Water is an everyday concern in Albania. There’s generally too much or too little, and lives and livelihoods suffer as a result.

During Albania’s winters and early springs, precipitation is monotonously constant. Snowmelt flows down the rugged mountains and combines with the heavy rainfall until the rivers become torrents and flood towns and villages. Evacuations and other flood-generated emergencies are a yearly occurrence in some northern towns. Homes and businesses are damaged or destroyed each wet season.

On the other hand, Albania depends on the flow of water through hydroelectric plants for its electricity. Hydroelectric power would seem a good idea in light of the average yearly precipitation. But then comes the dry season. In summer and early fall, power outages and water cutoffs are an expected part of life. During the hottest months, noisy generators belch out smoke on sidewalks in front of shops and restaurants. With the price of gasoline over $8 per gallon, they are very expensive to run. When the power goes out, some small businesses just close up for the rest of the day rather than run generators. Others just continue on as best they can without electricity or water for hours or days at a time.

In our area, fires break out on the parched hillsides at an alarming rate each summer. The fire department does the best they can with their limited equipment. They put hoses into the greatly diminished river and pump a trickle onto the flames. Any fires more than a hose length from the river typically blaze on unrestrained until they burn themselves out. Many beautiful hillside olive groves are now blackened and bare. Some families have lost groves that were handed down for generations and were their main source of income.

When we were new to Albania, we lived in a very old neighborhood built during the Ottoman Empire. It was fascinating and had a beautiful view, but the old cracked water pipes carried very little water. The water in our neighborhood was only turned on twice a day for about an hour at a time. The times were unpredictable, so people had to leave a sink faucet open so they would know when the precious water was on. The sound of water squirting into our sink was like a starting gun for us as we raced around the house to wash our dishes, our clothes and ourselves before the water abruptly turned off again. Sometimes the shower water would switch off before we could rinse off our soap and shampoo, and we had to finish with bottled water. Eventually, we moved into a neighborhood closer to a water source with an almost constant water supply.

Sometimes one person’s water problem is another person’s blessing. At our new home, there were several leaks in the water pipe along our dirt road. The leaks lowered the water pressure in our neighborhood and made year-round mud holes in the road. The largest leak was directly in front of the home we rent. Besides making a muddy mess, it was a sad waste of water during the months of shortage. We put in a request to have the city repair the leaks. Finally, the water department sent a crew to make the repairs. At last we were free of the large mud hole right in front of our driveway, and our neighborhood’s water pressure improved.

We thought everyone would be happy with the repairs, so imagine our surprise when we began to get complaints from a certain segment of our community. We hadn’t realized that the local shepherds and goatherds had been using the puddle in front of our home as a watering hole for their animals. Now they would have to take their animals much farther away to find water during the dry months. What had looked like a mud hole to us was an oasis to them. They couldn’t understand why we had purposely cut off the blessing of abundant water during the dry months. We all need water, but our different needs created a misunderstanding.

I began to think about how our different spiritual needs can create misunderstandings, too. Sure, we all need the Water of Life, but we are drawn by different qualities, and we face different obstacles. Jesus is the answer to all our problems, but let’s face it: we all have different problems. Before living in Albania, I had never realized how “first world” my problems really were. There are vast differences in cultural experiences, values, fears, beliefs and needs. The enemy has set up barriers to the saving truth. Each worldview has its own specific barriers designed to keep people from the source of life. But there is no barrier that can’t be overcome by our God.

Even among Albanians, there are different worldviews. The majority of Albanians identify themselves as Muslim, but there are vast differences in belief, culture and practice between Sunni and Bektashi Muslims. Then there are the Albanian Orthodox, the agnostics and the atheists. We can’t expect them all to have the same questions or to be looking for answers in the same places. Our job is to help them find what we all need—the Water of Life—by removing the obstacles that stand in their way. May we be able to say with Paul, “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more . . . I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the Gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you” (1 Cor. 9:19, 22, 23).

Please pray with us as we complete outreach materials for the various worldviews here. May we clearly recognize the obstacles each of them face, and may we be directed by the Holy Spirit to find ways around or through those barriers so Albanian people can find freedom in Jesus.

We’re at an important point in our work in Albania. The progress has been steady, but we need to finish what we’ve started. We need to be sure we have given the local Albanians the tools and training to continue the work after we are gone. If we stop short of that mark, we will not have succeeded in our mission.

We need your help to make our project a success. We cannot return to Albania without more pledges of monthly support. Please make it a matter of prayer. If you already give but haven’t made a monthly pledge, please consider doing so. This is a team effort, and you are a vital part of the team. May the Lord return to find us all rejoicing because of the part we were able to play in introducing people to Him.

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