Surviving Spouse Corner - December 2024

In April of this year, the President of my church, President Jennings and his wife Nicole, an absolutely wonderful couple, went to Albania and Kosovo.

He shared a very interesting  experience that shows how amazing and awesome God works protecting the people that believe and are close to Him and that also strife with all their hearts to do His will.

This is what he said in his own words:

In April of this year, my wife and I went to visit my parents in Albania and Kosovo. They were serving there as missionaries. The customs and culture are different over there.

One day, in Prisna, Kosovo, my parents were showing us around the town. They took us walking through the city, where we passed by a large street market. On the way home, walking on the sidewalk, we encountered a large, hairy dog. He did not seem threatening to us. He looked up at me, and decided to accompany us on our walk back to my parents' apartment. It is as if he knew where we were going. He walked a few steps ahead of us, but kept looking back at us to make sure we were still with him.

Walking towards us on the sidewalk was a man in the distance. The man saw the dog from far away and began yelling at the dog. We could not understand what he was saying because he was speaking Albanian. As he walked towards us, he got as far away from the dog as he could, still yelling at it and gesturing at it. My wife and I looked at each other, and just thought, this man must be crazy.

We continued on our walk, the dog in front of us still. My Mom commented that the dog had become my friend. Then a woman with a small package in her arms began walking towards us on the sidewalk. She looked at the dog and I could tell she was nervous. The dog began to approach her, he wasn’t barking or growling or doing anything that appeared threatening. The woman, however, yelled and threw her package down at the dog’s feet. The dog sniffed the package, looked back at us, and kept walking down the sidewalk, leading our group. The woman gathered up her package and continued down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

Our group – my wife, and my parents were amazed that so many people seemed to be afraid of this nice dog. Sure he was big, but he seemed very nice. As we continued to walk, another man was walking towards us on the sidewalk. He didn’t seem to notice the dog at all. As we got closer to that man, the dog walked right up to him, and to our surprise, bit him behind the knee.

We were absolutely startled. At this point the dog crossed the street, and began going in a different direction, and the man who had been walking speedily fled from the dog. We now understood the reasons of those other individuals. The dog, who had been our companion for those few city blocks, was dangerous. I’m not sure why we were spared, but surely God had protected us.

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