The old adage says, “Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it.” The lesson is clear—we don’t always have the wisdom to know what we really need. The Samaritan woman at the well asked Christ for the water that would keep her from ever thirsting again. Did she really know what she was asking for? Her words were revealing: “Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Even though she may not have fully realized what she was asking for, she did ask for what she really needed.
As we have walked the streets of Berat, we have observed some graffiti painted on the walls of some buildings. One that we noticed read Duam Drita. At first, we thought it must be a young man’s declaration of love for a young woman named Drita, since dua means want, need, or love. But then we saw this message scrawled all over the city in different handwriting. When we saw the same graffiti in other cities hours away, we decided that Drita was not someone’s name. We looked it up in our Albanian-English dictionary and discovered that drita means light. Duam, we later learned, is a verb that is always paired with the pronoun ne meaning we. Albanians usually drop the pronoun in a sentence because the verb form distinguishes what the pronoun should be. Puzzle solved! The message means, “We want light.” Okay, but what does that really mean?
One day, we were walking with an Albanian friend past a wall bearing this graffiti, and we took the opportunity to ask what it meant. We were told that it is a protest against the daily power outages. It turns out that while drita does mean light, it also means power, as in electrical power that makes the lights shine. Whew! It’s amazing how much detective work it can take just to solve the smallest language mystery here.

If Albanians knew what they really needed, they would ask for the true Light (John 1:9). In the Albanian translation of John 8:12, Jesus proclaims that He is the drita (light) of the world. And what about power? How do we get the power to make His light shine in us? A scripture song comes to mind: “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. But as many as received Him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God” (John 1:4, 12). Although the Albanians, like the Samaritan woman, may not understand what they truly need, may they get what they are asking for when they say “Duam Drita.”

Our Albanian friend also casually mentioned that when there was a food shortage, the graffiti on the walls read Duam Bukë, meaning, “We want bread.” May Albania receive the Bread of life! I would not be surprised to find Duam Uji (“We want water”) written on the walls of our city, since the water is turned off even more often than the power. And even when the water is on, it is often dirty and unsafe to drink. How unlike the Living Water that is always pure, always available, always cleansing! Even though people need things like food and water in this life, they will never be satisfied without Jesus.

We know from many difficult years of experience how empty we can feel when we try to quench our souls’ hunger and thirst with anything else. Even though we might have felt a momentary satisfaction when we got what we thought we wanted, it wasn’t long before we were craving something more. Thank God, we finally found what we were looking for. We found the only thing that fills the empty void and satisfies, the only One who supplies all we need. We found the Light of the world, the Bread of life, the Water of life. When we found Him and received Him, we found life. We long to share what we’ve found with the people He has called us to serve.

Please join our prayer that the Albanian people will come to believe in the light, that they may become children of light (John 12:36), and that Jesus will someday declare to them the words of Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”

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