Life is crazy. More like God is crazy.
Before I started this trip I thought my only gift from God was children’s ministry. Being able to love on kids and tell his story. When I’m with kids I feel like myself and everything comes easily. Well in the last two weeks God has shown me something new.
Do you ever find yourself standing in line at the grocery store and the person in front of you starts to talk but it’s very little conversation about the type of pasta you’re buying, then you nod and say goodbye and just like that you go your separate ways. But what if I told you the conversation doesn’t have to stop there? What if you started talking, you ask them their name and what they were doing today. Then you ask them to go get coffee, not just get coffee but you actually buy them coffee and just like that you’ve made a new friend.
Now I know a lot of you may have just cringed and thought to yourself “ Ashleigh stuff like that just doesn’t happen.”
But actually it does because I’ve had happen 3 times since I’ve been here. Here in Albania it’s a cultural norm that if you ask someone to go get coffee later that week, right then and there you pick the date and time you’ll meet. It’s not like in America where you say “ we should go get coffee! [other person] That sounds great!” You walk away knowing thats not actually going to happen but it was a nice gesture.
So the day we went to the castle we also drove to a lake. It was gorgeous and such a great vibe. Well Lincoln decides that he wants to go for a swim, so we’re underneath this restaurant by these white pillars and Abigail starts to throw rocks into the water ( she may or may not have been trying to hit Lincoln…) When a man leans over the restaurant above us and says, “ don’t you know how gross that water is?” Sydney D., Abagail and I all look at Lincoln and respond the the guy kinda laughing and then we start a conversation about where we’re from. Turns out he’s from Michigan and he’s lived there for the past 20 years! So he invites us up to the restaurant to buy all four of us a drink! ( soda of course 😉 ) We were in awe of his generosity and talked about why we were in Albania. He wished us good luck and to enjoy our time!
That same day a group of us a met a girl Antela, she’s 17 a senior in high school. We met her at the local market and we picked up a conversation with her. The conversation was going great and I told her we should go get coffee sometime. With no hesitation at all she says ‘when?’ I told her how about Saturday around 10, (which turned into 9) she says okay and later that week a group of us are walking into town with her and she buys the 5 of us coffee! Just like that we made a new friend! We got to talk to her about why we’re here and we learned so much about her life.
Lastly is probably my favorite. A small group of us walked into town after lime washing all morning to get wifi to talk to our families. We were sitting there for awhile when Kyle wanted to go explore an abandoned building. So Kyle, Lincoln and I set off for this new adventure. We climbed to the top and was in awe of the view. After the building we all agreed to keep walking further into town. Lincoln wanted Burrek ( a traditional pastry. also I may have spelt that wrong so oh well). We stopped in this tiny bread shop to buy one when a man came in and could tell we were having a hard time translating. He spoke really good english and helped us out. At this point we start talking to this man about where we come from, why we’re here and he starts to tell us a little about him. Well I wanted a different type of pastry and asked him where we could find it. He started giving us directions but it was hard to follow along, so he said, “follow me” and took us deeper into town straight to the best ice cream place in Lezhe. As we started to pull out our wallets he told us no and he bought us ice cream!! Blown away by the conversation and the fact this stranger just bought us food, he asked if we had time to show us around town and so of course we said yes. He took us to some old church ruins and talked about the culture and how he would make a difference in his town. We walked along the river (which is very polluted ) and told us its around this time everyone goes out to get coffee, so I bet you already know we went and got coffee with him on top of this hotel Jolly. (we bought him coffee this time). Time had passed and we had to get back home to eat dinner. He offered to walk back with us because he was curious of this new place we spoke of, not knowing how far it actually was he walked more than halfway back with us!
These are just some of the amazing things God has done these past two weeks! I feel like God has shown me a door to a new type of ministry. It’s just going out and talking with a stranger and offering to buy them coffee and getting to know them! Making relationships and being able to share the gospel while just being out in town.
Also all day Sunday at the beach I got to play with about 20+ kids throughout the day and it made my heart smile!
I challenge you that maybe this week get to know someone new. Whether that be the person in line at Starbucks, the grocery store, the person you past by everyday in a different part of the office. Or maybe you go out with the purpose of getting to know someone. It seems scary but It’s a great opportunity to make new friends and step out of your comfort zone! Let God use you this week 🙂
p.s Danielle and I were proposed to twice on Saturday within 5 minutes. I mean it was pretty funny but American boys need to step up their game haha just kidding 😉
