Purple Wildflowers

From August until early October, H-Squad is in Albania. I honestly didn’t know much about this country before coming here but, man, it has been sweet. For the first two weeks, I was with Team Strudels! We spent one week in Mbrostar and another in Baltez doing VBS’s and, y’all! God did some incredible things there!!

To read a little bit about our time, check out these blogs: 

https://kelseycorns.theworldrace.org/post/heavenly-host-in-a-little-village

https://kacilarick.theworldrace.org/post/participating-in-the-harvest

These last few weeks in Albania, I am with Team Table Flippers. We are in the capital city, Tirana, living in an apartment. We have A/C and WiFi and a flushing toilet, a shower, a washing machine, a kitchen with an oven and a fridge and I have a comfy couch to sleep on. I even have a drawer where I can put my clothes instead of living out of my backpack! Our ministry host has given us permission to walk around alone, there’s good coffee shops all around and fruits and veggies are available on every street corner. These all might sound like little things, but on the race these amenities are hard to come by – much less having them all at the same time! I am incredibly thankful to have a space where I can take care of myself in all ways – physically, spiritually, emotionally. What a blessing.

Our ministry here in Tirana is almost solely “Ask The Lord”, known in world race slang as “ATL”. Realistically, our days look like waking up, having quiet time, having team prayer at 9:00 and then “asking the Lord” what He wants to do (where to go, who to talk to, what to do, etc). For me, it’s looked like interceding for the squad, praying for people by name, making friends in coffee shops, having fruitful conversations, communing and resting with God. I’m thankful to have space to truly practice and take ownership over “life is ministry”, especially given that we are quickly nearing the end of our race (AHH)

Something that God has been laying on my heart to do since being here is to buy flowers and hand them out with notes. My friend, Chelsey, and I decided to do it together one day a couple of weeks ago.

That morning I woke up, prayed with the team and then walked to meet a friend for lunch. The walk to meet her was about an hour there and an hour back but I didn’t mind given that the weather was so nice (another blessing!). Chels and I decided to pass out flowers once I got back from lunch – she would write the notes and I would find a place to buy the flowers. 

On my walk there, I passed a woman in a wheelchair begging for money. She was sitting quietly, watching people as they passed by, with an open box in her lap filled with little trinkets and spare change. I thought to myself oh I wish I had something to give her but resorted to smiling and waving instead. 

After a great lunch with my friend, I set out on the hour walk back to our side of town. I had no idea where I was going to get flowers because all of the shops I had passed only sold bouquets. And then, like she was dropped straight from heaven, I saw a sweet old woman selling purple and white wildflowers on the street corner. If you know me, you know purple and wildflowers are two of my most favorite things. I spent the majority of the walk back just grinning about how sweet the Lord is.

And then, I saw her again – the sweet woman in the wheelchair. My heart jumped and I felt the nudge from the Lord “Annie, give her some flowers”

I looked down at the flowers and tried to pull some out and realized they were tightly bound together with ribbon. Oh well, I thought, I’ll just hand them out to someone else later. And I continued on my way.

About 10 minutes of walking later, the Lord (quite literally) stopped me in my tracks. 

“Go back,” He said. 

But Lord, I thought, I’ve already walked 10 minutes further. The flowers are bound together. It’s too much effort. I can just hand some out to the people on my side of town.

I stood there for awhile, waiting to hear what God had to say.

And then, He gently said, “What if I decided you took too much effort too?”

Ouch. God really does have a way with those one-line zingers sometimes. I quickly turned around and started speed-walking in the other direction, tearing flowers off of the tightly bound bouquet, back to the woman. 

Nothing profound happened. Her eyes lit up when she saw me walking back and she smiled as she took the flowers. I asked her name, she said it was Maria and I told her mine was Annie. I smiled and blessed her and told her to have a good day. I hope to see her again before we leave.

But I wept on my walk home. I wept out of thankfulness for a God that comes after us even if it takes a lot of “effort”. I wept because my short, 10-minute-walk that seemed like such an inconvenience to me pales in comparison to Jesus dying on the cross for all of us. I wept because He’s a God that goes after the one. He desires intimacy and He sees each of us individually and His heart breaks for each of us individually. I wept because He has turned back for me, countless times, when it was I that walked away. He has repeatedly decided that I am worth the effort, I am worth the sacrifice, I am worth seeing and knowing.

I pray that Maria would think of the flowers and recognize God’s pursuit of her heart. But ultimately, I pray that over each and every one of us. I pray not a day would go by that we wouldn’t think of God and His pursuit of us, His longing for relationship, the sacrifices He has made for us. I pray that every day would be like receiving purple wildflowers. That we would hear His voice clearly saying, “I see you. I desire to know you. I love you. You are worth the effort.”

I’ve realized after all of these months on the race that it’s stories like these that end up sticking with me the most. I believe it’s because so much of my story with the Lord is Him pursuing me relentlessly, even when I didn’t deserve it. Praise God that He always decided I was worth going back for. And praise God that I now get to be a part of going after the ones He loves with Him. Dang, He is so so good 🙂

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” 

(Matthew 18:12-14)

much love and many blessings,

Annie