I was sitting on the ground of the boys’ room. It was freezing cold, colder than it was outside. I was wrapped in the biggest blanket I could find. My eyes were closed as I was listening to Aaron lead worship. I was thinking of what it meant to be commissioned. I was thinking of what my life would look like if I didn’t know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And soon I began to think and even say aloud the words: what’s the point if I’m not daily pointing others to Christ? what’s the point if I’m not sharing with other what He has done for them? And in that moment, I knew I wanted to do nothing more than to step out of that freezing room and share the good news of Jesus’ birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection with everyone. Whether it be through my words or through my actions, I knew that my heart and my mission was to step forth and boldly live out Matthew 28:19-20.
Since being in Shkodër, I have found myself being more bold than I ever have in my life. And I believe that it is because of that commissioning night. That was the night I dedicated myself to be bold for the Lord. I am still working on it. There are times where I find myself timid and reserved and scared of what people will think, but I have to remind myself that God does not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power (2 Timothy 2:7) and that being scared of the thoughts of man is not what serving Christ looks like (Galatians 1:10).
Becoming bold for Christ is a journey. I want others to see Him in me. I want to make connections with people that are only because God is guiding me to those connections. One of the connections that have been made is because of a bold step I made was a connection with a local church and coffee shop here in Shkodër.
Our first day here, Clara and I happened upon a cute little coffee shop. We set our stuff down at a seat next to the window and we went up to the counter. I ordered myself an iced coffee (naturally), and then introduced myself to the barista. He was a pretty reserved, quiet, almost grumpy (which these kind of baristas I have an affinity for because I ran into a similar situation in Romania but that’s another story for another time), but because he was pretty reserved, he was very taken aback by my excited “Hi, I’m Makayla! What’s your name?” It was a fun moment because I knew that this was probably going to be a place I invested in and got to know the baristas.
My latte on this fun, colorful table at the coffee shop
As I was ordering my coffee, I began noticing little things about the coffee shop that made me think it was a Christian-run coffee shop (i.e. seeing a Bible on a bookshelf). I gave the coffee shop a follow on Instagram almost immediately after ordering my coffee. And they pretty quickly followed me back. I had posted something on my story about being at that coffee shop and they slid up on my story and acknowledged that they were grateful to have people who shared their same values in their coffee shop. That comment then led to an exchange between me and the owner on Instagram DMs a bit about what we believe, and then scheduling a time to where we (my team and I) could meet with him and get to know him, the mission behind the coffee shop, and his church better.
We got to meet with him and visit his church a few days later and through that we got to be a part of a women’s event for Mother’s Day event. We got to make flower crowns for the women, we set up tables with snacks, half of our team got to play a couple of worship songs for the women, and we were able to just celebrate the mothers that showed up to the event. It was such a sweet time and such a sweet day of ministry, one of my favorite ministry days so far.
Us making the flower crowns with the pastor’s wife and one of the missionaries here
One of the flower crowns Clara made (because hers were way cuter than mine lol)
Clara helping make a backdrop for the event
I tell you all of that because if I had not been bold in messaging with the coffee shop that I visited, my team and I would not have been able to visit this church and partner with them in their women’s ministry. I may not have directly shared the gospel in this instance, but through serving the church and the women, my team and I were able to share the gospel in accordance to how Jesus lived.
