I Lift My Eyes Up

Look at that veiw.

Beautiful, isn't it? Majestic, wild, a little un-earthly. Green feilds lead up to hazy, purple and white mountains. Beautiful mountains. It is the veiw from my living room window.

When I cast my eye far, that is.

If I look straight down, though?

This.

Garbage... Mud... Weeds and ruins. A dump, nasty (and smelly!) A tangled, filthy mess. It is not an uncommon sight here.

Sometimes we fly along on wings of gold, through fragrant meadows. Everything's going right and we bask all that is good.

Other times we come to a landfill and the only way around it is through it. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow...
We can look directly down around us and quickly become disheartened, weighted down, thrashing. Caught in the bog.

Or we can cast our eyes high, to the rock, where there is strength, renewal, help. And we will wade through, He will lead us through, the ground becoming firm once more.

Psalm 121
A song of ascents

"I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore."

I Am Not Afraid Of Dogs

I was walking with my kids today, out tramping across the fields, enjoying the sun and the sky and the wide open space. Laughing, they trotted ahead of me a ways, boots galumphing, hair streaming on the wind. Our carefree joy was interrupted however when suddenly three huge dogs rushed out of the bushes charging and barking viciously, the leader running us down and poised to attack. A hot lick of fear swept through me for a split second as my eyes scanned the ground for a stick or rock, but there were none. The kids had fled behind me crying. And as the great beast bore down upon us that momentary fear fled me, I felt more confident than I ever had in my life. I stepped fully in front of my children, legs braced, shoulders back and issued a command that in Albanian means "GET BACK!" The stance of my body and the tone of my voice stopped that dog dead in his tracks. He skidded to a halt, then turned and left, barking over his shoulder, taking his friends with him. I kept my eyes on them until they had disappeared, far beyond the grasses and hedges.

"Oh Mommy!" My daughter cried, throwing her arms around me, "How did you do that?!"

"I am not afraid of dogs." I replied.

What followed was a lengthy discussion of animal behavior, and safety, and why we stay close to Mommy, and so on and so forth. But that is topic for another time and is not the point of this post.

There are dogs in this town who are greater scoundrels than the above mentioned, and I am not talking about the four legged kind.

Let me make our stance to them crystal clear.

They can bark and they can charge, but we will NEVER back down, for unlike them we serve a mighty God. THE mighty God. We have Christ and all his hosts at our backs and we continue to fight the good fight with our heads held high. We are not cowards who lie in wait like predators, who live and lie for selfish gain, who pick on the poor that have no one to protect them. And those dogs can come one hundred strong to my face if they so dare and just see what this daughter of the King is made of.

For we wear the armor of God.

As it is, I am sure they will continue to hide under rocks and behind computer screens, preying on the defenseless.

My friends, pray for these individuals for they are desperately lost. So blinded by fear and greed and hate that they can not tell up from down. And I exhort you all "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen" (1 Peter 5:8-11)

Bytyqi Family February Update

January and February can be hard months for me, they sure were last year. If it is snowy and clear, that is fine, but mud and muck and endless dreary days wear me out in a way that no amount of work ever could. This new year however has been so pleasantly busy and the weather so mild and lovely and down right balmy that I've been enjoying them very much. This next month and a half will be quite a buzz of activity with meetings and birthdays (four of our family have birthdays in the next 6 weeks) and moving that our trip to the States will be upon us in no time and I look forward to enjoying the spring there.

Ah.
Yes.
The moving.
Well, it turns out we DO have to move after all. We've found a very sweet little solitary apartment in the center of town that will do nicely for us for the time being. I'm a girl who likes to put roots down, so moving often has been hard on me on the one hand, though exciting on the other. I do yearn so for a place for us. A real place, our place. But I am content -well, mostly and trying to be- as we shift from space to space, as I know that this is simply what the Lord has for us for now. Perhaps this upcoming move is a step towards land and a house of our own or perhaps it's a "foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." sort of thing. (Luke 9: 57-58) Well, I still will follow then, Lord, lead on!

Speaking of following Christ, I would love to share with you about a new Sister in Christ. Hasan has a ministry that I call his "Coffee Shop Ministry." Each day around noon he takes his Bible and sits in a local coffee shop reading for an hour or two and the fruit of this simple act just over the last few months has been astounding. People meet him, get to talking, and pretty soon he's practically got a little Bible Study on his hands. Some days they just talk about life and drink a cappuccino, others they bring friends and relatives to ask questions about our faith and Scripture. One young girl recently accepted Christ and her boyfriend too is very interested. We would love if you would join us in praying for their young hearts, that they would continue on in a path of righteousness and continue hungering and learning and that others too would come to know the Savior.

We are heading into our last week of the Foundations of Christian Faith Study that we've been holding in our home. It has been a really blessed time with a pretty solid group of about fifteen believers. Once finished, Hasan will begin a weekly study of Hebrews and we are planning on beginning a prayer meeting once a week as well, just as soon as we've moved into the new place. Please pray with us over these meetings, that we would all be learning and growing closer to God and in knowledge of His Word.

Grace and Peace to you~