Full Circle

By Randy Parker

I went to Kosovo with Pastor Eric, Beth Nichols and Brad Lay.  For me this mission started fourteen years ago. During the Kosovo War, there was a call to churches around the world to help assist Kosovo Albanian refugees.  My church in Louisiana wanted to help. I was working in the family life center at the church, when a pastor at the church introduced two Albanian families from war torn Kosovo. The father of the largest family was an English teacher at the university in the capital city of Pristina. I gave them some Coke to drink and tried to talk with them.  The pastor said he needed volunteers to help transport them to all their appointments (doctor, grocery, etc..). In the months that followed, we were able to help them with many things.  We also told them about God’s love, and what He did for them.

We moved to Tennessee in May 2006 after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in August 2005. We started attending Thompson Station Church in 2007, and God called us to go to the actual country of Kosovo recently on a short-term team with Pastor Eric. God was answering prayer, and doing things we couldn’t even see!  I had recently reconnected with my friends from Kosovo who lived in Virginia before the trip.  One of my friends said she and her family would be visiting while we were there, and that she would like to be our guide and translator. We set it all up, and on the trip, God began to do more than I could have ever imagined!

While in Kosovo, my Albanian friend from fourteen years ago saw us minister to her people. We also ministered to her. She helped us share with others and got to experience Christ’s love for her people while going around with us. She also experienced more of Christ herself. Before we left Kosovo, Pastor Eric got to pray with her. Soon after, I received an instant message from her oldest son who was still in Virginia. He asked, “How can I talk to my parents about my new faith in Jesus?” God was working through relationships that had been established fourteen years prior!

First Cor 3:6 talks about the different stages for the growth of a gospel seed. Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered, BUT God gave the growth.” It was fourteen years ago when we sowed the seed of the gospel to his family. But God is still using seeds planted by a young family that didn’t know any better in Louisiana to impact Albanians around the world!