Hey guys! I know it’s been a while, bare with me! I have a few closing blogs to do, as well as some photo blogs I want you guys to see from the last several months! 🙂
That being said.. I am officially back in America, but, I’ll get to that a little while later 🙂
As I had previously talked about my time in Albania, I wanted to continue reflecting on that particular month, and I’ll tell you why. In Albania, I full-heartedly expected it to be just like every other month in Europe. One that I enjoyed the ministry of, plugged into the host family, and was eagerly awaiting for the month to be over so that I could be closer to the finish line of being done. Please hear me correctly, I have LOVED the race. I have LOVED the different cultures, but after an extended period of time with travel, I was exhausted from allowing my heart to be wrecked in an awesome way of getting to know new people to then turn around and say goodbye.
I had purposely tried to not get attached to people in Albania by keeping a distance from them and not pouring into the family (it somewhat helped that the host family was super busy with the health of their sweet little girl, and new baby on the way), but that’s also not the healthiest way to go about things, which I understand. I want to do a huge shout out to God though, because that is not how my time in Albania ended…
On the very last night we were in town, one of the hosts’ friends asked our team out for coffee. We said yes to be nice and went to have coffee with some of the “youth” and the two amazing people we’ve worked along side all month. We had good reflective time, lots of laughter, stories, and even some good misinterpretations! At the end of the night we said goodbye, and I was taken aback. I was in utter shock walking home because I had realized at that moment, that as much as I had tried to “hide” this month and close my heart off to these people, I had actually found myself in a state of deep respect for them and sad that I was leaving. They had wedged themselves into my heart and I realized in that moment, that Albania was awesome! We had lots of down time, but we did some of the most profound things that my heart longs for! It was all in the mundane of life… This includes waking up in the morning and having quiet time with my teammates, or cooking dinners with them, or having a birthday party for our host, or even traveling with one another on weekend adventures.
God allowed me to see that you don’t need to fly overseas to be able to see him in the small areas of life, but rather the people whom are in front of you can greatly impact your journey in life- if you let them. I pressed in harder for community than I ever had before (close second is Ukraine), but it was fruitful! It was amazing how God challenged the way I thought of myself, or how coming back to America would look. I was challenged in vulnerability- not just being self aware, but trying to go deeper than that- trying to get to the root cause of things. It was amazing how God showed up and presented himself in the everyday aspects of life. Albania is a close favorite and not completely because of the host friends I made, but because of the time there and what God had been teaching me.
Thanks for awaiting these blogs and having patience with me as I am in process of writing them. Thank you for the support and really getting me here! I really could not have done it without each of you! It has been an awesome adventure, and one that I will always remember as it has been very transformational with my walk with the Lord. From the bottom of my heart- thank you for loving me well and seeing deeper, more chances and opportunities, and growth that could happen on this endeavor then I could have seen for myself. Thank you for believing in me and the things that God could do in and through me! 🙂
