Hello Everyone
Hello Everyone! I am finally caught up and back on track! I have just spent my first two weeks in Albania!
Life Update
We got into Albania and when we moved into the housing we originally selected we found mold and had to move. We were able to find a place that same day and I was gorgeous! We have been working out team dynamics with Emily as our new team leader and I have personally enjoyed the addition of more structure, though the prior leadership style showed me all I need was God and I didn’t have to worry about plans. The apartment is beautiful, the veiw is beautiful and the country is beautiful! We are blessed to be on the water and having moderate weather with an occational 65°F and I am so grateful for it. The sun and warmth have helped my mental health greatly and the lighter spiritual atmosphere is nicer too. We are learning what it looks like to live in Albania and so far I have enjoyed it. We are starting our journey of learning how to best interact with people of Islamic faith next so I have lots to look forward to. We have been doing three different programs at about double the speed and I am learning so much about Islam and evangelism.
What’s God doing in Albania?
Travel was leaving at 7pm by bus, driving through Bulgaria, Serbia, and North Macedonia before getting into Albania at about 9am, then we took a van from the bus for a couple more hours to our location in Durrës. We got in at about 11:30am.
Monday our first day in Albania! After our long travel we found mold at our first housing site, so we moved out, got refunded and found a place closer to the city center to move into. We got to meet the husband Host named Carol and he very kindly drove us to our new location. (He spoke Afrikaans which reminded me of one of my best friends mother) He also bought us pizza for dinner, which was just over the top sweet of him. The apartment was lovely with a great view but we were all exhausted so after discussing food plans for the week, we went to sleep early.
Tuesday was a meeting and tour day with our Host Alecia. We stopped at an ATM, ate lunch out and went grocery shopping. The sun was out and the weather was beautiful! We met up at 3 with Alecia and she was also lovely and kind. We also met Vitas and together the showed us around the city with notes on the best and cheapest places. We stopped at a shop to eat treats, drink tea and talk about what ministry looked like and got a general schedule. Next more tour ending at her house where we met A and her two kids and we all had pasta and tea and got to know eachother. We went home, had a planning meeting then went to bed.
Every morning I start out with a beautiful yummy breakfeast with fruit, my multivitamin drink, sunshine and reading my Bible.
Wednesday was the day we would be starting our ministry activities for the week. Mornings are set up for us to be tourists and make connections, so we went to a coffee shop on the beach to do some catch up on work and things. We had luch at home at met up with Alecia at 3 to go into the local mosque. While I was praying God gave me a mission of a bubble around it that encouraged and let people in but wouldn’t let them out and when we went in it felt empty in the main room but as if the lie of it being the “same God” clouded the stairwell up to it and ended with a lie about being peaceful. It was a weird experience. I didn’t know a thing about Islam really. That day we started our “Engage” teaching with Alecia where we learned about: Muslims are lost people because Jesus is the only way, Islam is practice based, Islam is the religion and Muslim is the person, the creation story in a way Muslim people can easily understand it, how Muslims don’t see Jesus for who he is and so can’t have relationship with God, how important it is to know what we believe and why and stand on foundational truth. After we went home, ate dinner, blogged and went to sleep.
Thursday was tourist evangelism/connections in the morning then we did Life group with Alecia and we all met up with her at her house and had a tine where we went over the story of the wise men and that signifigance then had fellowship time with the people there who we had just met. Some people were very challenging for me to tolerate but Alecia helped me get through it. We went home after, made a dont forget to put on the armor of God poster for our door, did feedback, team time and went to bed.
Friday was our first day of silence breakers with Vitas. We went to Alecias house at 9am and sat in the heated kitchen to watch the videos. We did a teaching/intro video on the class and how we are called to do this work then did a prayer walk in pairs. I was with Kiley and we tried to make a connection to a waiter at a coffee shop halfway through. Then we met back up and watched a video on healing and how we are qualified to do this work before going out onto the streets to pray for healing for people in pairs again. I went with Libby and we asked like 15 people if they needed prayer for healing. One said yes but it was not for healing, it was for her kids safety, so we prayed with her and she was very grateful. We met up at a pasta shop all together and talked about the sessions while we ate a late lunch. Then we went home to rest before dinner, feedback and team time.
Saturday was 9-3 School of Believers with Carol where we talked about: Abiding in Jesus, Multiplication mindeset, how to disciple people, God desiring all mankind to be saved, US being sent, living in mission where you are, God changing desires, living as an ambassador, motivations/ response not obligation, and it being a big “harvest” with few “workers” and the actual statistics. We ate lunch at the house between videos. After it was over we were driven to a Wesleyan church youth group to help with their English practice. We listened to a teaching, played human Foosball, then talked with the kids to help them practice English. After, we went home, at dinner, did feedback and team time and went to bed.
Sunday was church! Vitas was in charge of worship and the message that day so it was not exactly the usual. He did a great job. He taught on the value of God’s love for us, abiding in Jesus, how God’s love affects our lives by lighting up your love for Him, satisfying you and give you contentment, giveing you the right perspective through which you can serve, strengthening our endurance in the faith, and providing a stable relationship with Him, being bold because of our identity in Him, and Grace changing us. We spoke up front about who we were and what we were doing there too. We then drove to an Albanian church to see what it was like and were surprised by a guest speaker from Texas. The church was friendly and the message was good. We went home after, ate, and did feedback. Then for teamtime everyone brought a worship song that describes what they were going through at the moment and explained before playing the song and we prayed for each person at the end of their song. Then we went to bed.
Monday was Adventure day! We got up and got on a bus to Tirana at 10am. 30 min bus to a 1hr long one before we got to where we wanted. We day the Tirana Step pyramid then explored our wat through the city to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. We ate and played a get to know you game called peel the onion. Next we went shopping on “castle” street (we thought it was going to be a castle) and I got a gorgeous ring. It was cold dreary and rainy all day so I decided to lighten to mood and take silly pictures with Kiley and Kelsey. Finding a bus home was a nightmare and the bus through the city eneded up Bing about 2 hours because of traffic, before we got on the bus for 30 minutes to get to Durrës. We walked home ate dinner, watched a movie together and another movie with just me and Kiley and went to bed.
Tuesday was Sabbath. I went to a coffee shop to have a call with Alayna from 10-11, then I went to the beach, picked some cool shells and rocks up, watched the water, sat at a restaurant and ordered and ate a whole pizza, me up with Libby, sketched a bit, took a nap on the beach, got gelato, watched the sunset, then walked home. Alecia and Kelsey made us soup so we ate that and went to bed.
Wednesday we prayed for Kiley, Kelsey, and Libby before their meet up with their connection, then me and Emily went to the landlords café called Princ and we talked with each of the couple who were are land lords and planned, journal’s, caught up on work in the in between. The were happy to see us and kindly paid for our drinks. We went home ate lunch, met up with Alecia and bussed to a beach to do our next Engage at a café. We learned about the history of the Islamic religion and who and what Mohammed did. We also made goals for the week ahead and mine was to abide with God and make a connection. We didn’t quite finish but it was getting dark and the weather was kinda gross so we bussed back, parted ways and finished reading the chapter at home amongst ourselves. We did feedback and teamtime and I went to bed late that night for no reason lol.
Thursday me and Kiley went to the Cafe we went to last week to see if the waiter was there and he was not. Kiley prayed that God would direct us but in our bias we walked to a different Cafe, only to find smoky air and staring people, so we went back to the original and picked our seats outside and upwind of the smokers. The wind changed but we stayed anyway. We journalled and talk about church planting and all the while a woman behind us played with a cat. By the time it was time to leave I really wanted to talk to the lady so I had Kiley go “take a picture” with the cat. The cat scratched at her and the woman stood up to advise us. We all started talking and we hit it off really well, so much so we ended up sitting with her and talking for another 30 minutes. We planned to hang out later. We left very excited for the connection we made! We went produce shopping as planned, came home, ate lunch, then left again to make connections. We talked to the woman at the library and she was sweet and really knowledgeable on touristy things but didn’t want to hang out later. We stayed out a bit longer before heading home. We ate, did feedback then for teamtime I helped do color season analysis for everyone and we made a fake “family tree” for the whole squad. I went to bed early.
Friday was Silence Breakers with Vitas the first video was teaching us how we are all called to evangelism and gave us a gospel sharing tool called The three Circles. We practiced it, the. Went out in pairs. I was with Vitas and he helped me gain move confidence which was a gift from God. Then we stopped for lunch at a sandwich place before walking back and watching the second video about making disciples not decisions and not just leaving people alone once they decide to give their lives to Christ. Then we went out and did the 3 circles thing again and I was with Kelsey this time. We did have a encounter that was a tad scary but we had some good conversations too. Overall I talked to 8 people about Jesus on the street that day. We went home, ate, did feedback and teamtime then went to bed.
Saturday was School of Believers again with Carol. We learned about: How Christians should be living as ambassadors, renewing our minds, living from intimacy. Being co-laborers, praying against spiritual blindness, asking questions, stepping out, being awkward, being confident, being ready, sharing being a success, common ground creating comfort, just going for it, starting with what we know, God wanting to us us, praying we are sensitive to hear and know what God wants, familiarizing ourselves with Him and His message, being in right standing and our witness being our lives, our testimony being our story and the gospel being our message. We ate sandwiches for lunch halfway through and had lots of tea again. We were driven to youth group again and sat in on the teaching, played 4 square, and helped with English with get to know you questions. We git pizza on the way home, got home, ate, did feedback and teamtime and went to bed.
Sunday was Kileys birthday so I went out early to get her a bouquet then we all went to church. We shared our story about meeting the girl at the Cafe and Alecia started a new series on the power of prayer. She spoke about: Jesus challenging us with John 14:12-14, God is never changing, prayer leads to experience, then she gave a definition of prayer “when we purposely put our focus on God, where we activivate faith and walk in authority to release Gods power into situations, where we recieve from God, where we surrender to God and where we relate to Him in a personal and power.”, Prayer is not about us. It’s about focusing on God, prayer always has a result prayer is for everyone, we should be a house of prayer and continually in prayer, and the Benifits of prayer with Acts 9:40, 12:5, John 11:41-44, Acts 10:9-15
God focused, Activated Faith, Recieved from God, Surrendered to God, and John 17: 1-5 with Jesus’ prayer being personal and generational. We talked with the new guy at church, ate luch them went to Alecias to help with some organization in her home. After we finished we went home, ate, did feedback and foe teamtime did prophetic birthday notes to Kiley. Then we went to bed.
Monday was Adventure day again but almost everyone was feeling under the weather so only me and Kiley went out and I got a facial as she got her nails painted. The. We went shopping for special dinner and treats. We made soup homemade noodles and a immunity boosting tea for dinner and we all watched a movie. Pausing halfway we had fresh cut fruit with chocolate for drizzling and fresh made chocolate carmel corn for dessert. We watch one othe more then we all went to bed.
Tuesday was Sabbath and I slept in till 11 then ate leftover soup, I just relaxed and watched TV, then made dinner, ate with a movie then cought up on the Islam history videos and blogged until it was time for bed.
What’s it like in Albania?
The people: The people of Romania warm up to strangers pretty quick. You are judged on character and the charactor of others you are friends with. If you break a friendship that is the end as they are a very shame and honor culture. When communism was around they labled their national religion as atheism, but are predominantly Muslim people who follow Islam now.
The younger generation is better with English, but it is not as common as it was in Romania.
The people of Albania love to walk and can spot a non native easily because of it. There are almost no taxi type services here. At different times of day you see different age groups out walking. Older in the morning, and younger as the day goes by. If it is daytime, you will see people for sure. Business will even temporarily close for the workers or bosses to go on coffe breaks, so the coffe shops always have people in them during the day.
Pedestrians have the right of way on cross walks for sure and I believe in general too since they cross roads casually no matter if it’s a crosswalk or not.
The clothing: Again, everyone has nice clothes if they can afford it and are very fashionable. Similar to Romania they are dressed very European. You will see Muslim people dressed in their traditional fashion with Hijobs to cover their heads but they still are matching the European fashion style of the area.
The weather: It basically has 3 seasons and we are here for the coldest so it is a little chilly (like 50°). It is like a crisp fall here but it won’t get any colder than now since we came on the coldest week of the year. Everyone is wearing winter attire to keep warm but it will not snow here.
Other:
Oranges fresh and beautiful are all over and I am in love with it! Also, they have beautiful produce and the first crisp apple I have eaten since the race started!
Street dogs are also a thing here and you will see a couple around the city center, beach and side streets. It is a lot less than Guatemala though. They have their ears tagged and are much better fed so I assume there is something in place to deal with that issue.
On the downside Durrës apparently doesn’t like movie theaters as there are 0 where we are staying, so praise God for streaming services!
Fundraising Update
Fully funded but if you want to help with food, toiletries, self care or adventures, feel free to give via Venmo. My at is @AnahbelleGregg
I am greatful for everything everyone has given and anything people are willing to give further <3
Spiritual Update
The spiritual atmosphere here is a lot lighter than in Romania and you can feel it instantly. I had my team pray for me that I would grow to desire to read the Bible and God one upped that prayer and not only do I have a desire to read the Bible, but I also making Jesus my place of comfort out of instinct. We have been learning a lot about Islam, evangelism and missionaries here and I have grown just a smidge in my heart for the lost. I didn’t realize how many unreached people there are in Islamic countries because of the fear of persecution amd lack of attention/knowledge. I have been thinking a lot about what a Church would look like in the states if it was really living “on mission” as a community, and with each person’s life as worship to God, and have been jotting down notes on what it could look like, so if God wants He can use that for something. I am stepping out in faith and listening for God and I can’t wait to see what He is going to do.
Prayers
My team is a little under the weather this week, so pray for heath and healing for them and that future sickness does not come.
Pray for us to make connections and be able to share Jesus with them. And also pray for vision and dream where Jesus show up to them.
Pray for the girl we met at the coffee shop (she is a Christian) but pray Gkd uses us to encourage and connect with her and we’ll as connect her to a Christian community.
Pray that we retain all that we are learning over all these sessions and we put them into practice now and in the future.
Pray for me to continually grow in intimacy and delight with God and live life on mission with my life lived as an act of worship to Him.
And I pray for all of you reading that God pours out His love and protection over your lives and that He fills you all with the Holy Spirit so you can live out the callings for your lives with boldness
Answered Prayers
Everyone did get to their ministry locations safely
I am growing in intimacy in my realtionship with God
Thank you
Thank you all so much for your continued love and support. This trip is going to make a lasting change in my life and the lives of many others. I an so grateful for the opportunity to wake up everyday and live a life on overseas mission while each of you is on the mission field back home. Thank you for joining with me on this adventure God gifted us as our lives!
