Life without my husband

Life is like a storm that collides but when we know that we have someone important who leads us to where we are supposed to go and He is someone that found me when I did not know where to lean on and everything in my life had no meaning. Jesus was always there. Foto
In 2000 I had a brochure in my hand with Bible stories. The first story that I started to read was the story of Jesus on the cross and God started to touch me through that story. Immediately I went and told someone that was close to me that I started to read something really interesting.  I told them that this person whose name is Jesus is innocent and look how the people beat Him and mistreated Him. During the time that I shared that story something in my heart would move. However, because I was in a Muslim family, it was very hard to express myself.
One month I saw crowds of people coming at a restaurant in front of my house where I used to live. They were preaching from the Bible but I couldn’t go regularly even though it was close to where we used to live.   Our dad was very difficult and I couldn’t dare to ask him if I could go join that group of people and see what they’re teaching. If I asked him if I could go there I knew that he was going to threaten me even with my life.  A year passed by and I started listening to worship music and this would make me feel amazing. I couldn’t dare to read the Bible much because the mentality of my family was like that of my father. One day I was invited to a family meeting and I didn’t know that God made it possible for the man that I was supposed to marry to be invited there to that party. We introduced ourselves and he wanted me to have 10 minutes to talk to him. He told me that he likes me and that he had seen me 2 years ago but he didn’t have a chance to meet with me but he knew who I was.
He told me that he likes me a lot and knowing that he knew me very well he asked me to go out with him on a walk so that we can talk more. So we went and talked about a lot of things. However, after 2 weeks I saw him again because he came over to my family’s house in Peja and my family accepted him because I already told them about him. It was at that time that he proposed to me and he told me that he was very busy directing some children’s meeting and also was in charge of taking care of the church that he was staying at.
In 2002 we were engaged and after 3 months we were married. Life went by and I was the happiest person in the world because I was blessed in this marriage. God blessed us with three kids; two daughters and a son and it was a huge blessing for me. He was the Pastor of the Protestant Church and we were a very blessed family with our kids growing up but the years went by so fast.
One night in Dec 28th, 2016 an explosion and fire destroyed our church where we also used to live.  The building was burned completely. The kids and I were safe but Skender wasn’t. He was in critical condition as we were trying to do everything we could to take him outside of the country for treatment.  On January 8th, 2017 he died, God decided to take him by His side. Life is very hard without him.
He was a very good dad to our kids and to the church as well as a very amazing husband to me. We miss him more every day because it is very hard to live life without the other half of your body. We are trying to walk forward and God is taking care of us in a very amazing way and He keeps us in His hand so that we can be strong in Him alone.
Now we live in an apartment which we rent, but I know God has a plan for us as He has been providing every single need.  He will also provide a home that will be ours. We are all praying.

– written by: Valbona Hoti