I am so behind on blogging and I apologize. Since I've blogged last, we had about 20 get violently ill the last week in Albania. 3 went to the hospital and Drew had a bad allergic reaction for 4 days in a row! We have also made our way now to Bulgaria and have been very busy. So, we are over what's called unsung heroes the first and second month of the World Race. We are pretty much looking for people who are doing things for the Lord that are unseen and do not have many resources. We hope to find people to partner with in the future and send a team to serve alongside.
In Albania, as you know we mostly served at a kids camp-which was awesome. We only got to actually do unsung heroes one day with half our team-but it was so amazing and God showed up in an awesome way.
We started our day out by walking to the city and visiting an English school called Lezha Academic Center. We met with the lady who started it, Klementina. Her story and heart are beautiful. She and her husband are from Albania. They moved to the U.S. when their kids were in high school to give them a better education. Since America didn't accept Klementina's degree, she went to college again and even got her master's in education.
(Klementina in her office)
Now that their kids are grown, her husband and her have moved back to Albania to start an English, Christian school for Albanians. There is only one other english school around and that is only for foreigners. Their vision is to raise up a generation of educated believers who will in turn have their own vision of ways to help develop their country.
I love her heart. We've met so many people who when they get a chance to leave Albania, never want to come back. However, her and her husband have sacrificed a lot to come back and make a difference in their home country. Education wise, when they graduate they can go to an American College or an Albanian College. This is a huge opportunity.
Also, it is a Christian school. They don't advertise it like an only Christian school. It isn't required to go to chapel or anything. Most of Albania are agnostic or Muslim. Instead her approach has been to have an optional Bible study. It started just once a month, and the kids wanted it more often. Then it went to twice a month. Now they have it weekly and many of the kids go to church.
They also have a youth group night on Fridays, and days where the teachers get with the mothers and daughters and do something together, and also where the men get with their sons and do something bonding, like play sports,etc. They are really encouraging them to bond well as families and the teachers are able to show Christ' love in a non-intimidating environment. These kids have never experienced teachers like this who care this much!
They have only had the school open for 3 years, and this last summer has been the first time for them to have a camp. The kids in Albania love English camp, and this was an opportunity not only for them to practice English but also to learn more about Jesus. They had an American group suppose to come and do the camp, but what do you know?-After telling all the kids that there would be a camp, the Americans backed
out. Having the integrity she has, Klementina found a way to make it work and the teachers stayed an extra week or two and put on a Bible camp. 9 kids accepted Christ! Praise God!
So right off the bat-God gave us a future contact who would be awesome to serve with. We can evangelize with these kids and disciple them easily, because they know English. Also the team would probably stay with a host family, and that is such a neat way to get to know the culture and bond with a family.
If you are interested in ever helping her- her website is albanianchristianschool.org, and will soon be replaced with lezhaacademiccenter.edu. One of the neatest ways to help, is to help fund towards Roma or gypsy kids to go to the school. That is a very rare opportunity esp. for Roma kids and that could really open doors, for gypsies to be missionaries to gypsies in the future and help develop those kind of communities.
