Whirled Views with Dan Burrell

Albania has always had a special place in my heart.  It was the first mission field I visited and I spent the better part of a decade traveling back and forth there doing evangelism and church planting right after communism fell.  It was the poorest country in the Soviet Block of communist countries.  It would take a full book to tell you of my adventures from there and the incredible provisions of God as we opened up what was the most totally atheistic country in all the world.

I still keep in touch with many friends I made there and hope to return some day.  My friend, Mike Fiocchi is the American missionary pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Tirane which the church I pastored in Florida helped to start with a missionary from off our church staff, Dave Young.  It is exciting to see how this church continue to flourish in a country that was devastated by communism and atheism.  Recently I become aware of a special opportunity to be part of the ministry there by supporting an Albanian young person to go to a life-changing camp.  Without our help, the teens simply cannot afford to go.  Most Albanians survive on just a few thousand dollars a year — it’s still the poorest country in that part of the world.  Would you read the letter below, take a look at this picture and consider making it possible for one of these teens to go?

This is a picture of the New Hope Baptist Church of Tirane, Albania at the Camp from 2010.  Arben Guxha is the man in the blue shirt to the far right.  He was one of the teenagers in the youth group when I was active in church planting and evangelism in Albania in the 1990’s and our church in West Palm Beach helped found New Hope Baptist in the capital city.  Arben is now one of the pastors in the church.  

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May 2011

Dear Praying Friends,

Forty years is a long time. Obviously, eighty is twice as long! We have not been asked for eighty years; rather, eighty campers. In 2010, we went to camp with sixty two campers. Five trusted Christ as personal Savior; four were baptized; and two completed discipleship classes.

One of those campers, Fatjona, is helping in the Sunday school ministry. Another, Gjergji, is helping with reading Scripture in the worship services and often witnesses for Christ in his public school. For the furtherance of the cause of Christ, we are anticipating the same type of testimonies repeated in the summer 2011 youth camp. Our theme is “Exodus.” For the campers, our desire is to see young people leaving the old life and living the new spiritually vibrant life.  Our camp workers are trained better. Our creativity is engaged to effectively reach more young people.

Throughout the year, our church offerings have totaled $600. We still need $4,000. As a local mission church, we depend upon the Lord to use His people around the world to meet this type of need.

We appreciate your prayers and financial support for this summer youth camp outreach on August 23-27, 2011. Will you please pray about how you might be able to help? Please designate support for “Summer Youth Camp 2011.”

Baptist World Mission
PO Box 2149
Decatur, Alabama
Phone: (256)353-2221

We thank you in advance for your consideration.

Sincerely in Christ,

Mike Fiocchi for New Hope Baptist Church
Albania!

How easy it is to miss some of life’s most important moments because of delay, procrastination, excuse making or laziness.  Perhaps all of us would be better off if we embraced the philosophy of seizing the moment.  The bible tells us to work for the night is coming when men will work no more.  My mother used to quote the epigram, “Only one life t’will soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”  At my wedding, over 25 years ago, we had the son sung, “We Have this Moment” which contained the lines, “We have this moment to hold in our hands and to catch as it sifts through our fingers like sand.  Yesterday’s gone and tomorrow may never be, but we have this moment today.”

How many important this are left undone, because we refuse to “seize the moments”?

How many passengers on the Titanic passed up opportunities to hold hands with their spouses at dinner on that fateful April night in 1912?

How many kids have asked their dad to play pitch and catch in the yard only to be told by their father that they couldn’t because the news was coming on or that they had to check their email first?

How many family meals and conversations have been interrupted by the unending chirps, boings and clatters of cell phone text messages that arrive and can’t seem to wait even a few minutes?

How often have roomfuls of family members from around the country who gathered for a holiday or vacation sat in silence around the television being mindlessly entertained by a movie or a sitcom rerun as the moments for exchanging tales and reliving memories are lost forever?

How many people have used excuses ranging from “I’ve got a roast in the oven” to “my hair’s a mess” to beg off of a dinner invitation offered at the last minute when the meal could have been hustled into the refrigerator or a hate could have been thrown over the mussed up ‘do and a lovely evening was lost forever.

How many of us have avoided a significant church service or a birthday party or a trip to a nursing home because it “looked like rain.”  What?  Don’t we have an umbrella?  Will we melt if we get a little wet?

We pass up dessert, we put off making phone calls, we delay vacation trips, we don’t buy clothes until we’ve lost that five pounds, we place laundry and toilet cleaning above bedtime stories and games of checkers, we shrug off hugs and fall asleep without good night kisses, we make excuses to avoid reunions and dates, we hope that someone will witness to our neighbor and we ask the pastor to make the hospital visit to our long-time friend, we wait so long to send the thank you note that we don’t do it in embarrassment, we think about our childhood friends, but we never call them.

And……we lose the moments.

The ones that can never be recaptured or relived.  And we sow the seeds of potential regret as we ignore the potential of blessings gained today.

How about it?  Isn’t it time we all start seizing the moments?  The apostle asked the rhetorical question.  “What is life?  It’s like a vapor.  It’s there for a little while and then it disappears.”

Seize the moment today.  Witness to your friend.  Call your mother for no particular reason.  Send somebody a bouquet of flowers.  Call your wife and tell her that you are taking her to dinner tonight.  When she tells you that she already has dinner in the oven, ask her if she’s ever heard of a refrigerator and a microwave.  Take your kid to breakfast tomorrow morning.  go for a walk as the sun is setting tonight.  Take that cruise this year.  Get your physical before there’s a problem.  Join the choir.  Send a thank you note to your Bible study teacher.  Go to the nursing home and give someone flowers out of your garden or take some fresh veggies to a neighbor.  Bake a plate of cookies and take them someone at work.  Don’t wait.  Don’t make excuses.  Don’t delay.  Seize the moment.