(PS IM SO SORRY BUT BECAUSE OF THE SKETCHY WIFI MY PICTURES WONT LOAD TO MY BLOG BUT THEY ARE ON FACEBOOK :))
Most people when reading that would instantly determine that this is not a life they would want to live, or even experience… Well my team and I jumped head first into all of that.
My squad of 50 boarded a plane late Monday night (August 8) to set off on this thing called the world race. We then had a luxurious 12 hour ride and “fancy” airplane foods, where we landed in Istanbul for a two hour layover then had another two hour plane ride, which landed in Albania, we proceed to have a two hour bus ride to the place we call home for two and a half weeks. So by late Tuesday night we had arrived to our new home.
Every morning we have a boiled egg and bread with homemade jelly, For lunch we tend to have a pasta or a hot soup, and for dinner we have bread and potatoes. We occasionally have goat meat along with a meal. Here we are surrounded by mountains and get the breeze from the ocean. If we want to go into town it is around a 4 mile walk to go to Restaurant or stores, but we enjoy the walks most the time, while laughing and trying to avoid crazy drivers.
We started ministry last week where we broke up into our teams and were given different jobs. My team was given the job of moving a two ton box out of the court yard onto the farm, so the children next week can have more room to play. My team of 7 looked around in disbelief that we could move it “Egyptian style” with tiny metal rods, as I looked at the big green box then looked around at my surroundings I was reminded that the Lord tells us that with faith we could move the mountains and I was reminded that we were in God’s hands and he wouldn’t give us things we couldn’t handle.
By this point I’m sure you are wondering why this blog has this title…. Well in order to move the box we had to empty it….. Full of cow poop and surprise bees….. My team was soon surrounded by bees and wasps and were being stung, luckily the farm worker here has some super magic spray that kills all the bees. We cleaned out the container with lots of laughter and lots of overcoming fears, such as huge spiders, yes I took one for the team and climbed into a very small area of the container with very many spiders to clean it out. So we move the box and impressed not only ourselves but our whole squad. While going up the hill we had to sometimes stand on a very tiny ledge trying to even the weight to put the pipes back under.
Through moving this box our team learned to trust each other and put to action that team work makes a dream work because the children will now have a bigger cleaner place to play. So when we had cow poop splashing up on us while having bees fly around our heads we found joy in our work and in the Lord.
We are on the second week of ministry and our team was placed in the back yard area once again to move out wood, paint walls, organized all the materials there, and our host home George must have thought it was too cold out side so we burnt all the wood while continuing to work, just might have been the hottest conditions I have worked in, because of the fire.
I have learned what it means to pull your weight with 50 people which includes cooking and cleaning the squatty potties.
I have become a goat farmer for the day, I have learned Albanian words such as tü dua, which means I love you, along with other words I don’t know how to spell.
The coke here taste so different because it is made with real sugar and is really cheap here.
Although we have been working really hard we did have two days to explore and adventure. Our team went to see castle ruins, a popular city for lunch, and a crystal clear lake.
My team and I have been learning not just to read the bible but to dig into every little thing that the bible has to offer, we started in Proverbs last week and have continued this week. We have now made a smooth transition and have started making relationships with the locals and their kids. We have been praying to see those relationships make an impact in their life and to one day lead to life changing faith. Although it has been really hard being away from people I love, I know God has put me in this place “for such a time as this”
I am very excited to get to share my journey with all of y’all and the life changing things my team and I will go through. I have already started to see little things in my life change. But like George says “you don’t always see daily growth, no just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.”
Much love for all of y’all
Love from Albania, Sydney
