Hey there!
1 out of 3 months in Albania has been brought to a close and only a little less than 2 months of this trip remain. With our time here in Albania being so long at 3 months, I think I’ve learned a truth that I hope encourages all who read it: ‘Ministry’ can be used as the term of our scheduled times of doing things for God or with God but what I think I’ve learned is that our life is truly our ministry. Ministry isn’t something we do, it’s who we are. And our lives are speaking louder than our words to our fellow Christians and even non-Christians and God is able to use us wherever He has us. In Europe or in the United States. In Albania or in Alabama. For me, right now, that’s in Albania. And for you, that’s wherever you are. I now pray that God will truly encourage those that have seen this trip I’m on as a sort of pedestal experience or decision and that they will see that it’s just where God has me living and doing ministry for the time being, just as He has them where they’re at. At times it’s hurt my heart to see people almost look up to this trip as something special because I see them doing this at the expense that they look down upon where God has them. And in all honesty, I’m no better than anyone and this trip brings me no favoritism before God. God’s plan for each of our lives is unique to us and that’s the beauty of it. And so I believe that God just wants me to make the most of where He has me. In less than three months, I’ll be home and I hope to be able to say that I made the most of what God gave me the opportunity to experience. But then again, I’d be wrong to say that God wants me to make the most of my time in Albania but then say that doesn’t apply in Alabama. So…feel free to remind me of this when I return because I might need it!!
And so we’ve now been in Albania for a little over a month and have found what seems to be our day-to-day groove for what our weeks look like. I figured you might enjoy a brief read and update on our ministry! First thing to note is our hosts ministry vision for our team: we’ve been asked to seek out the youth of this small city-village of 10,000 and bring those youth into the church that they might experience God, some for the first time, find a place to grow closer to God, and enjoy relationships with some new friends. And then following this, we plan to love and serve the community in whatever ways we can such as church, services, friendships, coffee, or other random acts like picking up trash out of a flowing creek. But as for the day-to-day…
I’ll begin with Monday as Monday landed at our confirmed rest day with our weekly schedule. Mondays generally just look like your average day of rest, relaxation, prayer, movies, or whatever the time needs to be for each person on our team to rest. For me, that’s reading books, reading the Word, praying, watching some movies, and maybe ending the day with some card games as a team.
Tuesdays start out with morning prayer and worship at the church with our host. We’ll do a couple songs of worship and then pray over prayer requests, Polican, and whatever might be needed. We then have the rest of the day to do whatever might be beneficial. Sometimes this time looks like walking through the town and saying hello to our new community and other times, this could look like planning for later things in the week.
Wednesdays are generally a free day but seem to have more of a spontaneity to them than we expected. These days have consisted of traveling to villages via foot to hand out gifts and share the gospel, clearing out trash from a flowing water source, hanging out with our host, cooking for the church, or preparing for special events. You name it and we’re flexible to accomplish what’s needed on this day, as has proved to be the case so far.
Thursdays are less packed but seem to come up with things for us to do. All that’s planned for this day is a Church bible study at 4 that we prepare food and set up for and this lasts about a couple hours as we sit in on it. Typically, we might go to dinner or coffee with some of the members after as a way to connect with them. The early part of the day might consist of a walk with our host, food preparation for the bible study, or any other random events that might come up.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are our three bigger days of ministry that involve planning and then a service. Friday is our teenage service for high schoolers. It’s more of a time to hangout and get to know each other and then a member of our team will share something. Saturday is a youth service for those younger than high school. We help alongside our host manage these kiddos throughout this time as we play games, sing songs, and talk about Jesus. Sunday is our typical church service in the morning with worship, a sermon, and maybe a testimony depending on the day! We have the honor of helping out with all three of these services in different ways and it’s been amazing to see the impact on the youth our presence has already had! God’s been able to really use us as we’ve seeked out the youth of this city.
NOTE: I know that I mentioned more of what I called ‘random’ activities that have come up so far on our daily basis and I’ll share real quick what those are. Above, I shared what we generally have planned each day that’s set in stone but for the rest of the day, we typically make the rest of the ministry. Things we do are: going on walks and saying hellos to the small town, cooking for the community, hosting a kid’s hangout playground in our yard, hand out Albanian gospel tracks to our nearby neighbors, walk 3-5 hours round trip to remote villages to hand out gifts and Bibles, have team Bible studies, help out with worship and prepare for times of worship (I play guitar for the worship parts of our services), getting coffee/ice cream/dinner with our teenage friends, doing yard work for the church, clearing out the water source, picking up trash in the community, and going on team runs!
Well I hope this answers some of your questions or that this might answer any of you that have been wondering what I’m doing here in Albania so far! I hope this helped and that you enjoyed reading…always feel free to reach out to me with questions, prayer requests, or anything you’d like to. I hope to keep you updated and share more of what our ministry looks like in the future to come. Please continue to pray for our team and ministry here in Albania! Specific prayer requests would be that God would use our team to help our host’s ministry and our team specifically reach the youth of Polican (this city) and that He would use us to love and serve the community.
Thanks for reading!
