I’ve been in Albania now for 5 days. I think my living standards have actually improved since living in Xenia, OH. No, I’m not kidding. It’s not so much a testament to how bad Xenia was as much as how nice Albania is and more specifically how well Hope for the World, Albania has treated us! As I look back over the past two weeks, from preparing to leave to travel to our short time here in Albania so far, I can see God’s hand everywhere!
I’ll recall a few of the examples of where I have witnessed God protecting his plan.
A week before flying out of OH I was riding my friend’s motorcycle late at night. The speed limit had just dropped from 70 MPH to 55 MPH and I was a little tired and wasn’t paying attention. I passed a cop and as I looked in the mirror after he passed me (because admit it, that’s what you do too) I saw his break lights come on and him make a quick u-turn. I knew I was in DEEP trouble! This wasn’t going to be a normal traffic stop for me (yes, I’ve had enough experiences to know what’s normal and what’s not). I got pulled over last winter for speeding and again for not using my turn signal in the spring. In OH if you get 3 tickets within a year you are required to go to court. So if I got another ticket I essentially wouldn’t be allowed to go on the World Race because I’ll have a court date in a few weeks that isn’t exactly optional. I told the police officer (that was probably younger than myself) I was leaving the country in less than a week to go on a missions trip for a year and I was just out saying some last minute goodbyes. I tried my best to sound pitiful…missionary…saying goodbye for a year…I’m tired…etc. In the end he wound up giving me a warning! – Praise the Lord!
This next story is completely my fault for procrastinating but God still gave me grace in the end. It was 8 pm, September 4th, literally 5 hours before I left to drive to the airport to fly to Atlanta. I realized that I never got my power of attorney in the mail and it needed to be notarized in state in order to be valid! I need a power of attorney so that my dad can file my taxes in April since I may very well be living in some jungle in Southeast Asia. I found away to print my power of attorney but it still needed to be notarized. Trying not to panick too much, I started searching online for notaries open late at night. Every notary I called seemed to be unavailable or “out of town”. If I were a notary, that’s exactly what I would say if someone called me on a Friday evening. I finally found one an hour away. I hopped in the car and started driving. About half way there I realized I had NO money on me to pay him. I hoped that maybe I could pay with PayPal or some other online means. I wasn’t super hopeful though because he sounded about 800 years old on the phone and what 800 year old knows how to use PayPal? But what other choice did I have? I got there and we started the paper work. I managed to bring my missions trip up in conversation and he seemed very interested and impressed. At the end, he said that he wanted to notarize my power of attorney for free since he thought what I was doing was a “good thing”. – Praise the Lord!
Our squad left the hotel in Atlanta at 9 am Wednesday, September 9th. We had a two and a half hour flight to Chicago. A 10 hour flight to Istanbul, Turkey. Another two hour flight to Belgrade, Serbia. Most of the other teams on my squad had only a short (a few hours) bus ride to their ministry location in Serbia. However my team still had a 9 hour bus ride to Podgorica, Montenegro that we little nearly missed. We were already beat tired from traveling all day. We paid for our bus ticket and walked through the turnstiles. Our bus ticket said our bus was leaving from bay 7. We looked up and saw our bus driving away! We started to run and scream trying to catch our bus driver’s attention. If we were another 5 seconds later we most likely would have missed our bus ! – Praise the Lord! We finally arrived in Montenegro at around 7 am in the morning. We had to wait a few hours for our last bus ride to Albania. After yet another bus ride, this one lasting only 4 hours, we arrived in Albania’s capital, Tirana! From there, we were picked up by our host and a short 30 minute drive brought us to Camp Hope for the World, Albania!! My team traveled for a straight 48 hours! No one on our 45 person squad got lost, no one lost their bags (even with three separate flights), we all arrived safely to all of our ministries with no hiccups! – Praise the Lord!
We’ve been here at our ministry for 5 days now and we’re starting to see the impact that we’re having here on the teens! We’re staying at an orphanage for teens 15-18 years old. There are 7 teens currently living here. These kids actually have it extremely well off! They have nice clothes, very nice facilities to stay sleep and shower in, smart phones with wifi, food provided, places to play soccer, basketball, volleyball, ping pong and TVs to watch movies on the weekends. All within a gated and walled off compound that has a guard out front at all times. They are bused to and from school ever day. They are given transportation to a small baptist church in Tirana on Sundays. The teens are allowed to stay here until they are 18 years old and then they have to leave. The staff’s fears and concerns are that the teens take their current living standards for granted and when they face the real world it’s going to be a very difficult transition for them.
A large part of our ministry is to build relationships with the teens and talk about what it looks like to have a relationship with God. They need to realize how fortunate they are compared to others. It’s critical that they develope important life skills that they’ll need very soon to survive! They need to realize that just because we are Americans doesn’t mean we have it all together. We have lots of problems too and we are working to share our testimonies with the,! They idolize Hollywood and the entertainment industry as well so we are trying to shed light on just how dark of a place Hollywood actually is.
Would you pray for my team as we struggle to build into these teens? Pray that as we also visit other local orphanages we can have a lasting impact and that we can serve the people here full time that have dedicated their lives to the Albanians.
I current stand at 79% funded! I only need another $3,400 to be fully funded! It’s been awesome to see God provide through all of you wonderful people out there! I obviously wouldn’t be here without all of you! Subscribe to my blog and share with your friends if you want!
