With just a few days left in Albania, I’ve been reflecting on all that the Lord has done in and through me in this country. First off, I’ll explain where I’ve been and what’s been going on!
The transition from Romania to Albania was kind of hard on me. Not that I wanted to stay in Romania, there was just a lot of change and emotion. First of all, I was still in the Logistics role, which means I was planning the mini debrief before we left as well as the travel for the squad to Albania. That in itself had its own issues and is sometimes emotionally taxing, but on top of that, I had already been given the role of Team Leader. So I was holding both of these positions while trying to prepare myself for the next country, clean the whole house with the squad, coordinate when and where the bus would pick us up, and also carry the weight of knowing one of my good friends on the Race would be going home. I spent this whole day holding back tears. Then we finally get on the bus to head to Albania – about a 16 hour drive and I was awake the whole time because a Log person has to be. It somewhat worked out so I could internally process a little bit, but still rough. We had been told the bus would drop each team off in their city in Albania and that my team would be the last to be dropped off. We cross the border into Albania and the driver tells me that in 5 minutes, my team is getting dropped off to get on another bus to go to Durres – we were the first to leave. This doesn’t seem like a big deal in itself, but, as I’ve said, there was a lot of emotional turmoil in myself and I had prepared to be the one sending other people off and getting to say bye to them. And also we had 5 minutes to process and get off… THEN, we have about a 45 minutes drive to our airbnb in Durres. We arrive to the apartment and check in, the owner is super sweet and shows us around the apartment then leaves. I make sure the team is all good, come up with a rough plan for the rest of the day, then I go take a nap because I hadn’t slept in like 40 hours. The girls come in the room and wake me up with this statement, “Um, there’s mold all throughout the house…” Not exactly how I wanted to be woken up. So I jump out of bed and look around and try to come up with a new plan. It’s a whole thing – we can’t stay there for health reasons, the owner won’t answer the phone, when I text her she doesn’t understand the problem, we go back and forth, she won’t give us a refund, I have to go to AirBnb to file a claim, and on top of that, we don’t know where we’re going to sleep that night. So I call our ministry host, who I hadn’t even met yet, and explain the situation. She was so kind and helped find a new place, offered her house to us for the night, and then once we found a new place, she sent her husband to come pick us up and take us there! He loads our stuff into the van, stops to get us pizza on the way, and helps bring our stuff up to our new apartment – so kind! It was a rough start but completely turned around with such kind hosts!
Our host, Alecia, is the pastor of the church we worked with called GraceLife – an international church plant based out of South Africa. We partnered with this church but more than working in the church, we actually mostly just received hours of training! Over the 6 weeks we were in Durres, we did 3 different courses on evangelism! On Wednesdays we had Engage Muslims with Christ, where we learned more about the Islamic religion and how to effectively share the Gospel with them. If I haven’t said yet, Albania is not technically an Islamic state, but majority have at least a Muslim background. On Fridays, we had Silence Breakers – a course out of Australia where we learned tools to share the Gospel! After the session, we would go out for activation and pray with people on the street, share the Gospel, or share our testimonies with people! Then on Saturdays, we did a course from GraceLife called School of the Believer, which mostly talked through Scripture – what we believe and why. My time in Durres was so sweet. I gained so much knowledge in Scripture, confidence in my faith, and boldness in sharing the Gospel. It was this realization that I really am part of the Great Commission. We spent most of our time in class or evangelizing on the streets, as well as establishing relationships with people to meet with a couple times.
One day for activation, Libby and I went out together to share the Gospel. We hadn’t really talked to anyone yet and just kept asking God for just one. We walk past this store and then I felt the Lord telling me to turn around and go talk to the girl in the boutique. So we do. We start talking and then I share the Gospel with her. I hadn’t even gotten all the way through and she had so much to say and so many questions! She has a Muslim background but doesn’t practice, but still believes in Allah (their god). She said she loves hearing about other religions. So Libby shares part of her testimony, we talk a little more, and then invite her to go get coffee that week to talk more. So a few days later, we got lunch with her to talk more about it. She stated that she believes in God but doesn’t think we need Muhammad or Jesus to get to him. (*Muslims believe Jesus existed but that he was just a prophet but that Muhammad was the last and greatest prophet – they do not believe Jesus is the Son of God. Their god Allah is also not the same as our God.) So we explain why we do need Jesus – that he literally is the Way to God – and more about who Jesus is. We read her Scripture and show her the Bible. We got coffee one more time with her before we left. Libby brought her an Albanian bible and we read her the parable of the lost sheep and explained how Jesus is the great Shepherd who leads and loves us. She loved the story and what all we told her about Jesus! She said she would read some of the New Testament! She was so appreciative of us sharing with her. Although she did not accept Jesus Christ then, we will continue praying that she will someday!
Durres was such a gift to me in so many ways. The Lord taught me so much about Him, the call on all Christians lives, evangelism, leadership, my future, and more. The 6 weeks in Durres were incredible, but also just a lot on me emotionally. We hit the half way point of the Race, a lot of us felt that deeply. I was holding so much – missing home, worrying about life after the Race, grieving the loss of my dog, holding the emotions of my team, still processing my friend going home, etc. Even though the Squad Leaders and mentor are incredible and checked in every week, it was hard being the TL without a SQL with me. At times I felt like I was all alone. Pastor Alecia was so influential to me – seeing the way she led her church and led under her husband in the family was so powerful to me. This season taught me so much about leadership and what it looks like for me as a woman. Alecia and I talked over coffee one day about the role of emotions in leadership, specifically in women in leadership. She shared how sometimes it really is a burden. I’ve realized we have to learn how to operate and lead with emotion, not from it. I heard Alecia’s stories and have seen it in my own short life in leadership. I’ve now seen where I can grow and where I have grown in this. This season truly is preparing me for my future and I am so excited!
The past month or so has been a lot of finding the balance between dreaming with God about my future and planning. But it‘s been so fun to dream!! I’ve had a dream for my future for years, and in this season, as I’ve been learning all these things, the Lord has changed and added to that dream! I am so thankful for this experience on the Race and so excited to see what comes of it after I get home in July!
A few weeks into Durres, SQLs told me to start preparing the team for 2 weeks of ATL, which means Ask The Lord. This means that we would have 2 weeks after mini debrief (where we send the Alumni SQLs home) completely unplanned – we need to ask God where he wants us to go, where to stay, and what to do. So we started praying and one girl on my team had heard the name of a tribe in the mountains of northern Albania called Shale. She researched the tribe but found out is was way in the mountains and we couldn’t stay there, so she looked up the closest city and then, without telling us anything, waited for confirmation from someone else on the team on if that’s the city God wants. Another girl heard the city of Shkoder – which was the city the first girl found. Pastor Alecia actually knew of a church there and so we said if they want us, we’ll work with them. They said they would love us to come and they had a place for us to stay! So here we are – in Shkoder! We are working with a church/school that has a story so wild that I could not believe it was actually real…I’ll share more about that in another blog! Our mornings are spent in the Word, studying and praying, and our afternoons are spent either in the streets ATLing or at the after school program, just playing with the kids and showing them love! It’s been such a sweet time of rest, life, and loving people.
We leave Tuesday to meet up with the squad and head to Turkey!!!! We will go to Istanbul for a week and a half of debrief and training all together, with our mentor and coaches!
Please be praying for our travel to and our time in Turkey!
As always, reach out to me if you have any questions! Thank you for your love and support!
