Kosovo Outreach Project - PUSHK

Our Albanian friends (the Bakalli's) just wrote a story for their prayer letter. We included it below for those interested in a 'local perspective' of the Jesus film showing outreach. It was an incredible experience and all the stories of God working in that little village will continue to flow out in conversations (and changed lives!) over the years. Campus Crusade outreaches in Kosovo since 1999 have proved that his word does not come back void... blessed be his name! :)

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PUSHK “a shooting of joy”

One of the best Bible verses that would describe our walk with God is Ephesians 3:20-21. “...He can do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think……”

The PUSHK project for me was the most faith increasing experience of the year as I saw God doing more than I planned or thought. This year I prayed especially for two requests:
That God would allow us to use the public schools to show the Jesus Film. Recently the Kosovo parliament approved the law to close the schools for any kind of religious activity.
It was amazing to see all the principles not only opening the schools for us to show the Jesus Film but to participate in these showings also. One of the principles came to the film with her 2 sons. She stayed till the end of the film, but time to time she would retrieve to her car and then return. When the film was over she approached the team and said that she needed to leave because she had a sick child in the car.

During the years in Kosovo, God has given us a heart especially for the people that had never had a chance to hear the good news. I really wanted to see many people like this during this project.

“In one of the Jesus film showings, a family of 6 draw my attention. I could tell from their clothes that they were religious (Muslims). During the film I approached the man and asked him if they had ever seen this film before. Without taking his eyes of the screen, he gave me a short reply “No”. For 2 hours they stood in that cold night and when the film was over they thanked me for giving them a chance to see this film”– Jeff, missionary in Ferizaj.
Before leaving Kosovo to come to Albania I met the mayor of one of the villages we visited. As we were talking he told me his story. 3 years ago a car was driving fast in the village and one of the people inside throw out of the window a Bible. The son of the mayor took the Bible and brought it home. The mayor explained him that this Bible is a book for Catholics and that he shouldn’t read it. So he took the Bible from his sons hand and put it close to his bed. In the evening before going to sleep he took the Bible and started to read the story of Abraham. It was a wonderful story for him. Next morning he went to work and when he came back home he went to take the Bible to continue reading and to his surprise he couldn’t find the Bible where he left it. His son explained it later that he took it and tear it and through it into the river. He was very disappointed though he didn’t show it before his son. From that time he started to search for another Bible but he couldn’t find one. 3 years later a Jesus Film team showed up in his village with a Bible for him. That Bible made his day. He continued to read the story of Abraham. And when I asked him about his thoughts he was not ashamed or afraid to say that the next time we meet he might be a follower of Jesus.

Stories like these and more have refreshed my calling and transcend all my fears as I embark a new responsibility as a Coverage / Jesus Film Director for Albania and Kosovo.

Thank you for encouraging and supporting us to be a part of God’s work between Albanians and beyond.

With love
Kejdis and Rudina Bakalli

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And we thank you so much for supporting us and allowing us to contribute to this project, as well as Kejdis, Rudi and their family!

Blessings and love,

Cheryl and Kevin

It's Coming

This will be a quick note to let you know more is coming soon! We had planned on having all kinds of Internet access once we got settled here in Budapest. This however has not proved to be true. At first we discovered the Internet was turned off at the house we are borrowing from Missionaries who are away right now. This makes sense because they are gone till Christmas. So what we don't get Internet at home, oh well, we will just have to ruff it and do Internet on the wireless network at the church. Oops, no one remembered the 16 digit number code to log on. OK so we can check emails quickly on someone else's computer and then make a trip to the Mission's area office for a once a week blog update. OK after 5 days of trying to find a reasonable public transit route (that is when we weren't helping sort through a mound of screws and nails at a construction project) we have given up on this option. The one time we made the trip via public transit we had to abandon our bus in the traffic jam and walk for over an hour to get to the office. However finally we think the problem is solved! Someone who is in the States right now emailed the church with the number code and so Cheryl and I are able to get online with our own laptops. It is so cute right now we sit side by side typing away! All of that to say we are within days of finally coming through with the rest of those blog posts that will tell all our back story you missed.