Beautiful Feet

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news! Romans 10:15

I never thought feet were beautiful. In Albania with all the walking and dusty streets your feet get dirty fast but walking is the main means of transportation. We walk to Church, to meet people, to buy things, and even just for fun. As we walk we talk with our neighbors as we pass and be an example every where we go. It takes us twice as long to get somewhere because we stop to greet people along the way. In modern day society I feel like we are turning into a culture of hurry up and go with no time for talking to others. I encourage you to take a walk and greet those you meet. Say hello to your neighbors and get to know the people around you. Use those God given feet and share the good news of Christ!

With the help of God we are accomplishing goals and building the kingdom of God. We have started a men's bible study in Kavaje. Three or four men are meeting together weekly in the house of Drita. We thank God that Drita continues to be a blessing by allowing her house to be open to others. 

We have also found a good lead on a building for the church in Durres. Please pray that all will work out and we can raise the money that we need to be able to purchase a church. Our space now is very cramped and it would be nice not to waste God's money on rent. 

Here is a list of our weekly activities in the churches in Durres and Kavaje. Please pray for these meetings, to see growth spiritually and physically. 

Tuesday- 10am- Bible Study Durres

Wednesday- 11am- Bible Study at Old home- Kavaje   

                   1pm- Kids Club- Kavaje

                   4:30pm- Church- Kavaje

Thursday- 10am- Women's Bible Study- Durres

                4pm- Prayer meeting-Durres

Friday- 9:30am- Women's Bible Study-Kavaje

          10:30am- Men's Bible Study- Durres

Saturday- 4pm- Youth Group- Durres

Sunday-10am-Church- Durres

             3pm- Men's Bible Study- Kavaje

Especially pray for the Old home in Kavaje. They have a new director and the new director would like us to limit our services to twice a month. The residents on the other hand would like to see us more than once a week. He would also like for us to give monetary donations to the Old home. We would like to help them occasionally but our budget is very small. We do purchase snacks for all the residents once a week. Pray that the director would be more open to us.

Member Spotlight:

One family in the church in Kavaje is very near and dear to our hearts. Vathja (mom), Fabian (son), and Miranda (daughter) has been coming to the church in Kavaje for a while now. Vathja is serving the Lord with all her heart and wants to be baptized but is scared of what her husband would do. Please pray for her husband Gezim that he would be more open to coming to church and knowing Christ personally. The children come to kids club regularly and enjoy coming to church. Pray that this family continues to grow in the Lord.

Praises/ Prayers: 
*Please pray for Romi & Shpresa, wedding is March 16th. 

*Director of the Old home

*Funding of a new Church home for us.

*Praise David is doing well. He turned 9 months yesterday!

We would love to hear from you! God bless!

Serving in His name,
Arian & Stefanie Kosta
kkdurres@gmail.com
Address: L3 Rr Egnatia AP:1043 Durres, Albania

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

    

 

Be Still

Be Still....

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

I constantly need this verse. Be still..... sometimes it just doesn't exist.  With the pulls and tugs of every day life it is hard to keep up with what I have to do much less take time to be still. I thought in my singleness that I was so busy. Having a job and being active in church took up a lot of my time. Now with a husband, an 8 month old and full time ministry I scoff at the thought that I was busy then. Life at times pulls me in a million directions and it takes forever to get anything accomplished. Amazingly with the help of God things come together. I would love to have the time to be still but in actuality I would probably fall asleep if I had the chance. When I don't have the time to be still I want to try to mentally be still by having a calm mind by not worrying and thing of all the things I have to do. I want to find the time to take advantage of every moment, such as singing to my son while I am cooking, praying in the shower, and encouraging my husband while we walk from place to place. If you are like me I pray that you too make the time to mentally be still! 

We are very delighted that the church in Kavaje is growing. We had two new young men come to the church this week. We are also seeing spiritual growth. One family that was facing divorce has been reunited.  Drita, a faithful member of the church has been praying for her son Ervini and now he is coming to church. We love to see the Lord changing lives. We love this growing of the Lord in Kavaje especially when Kavaje is 99% muslim. What a Light to a Dark world! Please continue to pray for the Kavaje church.

We would like to share with your our Goals for 2014. Please pray for us to accomplish these goals this year.  

*Growth spiritually in the church in Durres and Kavaje. 

*People to confess Jesus as their savior and be baptized. 

*Elect a Deacon in the church in Durres and Kavaje. 

*Start English classes in Durres.

*Start a Kids club in Durres. 

*Start a men's Bible study in Kavaje.

*Purchase a building for the church in Durres. 

We have amazing news to share with you. Shpresa who is on our staff is engaged! We have been praying for a while for God to bring Shpresa a husband. Now prayers have been answered! Romi is a member of the church in Durres and has been helping us since April in Kavaje. Their plans are to get married in March. Since Shpresa's parents are diseased she has asked Arian and I to be her surrogate parents. She wants a simple church wedding and for Arian to marry them. We are very excited to have a new married couple at the church. 

Member Spotlight:

The member I want to share with you this week is Lume. She is a sweet spirit in the church of Kavaje. She always brings a smile to our face. Even though she is blind, she sees the world in perfect light, the light of God. She is always trying to make us laugh. Lume takes care of her ailing father who is now bed-ridden. She has a hard time affording the diapers that she needs to buy for him. Please pray for Lume and her dad. 

Praises/ Prayers: 
*Please pray for our Goals of 2014

*Pray for Lume and her dad

*Praise David is doing well. He will be 8 months on Monday!

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

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

   

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2014!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Greetings from our family and churches to yours this blessed season! We pray that in the new year God continues to bless you abundantly! 

We have been busy the past couple of weeks preparing for Christmas. Christmas is a very busy time of the year that can often overwhelm you easily. Don't forget the true reason for this season. 

We were very anxious in the arrival of Stefanie's parents. Unfortunately they could not come at this time. Stefanie's dad had to have heart surgery and now is doing well. We pray that they can come again at another time. 

We want to send a big THANK YOU to all who helped us with sending toys to the children of Kavaje. A special thank you to CEF Albania, McDonough Christian Church, First Christian Church Dalton, Ga and Keswick, Va, Horsepasture Christian Church and Fruit Cove Baptist Church! It was such a blessing to share with the kids who don't get to experience Christmas.

Here's some pictures from our Christmas adventures. 

Worship and Youth Drama:

Dance to "I Love Jesus" Dr. Nikolla even joined in on the fun!

 

Youth and Kids Church Picture and Whole Church Picture:

Gifts for the Kids:

Praises/ Prayers: 

*We are actively seeking another church building for our church in Durres. Please pray that God will lead us to one we can afford to buy. 
*Pray that God continues to grow the church and His Kingdom in 2014 in Albania. 

Merry Christmas from The Kostas

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

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

Always give Thanks!

Always give Thanks!

Rejoice always,  pray continually,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Now in this season of Thanksgiving we think about all the reasons we are thankful. God, family, friends, and ministry top my list of the things I am most thankful for. When I think about this verse from Thessalonians I wonder what Paul was thinking. I honestly would like to change the verse to say: Rejoice as much as possible, pray every time you think about it,  give thanks in most circumstances. This is something I can handle. Those words all, always, and continually are very hard for me at times. It is hard for me to rejoice when people are negative, Pray continually all day all the time, and give thanks in circumstances that are stressful. I need the constant reminder of this verse to keep me on track. My husband and I have this verse hanging over our bed and also in his office. No matter what happens we are certain of God's everlasting love and grace for us and we are so thankful of all of the many blessings that God has given to us. I encourage you not only to be thankful during this time but also every day of your life that God has given to you! 

We have many reasons to be thankful! God is hearing us and answering our prayers. Please continue to pray with us and for us! We have been praying for a growth with the youth. Now we are seeing this in the church in Durres. The youth meet every Saturday evening for a time of worship, prayer, lesson with accountability, and fellowship. The youth have been attending church more often and growing spiritually as well. We are so excited about this growth of the youth. On Sunday one of our youth Jak brought two of his friends to church to hear about the word of God. We pray that God continues this growth of the youth! 

Juli leading the Kids in Kavaje

Another answered prayer that we have is that Juli is now on staff with us. We are excited to have him and excited about how he can help us with the church of Kavaje. Juli graduated Bible school in May and is from Kavaje. He is ready to serve! 


Our third answer to prayer is that on October 27th we had our first baby dedication service. We were very excited to dedicate David to the Lord just as Hannah did for Samuel. Arian preached on baby dedication and then afterwards Dr. Nikolla lead the baby dedication service. We were also very excited that Arian's parents came with us to church that day. We pray every day for their salvation.

Baby Dedication with Arian's Parents

 

Praises/ Prayers: 
* Praise God for the growth of the youth! 
* Praise God for Juli now being a part of our staff.

* Praise God Stefanie's parents are coming for Christmas and New Years! What a blessing to us!  

* Pray for help in Kavaje to be able to lead more Bible studies with the believers of the church and start another Kids club in another neighborhood.  
* Pray for a bigger church space in Durres. 

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

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

  

What kind of tree are you?

 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Matthew 7:17

Trees in the mountains of America are absolutely beautiful this time of the year. It is nice to go out and gaze at all the beauty that God put into a simple tree. Fall is the time of the year that I really miss. Albania lacks the pumpkins, colorful trees, fall festivals, bonfires, hay rides and candy corn. This time of the year we do have nice citrus fruits ripening to enjoy. It is nice to go and pick the oranges and mandarins straight from the tree. I thought that you could automatically tell the bad trees from the good trees because of their fruit. This is not the case. We have trees here that have the best looking oranges but they are awful to eat. 

I believe that we have this same problem in the church. We have people who come to church, say the right things, and look the right way but on the inside they are missing the true meaning of Christ. Maybe they come to church to meet with their friends or to check off coming to church on their list of things to do to stay in good graces with God. Sometimes they come to have something to talk about or complain about at work the next day. We had some friends Pete & Liz Jones come from England last week. When we asked the about the churches in England they said that they are people who go to church but the churches are Dead. It is time we wake up and produce some good fruit! 

We are working our best to produce not only good fruit ourselves but also to help others to produce good fruit. We are very excited about being able to share with the old home in Kavaje. Pete was able to go with us and see what God is doing there. The residents at the old home are very grateful that we share a message and a snack with them every week. We hope to be able to provide thick socks and gloves for them for Christmas. Here are a few pictures from the old home. 

Member spotlight: 

Nena Urania: Nena Urnania is one of the residents of the old home. She has lived in the old home since she was 16. She is blind and had no one to take care of her. There was no place to go so she ended up at the old home. She has such a sweet spirit. She loves to lead the singing in the service and tell Arian which song she wants to sing next. She likes hearing about the bible and believes in Jesus with all her heart. We pray that God will continue to bless her. We thank God that she is in a place where she can be with her friends who take care of her. 

Pete & Liz with David

Praises/ Prayers: 
* David is teething and sick with a cold this week.
* Praise God for Pete & Liz and their encouragement to us this week! 

* Pray for help in Kavaje to be able to lead more Bible studies with the believers of the church and start another Kids club in another neighborhood. 

* Pray for a bigger church space in Durres. 

* Arian's uncle passed away this past week, his wife died only 3 months ago. Please pray especially for their children. It is very hard on them right now. 

 

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

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

    

 

Imitate Me

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. 
1 Corinthians 11:1

As new parents we are learning that babies learn by imitation. When we laugh, David laughs. When we smile, David smiles. We want to our best to imitate positive values, morals and standards for our son. He is always watching us to see what we will do next. 

The world watches us as well. Often when I am in the grocery store someone will ask me where I am from because of my accent. Then the next question is what are you doing here. I proceed to tell them that I am a missionary with my husband at Kisha Kristiane in Durres. One day I walked in and the lady announced loudly "There's the believer". No matter where I go or what I do, I want to lead people to Christ. I want to imitate Christ everywhere I go. I may not always be able to speak what I need to say but I want my mannerisms and smile to speak volumes for Him. 

This week I saw Christ being imitated in action. Every week a group from Durres (Shpresa, Romi, Arian and I sometimes) go to Kavaje to lead a Bible Study at the old home and to the children in the neighborhood. The children are very poor and have very little. 

We with the help of Juli have been able to find a temporary building for us to use for the children. This is great because winter is the rainy season and usually rains every day. Arian has been ministering to these children for 9 years. When they see him they run up to him and follow behind him.

We sing songs, tell them a Bible story, play games with the children and at the end feed them a snack.They love this time and love being little imitators. We pray that they not only imitate us here but in their every day lives. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. Ephesians 5:1

Don't forget to imitate Christ and his love everywhere you go! 

 

Member Spotlight:

Denis: Denis is one of our newest members of the church in Kavaje. He has been in the church since he was a small child. He is a great encouragement to us. He plays the guitar a little and is a great artist. We are praying for his wife to know the Lord, she is not in the church. He has a two year old daughter as well (Fatma). Denis is praying for a men's Bible study to be started in Kavaje. We are happy that Denis is in the church with us! May God continue to use him! 

David with Nena Magdalena 93 years old!

Praises/ Prayers: 
* David is growing and healthy! 
* Pray for continual growth at the church especially the youth. 

* Pray for help in Kavaje to be able to lead more Bible studies with the believers of the church and start another Kids club in another neighborhood. 

* Praise! The church was full last Sunday in Durres! We need more space. 
  

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!

 

 

Getting back into the swing of things

Most of you are starting back to school or have children going back to school. Have you ever noticed that once you are out of the habit of doing something it is hard to get back into the swing of things? Getting up early to get the kids off to school, quitting smoking, and starting exercising are just a few of the things that come to mind. But on a spiritual note, reading the Bible and praying can be a very big challenge if you are out of the practice of doing it every day. Once you get back into the habit it becomes a normal part of your everyday life. You feel out of place if you don't do it. Don't forget to  pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people (Ephesians 6:18). Any good habit is worth starting and continuing! Today is a great day to start!

Now that we are back to Albania we are trying to establish many new routines. Some of those are trying to get David adjusted to the time, culture, heat, and people differences that make Albania unique. We have discovered that many people like to give lots of advice about how to care for your baby, some of which are very bizarre! We are trying to do what is best for our blended family. We above all else listen to the advice and direction that God is leading us. Please pray for us during this transition time. 

We are getting back into the swing of things with ministry as well. There will be much to update you on and many pictures to come in the next blog. We appreciate your patience. 

Member Spotlight
Ana: Ana is 18 years old and has the brightest smile in all of Albania. She is paralyzed and can not eat without help. Ana recently learned one word "AMEN". This week when Arian was preaching she was constantly shouting Amen! We Thank God for Ana! When she was younger her mother, Drita was trying to get help for her.  They found a handicapped school for Ana. Drita and Ana started attending this Christian school even though they were muslim. They started hearing the word of God. Because of Ana, now Drita, her father, and sister are now believers of our Lord Jesus Christ! Praise God how He works through children. We love Ana coming to worship with us in Kavaje she loves to dance while we sing and shout AMEN! 

Praises/ Prayers: 
* David is growing and healthy! 
* Pray for continual growth at the church especially the youth. 
  


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!