A couple of days ago, I invited you to pray for the United States.  Today I ask you to pray for another country, a country much different and far removed from America:  Albania. I received last night an email from a missionary friend in Durres, a city on the country's Adriatic coast.  Due to some extremely heavy rains, parts of Durres are flooding uncontrollably, rivers overflowing, houses washed away, livestock dying, and crops ruined.  For a people who still rely heavily for food on what they can grow themselves, the latter is particularly damaging.  The little church my wife visited when we were in the Balkans last summer may soon be inundated, the many hours its congregation put into making it ready for use literally washed away.
     When I asked you to pray for America, I cited Psalm 24.  I mention it once more today. This is a big world.  Things happen every moment of every day.  If God is there, however, even though none of us can see everything that is going on, he does.  Despite everything, the world remains his.  Whether I pray for the people of Durres or the people of the U.S., I only do so because I know that God is there, that he sees, and that he cares.  He is not a God of end but one of beginning, not a God of perfidy and condemnation but a God of redemption.
     Over and above everything, yes, hope remains.  It remains because God does, too.
     Pray for America, pray for Albania, pray for the world God has made.