the time Jesus winked at me at Albania.

When we finally made it to Eastern Europe for the last two months of our Race, it felt like a dream.

We had a favorite park we liked to sit in and it was filled with old men in sweater vests reading the paper, classy women riding bicycles with baskets, red popcorn carts, and little girls with pinwheels.

My team was to spend the month traveling around Albania in search of new ministries who might be able to partner with the World Race in the future. We spent our first week in Tirana, the capital of Albania, and began to get our bearings on the nation, its history, and its people.

What we discovered was shocking.

In a nutshell, after World War II the Communist regime took over Albania, and it 1967 it outlawed any and every form of religion–Judaism, Islam, Christianity–everything. They wiped the slate clean, enforcing Albanian nationalism as the only form of “worship.” They burned religious texts, shut down temples, churches and mosques, and threw religious leaders in prison—or worse. We heard stories about government officials who would hand out meat and dairy foods on religious fasting holidays, hoping to find someone unwilling to eat the food and catch them practicing their religion.

Albania was the first nation in the world to constitutionally declare themselves atheists.

The ban on religion lasted unit the Communist regime fell in 1991.

We stopped to think about it: we were born in 1992. That meant that anyone close to our age—the young 20s—was raised by parents who grew up in an era of complete godlessness.

Much of Albania today, about 60 percent, has returned to its Muslim roots, an influence from the Ottoman Turks who ruled the country until 1912; 16 percent declare either Orthodox or Catholic; while the rest simply claim…nothing. There is a huge void in the hearts of the people as they are left wondering, “Is there something more out there? Why am I here?” 

---

 

Every day on the World Race we are asked to do something called “team time.” One member of the team picks an activity and everyone does it together. When it was my turn, I thought it’d be fun to go shopping in “gabi,” the gypsy market, but instead, God asked me to do something else.

I split the team into three groups and gave each a GoPro camera. I asked each group to follow God’s lead and seek out people in the Tirana park to have meaningful conversations with. Since we are a part of The World Race Doc Project, I invited everyone to have the GoPro rolling and to record the conversations as an interview.

God led me and my teammates, Joe and Stefani, to a group of teenage guys sitting on one of the park benches. One of the guys was 18-years-old, named Ricardo and from Italy. He spoke awesome English and dove right into conversation with us. We talked for 45 minutes, and ended up on the topic of God.

“I don’t believe in God,” Ricardo told us. “I don’t care what happens to me after I die. I think we are meant to just live for today?” he wondered out loud, more of a question than a statement of belief.

“I want to be a good person and help people. Maybe the point of life is just to fall in love and be happy?” he asked.

Even though Ricardo said he was an atheist, he had a lot of questions about God. He started asking us question after question, and we were happy to share with him, to sit on the ground by the bench at his feet and talk about the Jesus we know personally, like a friend. 

“Jesus is right here with us,” we said. “He knows you. And he loves you.”

We asked Ricardo if he’d ever talked about God like this before. He paused and thought.

“You know, it’s funny. Just a few months ago an American guy from Virginia was here and we hung out. We became friends and he told me the same things about Jesus you guys are saying.”

Ricardo also told us he’d been having bad dreams. Before we had to go, Joe asked if he could pray for Ricardo. He said he wanted to pray for Ricardo to have good dreams, dreams that would help him know more about who Jesus really is.

It was a beautiful experience. It led another group of my teammates to become friends with a 20-year-old Muslim guy named Steve who ended up joining us for breakfast and church on Sunday…and then after we’d left town, he went back on his own the following week.

I was so glad I listened to God on doing this team time activity. It was definitely better than shopping.

---

I’m normally up late, but that particular night after talking with Ricardo in the park I fell asleep reading at 10 o’clock. At midnight, I was jolted awake.

I caught my breath and opened my eyes. I’d just had the most vivid dream I’d ever had in my entire life.

I’ve never had a dream with Jesus in it before. Until this night.

I immediately remembered every detail: the team and I were sitting in the grass at our park; I gazed beyond the team where I saw a man and a woman sitting on the bench just behind them. Everything in the background was blurry, like a camera lens out of focus, but suddenly everything clicked and became clear: the man on the bench was Jesus.

At this moment, the dream set into slow motion—I was frozen, unable to speak or move. I wanted to grab my teammates attention, jump up and down and yell, “LOOK GUYS! IT’S JESUS!” But I couldn’t move.

Jesus was dressed arm to ankle in something bright white; he had dark, dark wavy hair pulled back from his face; his eyes were light and beautiful. The woman was indistinct and wearing a head covering. I immediately identified her as “the woman at the well,” or “the woman caught in adultery,” from the gospel accounts in the Bible. I knew as soon as I woke up, but later on, I couldn’t remember which she was. Jesus’ arm was draped over the back of the bench, and he was leaning casually to his right.

Suddenly, a smile spread across Jesus’ face—and then, he winked.

As soon as he winked, everything snapped back into normal speed. I turned to get my teammates’ attention, “Guys! Look!” They turned their heads and saw Jesus for one second, and then watched as he and the woman slowly faded away, like a disappearing mirage.

We were all left smiling at each other asking the question, “Did you just see that?!”

And then, I woke up.

I laughed to myself because I knew exactly what Jesus was saying to me. That wink spoke a thousand words. And in it he said this,

“Katy, you say I’m really here in Albania…and guess what? I am! It’s not a metaphor, I’m actually here! I’m actually here on this park bench, right now! Isn’t that funny?”

It was like Jesus and I had an inside joke.

“I’m really here with you,” He was saying. “I was really there with you and Ricardo today. Even when you can’t see me like this, I’m still here. I just want you to see me now to remember. I’m always here”

Recalling this dream now makes me blush and smile giddily. I think Jesus is a pretty funny guy. I think he meant everything his wink said: he really was there in Albania with me in that park, and in every single moment before and after that my entire life.

So thank you, Jesus. I see you. You keep doing funny things like giving me daises, and showing up in the most random places and people. Even when I can’t see you on the bench, I know you’re there. You’re never far away. You have the coolest ways of refreshing our souls and making them sing. Just like David wrote in Psalm 63:

“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you”.