This month we were partnered with a local organization called Christ for the Nations (CFN) Albania. They are actually an international organization, but have a center and Bible college here in Albania. We were so blessed by this ministry this month and I want to share with you what a day in the life looks like as a World Racer here at CFN:
Monday – Friday
6/6:30/6:50 am(depending how I feel that morning) is when I wake up; I either showered if I didn’t the night before, did yoga, or had quiet time.
7- 7:20 am Morning prayer with the students. A different person each day brought a scripture to talk on and use to start our day. Then we assigned prayer points and prayed together.
7:20 am Breakfast – and if it’s your assigned day for dishes, you do those afterwards.
8am – 9am Quiet time hour; for our team we got an hour set aside to use as time alone with God. I sometimes had to use this hour to make calls with the worship facilitators from other teams because as a worship coordinator for the squad, I had weekly check ins to see how the other teams are doing, so my quiet time would be done at 6.
9:10-10 am Worship hour; this hour is one of my favorites! It started each day with a different person bringing a word, and then we all sang together. Although, we sang songs solely in Albanian, it was such an incredible opportunity to worship along side all the staff and students at the school to begin our day. Plus, I got to learn a few songs that I can now sing in another language (well, that is a few lines LOL) My favorite being: “Zoti falandero dashurine ne ti!”
Which translates as: “Thank you God for your love!”
10am- 1pm was practical work; we did everything from deep cleaning the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, to becoming farmers and planting potatoes, pulling weeds in the driveway, to delivering food and clothes to those in need, and all the in between. We also became chefs for three days and cooked american style meals during this time to feed us, the staff, and the students. During this time, the students were in classes.
11- 11:20 am was a designated coffee break. Thank you Jesus for the mandatory designated time for coffee!!!
1:15pm was lunch; and again if it is your day for dishes you do this afterwards!
Then 2-2:30pm was a short break. You could do anything at this time. I typically used this time for a nap, or to finish planning a sermon if I was speaking later that day.
2:30- 5:30pm we would go to various locations depending on the day: youth groups, women’s ministry, prayer meetings, children’s groups, small groups, etc. We led these, or listened as one of the students/ staff led depending on the day. We also held a VBS 2 days during his time, and typically every Tuesday during this time was sport’s ministry (This looked like playing volleyball, futbal, or teaching and playing American football!)
5:30- 6pm was another short break (sometimes it was 5-6pm depending on the group you were in and if you went to the location a half hour away or the close one 10 min down the road.)
6pm was team time!! This is where we meet as a team every ministry to debrief, reconnect and have fun. We do feedback during this time which is where you can call a teammate higher, and if you saw something in them that corresponded with scripture in a wonderful way, or if you saw something they did that was against scripture, you could kindly call them out in it and bring blind spots to light, so we can all be molded into more beautiful representations of Christ. We also played games, had a halfway party, planned for ministry, did a Bible study called Journey Markers, worked on blogs, etc. during this hour.
7pm was dinner time! Afterward if it’s your day, you do dishes. Then everyone joins the ongoing foosball tournament. (Except sometimes I skipped this part in order to go to bed early). We typically get in bed/ go to sleep between 8:30 and 10 here. We’re all grandmas when it comes to sleep on this team!
Then we do it all over again the next day!
Saturday is our designated off days; typically we use this for adventure, but you have the option to use it for rest. Our first off day we went to go skiing!! The cost to ski was less than $10!! What a blessing!!! The following week, we went to a nearby city to pick up my sweatshirt that I accidentally left at the ski lodge the week before (Whoops!), but we got a good adventure out of this, and a miracle that I even got it back! We spent the afternoon touring this city and getting lunch. It was beautiful.
The last Saturday here I spent entirely in bed only getting up 3 times to eat lol! I was exhausted after going going going and needed some intense introvert time. I also knew that the needed to prepare for the church services I knew we were leading the next day! (2 of my teammates went to ski again, but it was closed! They ended up having to walk 6 miles down the mountain and hitchhike to find a taxi to take them home! They forsure had an adventure that day, although not the adventure they planned on! Two others went with our host to Macedonian and toured some cities over there- because the border is only 15 minutes away from us!)
Sundays we would go to church then have the afternoon off. Except for the last Sunday, we lead the church service at both locations, in the city and in the nearby village! We did a skit, then shared testimonies and then Maggie brought the message! It was such a cool and honoring experience to get to lead and be held responsible to lead this congregation.
I can’t believe our time here is already quickly coming to an end. Time really does fly when you’re having fun! God is so good and this is a month that will stick with me forsure.
