Wow, already almost a month away from home! Albania is beautiful; it’s nothing at all as I expected. The first two weeks in Albania were spent on a farm in the small town of Lezhë, though not just your normal farm: it was also a kids summer camp. Although we weren’t there while camp was in session, we were put to the task of tidying the place up. This included white washing walls, organizing materials, stacking hay, and gardening.
Along with the farm and the work, came George. He’s a very wise man who in his younger years decided to devote himself to ministry work. In the past 40+ years he has planted many churches in the U.K., established mission bases in Albania, Uganda, and is currently working in another country which I can’t name. ooooooooooo!! It was a treat to hear him preach about Proverbs and wisdom, along with hearing his many stories through his journey.
During this two week period at George’s, I also had to plan our debrief in Montenegro. Finding a place to stay, negotiating prices, how to get there, etc… I really enjoyed having to do this task and all the other things that come along with being a Squad Logistics Coordinator. Once our two weeks were up at Georges, we all separated into our teams and split to different cities. We were placed in Tirana, the capital of Albania. The Church of God is the church we are partnering with.; We’ll spend our time here running an English club, which I believe is more like the youth program and we speak english to the youth as we interact with them. This past week, we did practical training on how to share the gospel, along with some painting and chair fixing. This coming week will be our first week working with the youth, and I can’t wait. Still don’t know what we’ll be doing exactly but that’s all part of the fun.
Living life in a small apartment with 6 other people has been quite interesting. Since it would look bad if boys and girls were to sleep in the same room, Elijah and I had to get the master bedroom with the bed. The girls got the living room with the couches and floor. To make the environment of the apartment interesting us boys declared ourselves Kings and tricked the girls into making them pledge their allegiance to us. We made them think we were playing an old family game that I missed so much, but really they drank salt water and put bracelets on all to pledge allegiance to us kings. We came up with this allegiance process from a medieval TV show we have been watching. Though this is all a joke, it has started a pranking war within our apartment. Its been fun and also tiring to live with these people, but I’m thankful for them and, slowly but surely, were making each other better.
I miss you all. Thank yall for the prayers and support you have given me. Take care,
Sam Jones
