Whew, this month has absolutely flown by! In less than 24 hours we will be leaving Tirana, Albania and heading to Belgrade, Serbia for our Month 1 debrief, I can hardly believe it!
God has blessed us and our ministry far more than I could have ever imagined. You all have read a lot about what God has been doing in my life this past month, so here is a recap of what He has been doing in Tirana through us. See, when we got here God changed(ish) the ministry for our team into purely loving on the community and planting seeds of life into the teenager in the suburbs surrounding the community center, Ethos, that we have been partnered with. So, without further ado, here is a photo collection of what ministry looked like for us!
This is ETHOS—Faith. Hope. Change.
This is a picture of the community center room that we brought the teenagers (and just about anyone who wanted to join us and get to know what the center was about) each night between 5-7p. Here there is a library, card games, ping-pong, foosball, drums, guitars, a piano, and a projector, AVI hookup, and a sound system to utilize and evangelize through the power of love and relationships.
These next two photos are pictures of the kids at the center during our ‘open community time’ as well as some of our regulars with our team!
Additionally, one night I began to play the piano and learned that ALL of the people that came to the center love the song Fur Elise by Beethoven, so I taught one of the girls how to play the first couple of notes and then she proceeded to teach her friend—for through teaching others is the best way to continue to learn and let it sink into your memory.
So, in the mornings we would go to the central city park and played basketball and volleyball with many of the locals that also came to the center in the evenings; however, as I have said in previous posts I did not play the sports, and was the ‘cheerleader’ on the side lines and was able to chat with and get to know some of the girls—so here are two pictures over basketball and sitting on the sidelines getting to know the girls!
Additionally, I fell in love with the street dogs, and played with them almost every day—this one was my favorite and was the one that fell in love with me too! 🙂
Also, behind the building that our center is located Melissa, one of my teammates, befriended the homeless man living there and began to feed him every morning—despite him not speaking any English and Melissa not speaking any Shqip, they developed a very special bond centered around the love of Christ.
Lastly, Melissa made a ministry highlight video over this month which is featured at the bottom!! You can also go check it out on her blog, melissavereen.theworldrace.org!
Oh yeah, one more thing, in case you are wondering what Ethos means. According to dictionary.com, Ethos is “the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group of society dominant assumptions of a people or period.” Fun fact.
(Photo Credit: My entire team took lots of photos that I am borrowing to show ministry, so thanks everyone!)
