
Arian & Stefanie Kosta
kkdurres@gmail.com
Address: L3 Rr Skenderbej AP:1043 Durres, Albania 

If you would like be added to our email list please email us!