If you are a coffee lover, Eastern Europe is the place to go. For our fourth month, my team and I were located in Korca (pronounced korcha), Albania. “Albania? Where’s that?” were the thoughts running through my head. To be honest, I didn’t even know that Albania was a country! For those of you who don’t know where Albania is, let me give you some insight. Albania is located in Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south and southeast.
For our ministry this month, we worked with Campus Crusade for Christ (also known as Cru), a ministry that focuses on college students. Their goal is to “see as many students go from a place of unbelief to a place of belief in God.” In Albania, it is known as Student Life. Our first week in Albania was the students second week of school. We handed out the Student Life magazine to the freshmen. Along with the magazine, the students received a test which, if taken and handed in, entered them into a drawing where they could win a USB drive or a cell phone, and a contact information sheet. We had a picnic with the freshmen, a day filled with good conversation, games, soccer and volleyball! At the end of the week, we had a welcome meeting, a chance to share with the students what Student Life is all about. They also learned the cupid shuffle!! At the end of every day, we went to the student’s dorm rooms and visited with them, hearing their stories, sharing our stories, and sharing the gospel with them.
Our second week, we went through the contact sheets and set up meetings with the students. Because cafes are anywhere and everywhere, they made the perfect place to meet students. Out of all of the meetings we had with the students, there are 2 that stood out the most to me. One morning, one of our contacts, Juli, my teammate Jamie and I met with a girl who was in her first year and studying finance. We thought we were meeting with her alone, but we ended up meeting with her boyfriend as well. Juli talked a lot in the beginning, and then asked us if we had any questions for her. Jamie and I went back and forth asking her questions about her life and sharing tidbits about ours. The girl, like most Albanians, came from a Muslim background, although she did not practice it. She believed in God, as most of the students I met with did, but didn’t believe in Jesus. I believe that most of the students find it hard to believe in Jesus because to them Jesus is just another “good” prophet, so why believe in him. If they do believe in him, they don’t fully understand that Jesus is God. They don’t understand the trinity. This young girl seemed very interested in what we were saying to her. Her boyfriend, on the other hand did not. His actions and lack of interest clearly stated that he didn’t want to hear it and that his girlfriend shouldn’t either. I think this girl would have loved to know more but was intimidated by her boyfriend. She was interested but at the same time wanted to please her boyfriend.
The second meeting was with three girls who were roommates, two of the girls were friends from high school and the other girl was cousins with their fourth roommate. All three girls were studying to be a nurse. Juli, Jamie and I met these girls at a café across from the campus. We had already met these girls before in the dorms, and were happy to get to know them better. A little ways into our conversation we started talking about if it was hard or not leave home to go to school. All of the girls said yes. They didn’t live far from home and went home on the weekends. One of the girls completely opened up and shared one of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard. Her dad died when she was 16 (she’s 19). The dad she’s known all her life was really her step dad. Her biological dad died before she was born. A month before she started college, one of her sisters died due to a whole in her heart. It broke my heart. If I wasn’t it shock, I probably would have cried. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to experience that much death in life at a young age.
Our last week in Korca, we continued to meet students at cafes and share the gospel. We also had another meeting where the Student Life staff presented a slide show that showed the difference between the kind of love the world knows and God’s love. My team and I did a skit called the “Lifehouse Everything Skit” (if you’ve never seen the skit before, you can look it up on youtube). We also taught them one more dance, the Cha Cha Slide!
I had a great time in Albania. Because the students are so fascinated with Americans, there were times when it seemed like being there was doing more harm than good. But it’s not about me; it’s about God and what we’re doing in his name. It was a good month of ministry and great cappuccinos!!
