Whats up everybody! It's been a little while since my last post. Life has been moving so fast these past couple weeks, and I wanted to take some time to sit down, and catch you all up on everything that’s been happening, and how God and the Holy Spirit has been working in and through me. Between the highs, the lows, there’s a lot to share, and I’m excited to let you in on what’s been going on!

THE RECENT

Let’s start with what’s been happening recently.

Ministry here in Albania has been going really good! And I can honestly say I’ve been growing so much in my faith during this time. Each day has brought new lessons and challenges, some harder than others, but it's been amazing seeing God work through me, everyone on my team, and the people in Albania. A lot of what the Ministry has looked like recently is with the Youth! Serving the kids here has been a giant blessing, but there have been some struggles too. A few weeks ago, it felt like I was locked in a cage here. You can only leave our church with 3 or more people, we were constantly doing ministry during the day, classes during the morning, it got very cold, rainy, cloudy, and it seemed like everyone felt so drained, which drained me, a lot more than i expected. But, during all of that, I got a lot of time to reflect, not just on this past month and a half of this trip, but on my life. I learned I have a lot of healing to do, and that in that process of healing I am not alone. I have my family at home, my community that I am growing constantly with here, but most importantly, I have God. And a big part of this journey so far has been learning to bring these things to God, to ask for help knowing he wont judge me, and learning to have trust in him, and being faithful when it gets hard, because God loves us all more than we can ever imagine, all he wants is what's best for us, he is always by our side, and has always been there and will always be no matter what. Everyone here has been such a big part in helping me see that, holding me accountable, and showing me the love that God has for me. It's only been a little over a month, but I already love this group of people so much, we are becoming a giant family and it's been truly amazing.

Something that had me questioning a lot of things, was our first squad church this last Sunday. It was led by one of our leaders Amanda (aka the goat), and she dove into the beginning of Matthew 5: 3-7. We read those verses, and the three that stuck out to me were, 

5:6 “God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.”

5:8 “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.”

5:10 “God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

We must LIVE for God, and literally be so hungry for him that we are starving. We want to hunger and thirst for righteousness, but before that, you gotta ask yourself these 3 questions first.

1. What are you full of? Amanda answered this question relating it to food lol. If you eat junk food ALL DAY, before your amazing dinner that your mom made for you, will you be hungry to eat dinner? No, you won't. And that goes for the same with your spiritual life. If you are filling yourself with garbage all day, and you become so full of that, you wont be hungry for righteousness with the lord.

2. What do you crave? When we spend more time in the Word, and with the Lord, we will of course crave more, but the same happens on the opposite end. If we spend so much time on social media, in bad thoughts, and giving into temptation, we will crave those things, like a sugar addiction.

3. What will you eat? Amanda relating this whole sermon to food, which was awesome lol. And she said, when we are kids, we always go for eating what's easiest, because we don't know how to eat the hard stuff yet. But, as time goes on and we get older, we learn to eat the harder things, and we grow up. So, to grow our relationship with the lord, we need to eat the hard things, and not go for what's easy, (temptation, Sin, etc.). 

These questions made me question a lot about myself, and really think, what am I hungry for? And I realized that I need to go for food that's more solid, and hard, then something that's easy, like milk.

TIRANA, and the HOLY SPIRIT

Last week, on Monday,  we had a day trip planned to go to the Main city in Albania, Tirana. BUT the guys decided we were going to find a way to catch buses, and leave a day early, lol. So on Sunday, we woke up SUPER EARLY, and made our way to Tirana! Once we got there it was a BLAST! We walked around, ate so much good food, and it just felt good to have a lot of freedom and be somewhere new, with so many cool, interesting, and different people from all over the world. At one point in the first day, we went to this giant old church that had amazing gorgeous art all over the walls, and the ceiling. It was one of the most powerful places I have ever been. But there was one thing that stood out of everything to me there, almost like it was calling my name. It was under a giant Arch at the far end of the church, right in the center, was a beautiful painting of a Dove, representing the Holy spirit, almost in the center of it all. Out of all the beauty in the church and all of the amazing sights, I couldn't stop looking at this dove, it was drawing me in. Then we left, and I just tried to brush it off. That night we hung out in a Spa, played pool, and just got a lot of Guy time which was very needed for all of us, but I couldn't get this dove out of my head. And since I have been in Albania, the Holy Spirit has been revealing so much to me in so many crazy ways so it was just interesting to me that I couldn't drop this thought. The next morning came around, and I had plans to get a new tattoo before we met up with all of the girls from our group. But before that, me and two of the guys got up early to go back to the church to make the morning service. We got there, and there was no service, lol. But we stayed there for a bit, because it was only us there. And again, the Dove. It was speaking to me, I could feel it but I just didn't know what it was saying. We left again, and me and one of the guys went to go find a tattoo shop. We eventually got to one, after SO MUCH walking. And as we walked up to the doors, a weird feeling washed over me, like this wasn't where i was supposed to be. But I tried to ignore it, and we walked in, paid the guy, and I was literally about to get into the chair to get the tattoo, and then the Holy Spirit gave me vision. The tattoo I was going to get was a tree from back home that I would always go to for quiet, especially during some of the hardest times in my life. But in that moment I realised that version of me is the old me, not the new Ethan that is new, that has given his life to Christ. And I knew I couldn't get something on my Body that would stay there for the rest of my life, that reflected that old me. The vision i had was the Dove, all i could see on my wrist where i was gonna get that tattoo was the dove, all i could feel in that moment, was the Holy Spirit. So I looked at Austin (the guy I was with) and said, “Idk if i should do this” and he replied one word, “Dont” so we got the money back and left. It was so much more than just not getting a tattoo, it was me staying Obedient to God, and his plan for me. And in this journey I have been learning to trust that plan, and have faith, so it was a BIG step in the right direction. This is just one of the many ways the Holy Spirit has been prompting me toward the light, the light of God.

I’m excited to keep growing and keep experiencing all the things God wants to teach me. Each day out here feels like another step in the journey the Lord is leading me on, and I’m grateful for every moment, the quiet ones, the challenging ones, and everything in between. Thank you for reading and God Bless!!