Sometimes I have to pinch myself, just to make sure I’m really truly on this journey.
Last month was month 6 of my Race – it was spent in Albania, a little hidden gem in Southeastern Europe, bordered by Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Greece.
Before I signed up for the Race, the route I chose did not include Albania.
To be perfectly honest, Albania had never been a country that had ever really registered in my mind as being a place worth visiting or even worth researching.
The only time I had ever heard of Albania was when I watched the movie Taken – so as you can imagine, the limited knowledge I had about the place included thoughts of human trafficking and scary men.
So when our route was changed and we were told that we would be heading to Albania month 6, part of me was apprehensive and sceptical, and the other part didn’t even think about it as a real nation.
I literally knew nothing about it.
After spending 5 months in Asia, we headed to Albania, our very first European country in our route.
We spent 16 hours flying overnight, and arrived in the tiny airport in the morning, tired and hungry and ready to rest.
However, you must remember that we’re on the World Race, so things occasionally don’t go as planned.
My team was one of the last teams to leave the airport, as one of the only modes of transportation to the city center was a small shuttle bus that sometimes came every half hour or so – key word “sometimes”.
And then it would “sometimes” leave if the bus was full of passengers.
We also noticed, as women who had lived in Asia for 5 months where the men would generally only look at us out of curiosity because of our skin colour, that the men were rather attentive to us.
As in, they would not stop staring.
By the time we arrived at our hostel in the early afternoon, we were overwhelmed with the hustle and bustle of the city of Tirana – the capital of Albania – and by the attention we were receiving from the male population.
While all of these things were going on, we had to remind ourselves to get down to the business of the month!
Our focus this month was once again Unsung Heroes – finding and connecting with ministries and organizations to connect the World Race with so that they can send teams to work with them in the future.
The month started out slow… before reaching Albania, all we had done was find a list of potential contacts online, but we hadn’t contacted any of them.
Throughout our time in Tirana, however, the Lord showed up for us – no surprise there!
We connected with countless incredible followers of Christ from all over the world who are doing life in Albania, all while obeying the call to spread Jesus’ love to everyone around them.
It was a privilege to have the opportunity to join up with them and also work alongside them in their ministries.
I realized over and over again how united this community of believers is, and how rare and unique this is in the church today.
All of these people live their lives with the knowledge that each and every one of them is here for the exact same reason: to share love with all who need it.
At the end of the month, we didn’t just end up with a list of contacts that would be suitable for World Race teams to work with in the future – we found that we actually had become part of this community of believers and had been welcomed in with open arms.
I came into this month unprepared and my first impression of the country was – frankly – quite a shock.
But in my unpreparedness, Jesus pleasantly surprised me with an overwhelming sense of belonging among my brothers and sisters in this hidden gem of a nation.
So now we’re on to our next month – month 7 in Bulgaria!
My only request right now is for you to keep the missionaries in Albania in your prayers.
These faithful people are obeying their calling in this place, and just like anywhere else in the world, it can be draining to do that sometimes.
Pray that they continue to seek Jesus’ will in their everyday lives as well as in their ministries.
And be encouraged that God’s glory is being proclaimed in every single nation, even the ones we as North Americans don’t necessarily know about!
Tirana from the top of a mountain – the capital of Albania and the city where we spent our month
