I am currently sitting in a house that has a big bedroom where 7 of us girls are staying, and all the rest of the 13 people on Teams Silas and Triumph are staying in other rooms here. Most of us are in BEDS. We have hot showers. We have wi-fi. We have so much and we haven’t even asked for all this. Here’s the story:
We arrived in Albania on September 29th at 1am. We had no contacts, no place to go, and no solid leads. Our bus driver dropped us off at a park where we asked him to and then the men kept hourly watch while the rest of us slept. Now when we tell the Albanians we did that they laugh at us; they can’t believe we would do that, but there were enough homeless people sleeping there that we figured it was okay. 🙂
When we got up in the morning we figured out that the park had wi-fi and so began to look online for lodging and to email potential contacts and also check for emails from previously contacted contacts. We then began to have a worship session and God began to move. Big time.
When we got up in the morning we figured out that the park had wi-fi and so began to look online for lodging and to email potential contacts and also check for emails from previously contacted contacts. We then began to have a worship session and God began to move. Big time.
A man came up to us while we were worshiping and offered to show us the way to a hostel. Austin, Colby and I went with him even though we didn’t thing we could afford a hostel anyway. We wanted to see some of the city and find some leads, so we were willing to go anywhere with a guide. The girl running the hostel gave us a map of the city that was a little more detailed than the one we had and I found a road on it that we had been trying to find online. This road is the location of the Albanian headquarters of Campus Crusade for Christ and one of the girls on Silas had a contact there, but had not heard back from them yet. The road was near the hostel where the man took us, but he split when he found out we couldn’t pay him for his trouble.
We walked in a few circles, but finally got good directions from a cab driver and found the headquarters. Although they weren’t expecting us they welcomed us warmly and the director even interrupted a meeting to meet with us and introduce us around. He told us that he heard we were coming, but was so busy that he put off emailing us back; he was up from 1-5am that morning thinking about us and that is when we were sleeping in the park!
He immediately mobilized some of the staff to help us find lodging and SHOWERS. There is an amazing couple who has built a house with rooms specifically for missionaries coming to the area and welcomed us into their home – all 13 of us for the month! They have beds for us, hot water for showers, a washer and dryer, and the headquarters has free wi-fi and they’ve offered us anything we need or want.
What I am most excited about, as far as our ministry goes, is that Josh McDowell is coming for a conference series from October 21-25 and since we are here and working with CCC we get to help!! I can hardly say how excited I was when I found out; I felt like jumping up and down, but I waited until I told the team back at the park. If you don’t know who that is, you can probably find a lot of information online, but basically he is a speaker and author whose emphasis is on apologetics and teaching people (especially young people) how to defend their faith. What’s really weird about that is that when we arrived at CCC, Colby, Austin and I began discussing Josh McDowell and whether he was a CCC staff member. I guess he is. 🙂
We are still looking at finding different contacts because we’re here to help establish contacts for future World Race ministry, but many of us are jumping in to help with the Campus Crusade ministry. I am helping with the high schoolers and also some athletic stuff in the afternoons with our host “dad”. Some of us are also helping around the house and with the little kids here. This is definitely starting out as an amazing month and we are actually going to be here the full month. I am looking forward to see what else God has planned for all of us here in Albania and the other teams in some nearby countries.
Please continue to keep us all in your prayers: Physical health, emotional health, spiritual health, and for finances for all of us who are not yet fully funded for our ministry. THANK YOU!!!
