Big Heart Studios mission is to bring artistic resources to those filled with hidden creative talents by sharing the love of Jesus Christ and encouraging God given abilities.
Albania. Where the Lord is leading us.
Virtual art bags provide us with means to carryout Big Heart projects in Albania as well as serve by helping the local church and VT school in whatever ways we are needed . Bags are listed at variable prices so that you can choose how many and much you want give. By connecting a name to each bag it is our goal to return to Albania for summer 2024 and begin a regular routine of being there throughout the seasons.
The Lord branded Albania into our lives in the summer of 2018. You can read more about how that happened on my personal site, here. Since then, He has continued to place little puzzle pieces of what the future was to hold on the table, but only in the last months has it been clear it’s time to put the puzzle together. In winter this year we spent three weeks living in Vlashaj, Albania helping our friends with their ministry there. Over those weeks, the boys and I fell even more in love with the country and its people. As the last days of our visit approached we knew we wanted to return, and soon. Our friends have been in ministry there for a few decades and we have felt a part of that since my first visit.
Where is Albania? If Italy were a boot and kicked back, it would hit it with its heel. As a Balkan country its history is rich, but to give you a perspective of modern day you need to know that it was under communistic rule until 1992, only thirty-two years ago. As one could imagine, rebuilding a country is no short-term task, but the Albanian people have done a tremendous job of taking themselves from being under the power of a dictator to establishing lives led by ones own direction.
In 1967 their dictator declared they would be the first atheist state. No religion was to be practiced, regardless of your faith. Any family left practicing their beliefs did so under intense secrecy. History tells stories of how risky it was to life to go against the rules of the country and so most families simply dropped any form of religion. When the change came, families took on the faith of what they knew of their forefathers. The country is predominantly Muslim, although many are not practicing.
In ways, it feels like the people of Albania are our younger siblings. They can lead their country on their own, they can develop ways of life that bring peace and joy, but they could use the help of family. We can come around them, love them as Christ does, and build them up. We can share Jesus with them by loving them.
Why Albania?
Before we left I kept glancing at a vacant house. Its gate is just across the way from Jeta’s gate, where the local church meets. When I inquired about it no one knew how to get in touch with the owner. A few weeks after we returned home I saw the house while worshipping at church one Sunday morning. It's three stories and I saw the ground level full of art projects. An open door to walk in and work on little bits at a time. A place of community. In the same way friends meet for coffee, I saw it as a place to meet, talk, and create. A little community garden, bread baking being taught, wooden cars being carved for racing, painting and drawing being explored. Discipleship through actions of learning and playing. Jeta, which means life, fulfills the roles of a church and in itself is community. What I was seeing was a house, an extension of the church, much like what we have here. A home, open to community in creative ways.
Around the same time, the owner of the house visited the village and met one of our friends there. She left her contact information for me. We talked and she has been hoping the right person would come along for the house. She reached out a year prior about wanting to rent it but said she felt like it was all timing, that we were meant for the house. Big Heart Studios, Albania will be across from Jeta, across from where Jesus gives His Life to the community. We don’t know what that looks like exactly or the order in which things will unfold, but we are open to the steps the Lord puts in front of us. The boys and I do not feel like we will be there full time, but rather several times a year. The reality is, that we have no idea what the reality is…we are just stepping out in the one spot we see in front of us and it’s exciting and terrifying all at once.
History shows that relationship acts as the strongest motivation. By building these relationships, supporting, and loving the community of Albania as Christ would, we can serve. Through showing that acts of love and help are not given in anticipation of return, we demonstrate the unconditional love of God. In friendship and community we can work together, play together, eat together, and live out life together to see needs needing to be met and by responding. We can support leaders in the community to guide them in what biblical authority looks like and how they can best serve in their homes. We can display what it looks like to live in freedom of condemnation. We can teach in relevant ways the examples given to us in the Word of God. We can meet them where they are.
We can serve.
It’s important to me to know we have people praying over this. Prayers for the people of Albania, prayers for projects, prayers for the boys, for me, for safety. All of it. We need all of it drenched in prayer. We also need help making it happen. I am developing a series of workbooks that teach drawing and painting. The lessons in unit one take you through the gospel, drawing a manger, cross, and empty tomb. It is my hope that this can be used as a way of discipleship. Each unit will build on art technique as well as the teachings of Christ and who He is to us. Creative group projects are to be started. Provisions for the house will need to be set up. Budgets for travel expenses and plans will need to be set.
As a visionary it is hard sometimes to not see pieces of puzzles that are still far off and focus only on the ones directly in front of me, but I see this as not only a community we are becoming a part of in Albania but one that others will be a part of. I hope that one day in the future we will be able to invite some of you to come visit and work on projects with us. To meet and love the people of Albania the way we do.
Art supplies, housing needs, travel and more all need to be paid for. Through sponsoring an Art Bag for Albania you can help cover those costs. We have made 500 available so that you can pray and decide which one or ones you want to sponsor. For example, if you pick the $10 bag you sponsor us for $10. If you pick the $30 bag and the $400 bag you sponsor us with $430. If we have a connection for all 500 bags it covers all expenses for a year. We have made a password protected page to share details of happenings that we will share with you so that you can virtually be with us. Each year we will ask if you want to sponsor the same bag(s) or not. This will allow us to only have to focus on our funding once a year, the rest of the year, we can focus solely on the mission at hand. Will you pray and ask if you if you should be a part of this with us? In prayer or in aide, we would love for you to join us.
If you’d like to sponsor an Art Bag for Albania, you can do so HERE.
Thank you for reading what is going on with Big Heart Studios! We appreciate you!