Monday, May 11, 2015

God is working even if the Ministry of Health isn't

April 14 was a day when I could really relate to the movie, "The Blindside." After working in Kosovo since 1999, working in occupational therapy in Kosove since 2001, the health inspector finally paid me a visit. It has always been a bit unnerving knowing that I was practicing a health profession that is new to the country and no one from the health department has bothered to check my credentials. So I was a bit excited and encouraged when I got the frantic text from my assistant that the health commission was at the clinic. They had left however before I arrived. My assistant was frazzled because they asked a lot of pressing questions. She told me they would be back. I told her how pleased I was they finally came. It showed progress for this country that there might be a hint of professional accountability rising. I told her that they are "more than welcome" to come back, we have nothing to hide. Well, they came..... the inspector was the very opposite of a smiley man. He insisted I show him my professional license, I gladly showed him my UK OT license. He said, "No, where is your license from Kosovo?" I told him that I had applied in December and was still waiting to hear back from them. He did not accept this and said, "As of tomorrow morning, your doors will be closed until you get your Kosovo license." I didn't see that one coming! I was shocked, as was my staff and my poor clients didn't know what to think as I clearly didn't do a very good job fighting back the tears.

This event totally didn't make sense. Until I realised, due to the timing, that it totally DID make sense. Our team had just returned from a great field forum time full of worship, prayer and telling testimonies of what God had been doing around the Balkans. Just a couple of weeks prior to that, our Kosova team had a fantastic "vision" retreat which was very clearly Holy Spirit lead. One can almost laugh at the lack of creativity that satan (he doesn't deserve a capitol S before his name) has. It was very clear that he was bent out of shape about what we were doing. He went on a bit of a rampage with our team members after returning to Kosovo. When will he ever learn that no matter what he throws at us, he will NEVER win?

Because of this unscheduled "time out", the Lord has been resurrecting a vision He had given me a few years ago, and not only in me but has put it in other IW's working our area. The vision is for a prayer and worship house to opened up in our city. God has been heightening the need for prayer in the hearts of those who work here. There is no stronger and more powerful ammo against satan than people praying and worshipping Jesus. The guy just hates that and he crumbles in the face of it.

So as I fight the "don't call us, we'll call you" apathy from the ministry of health, the Lord continues to build momentum for great things to come. Not only that, He continues to strengthen that which He has already begun, new life, in other Kosovars and their ministries. The Lord never sleeps, He never slumbers, He doesn't turn aside nor forget us, He is ALWAYS at work and His work is ALWAYS Good!