MONTH 10!!!! Wooohoooo! We have made it! Whenever we make it to a new country, I like to answer some of the following questions in my journal so I can take note and truly grasp what is going on but also remember. I thought you guys might enjoy them, so I answered them this time with all of you in mind!
So, where are you this month?
Well, we are in the small red-roofed (cough, cough, Philmont joke) town of Korce, Albania. The roofs make for excellent pictures! The town nestles in a lush windy valley surrounded by hills that are all a day hike – or even morning hike – away. You can walk the whole city! Korce is known for its food, so we walk to that A LOT. The sausages and crepes here are fantastic!
What are your living conditions?
We are in a small, one bedroom, one bath apartment in the slightly-sketchy-at-night part of town. The apartment is very nice compared to a lot of places we have stayed. Shoot, it has a hot shower, a washing machine, stove (only one burner works) and a fridge! Also, it is CLEAN! Who could ask for more? It is amazing how relieving it is to have someplace to call home that is simply clean. Not moldy, not filled with bugs, and well maintained. It somehow takes a weight off my shoulders knowing how clean, and therefore, safe it is. As far as the sketchiness of the neighborhood goes, we have been told not to walk alone at night back to our house. Korce is a night city, and a lot of our ministry happens in the evenings, so we are out after dark, but it is safe if you have a buddy. Our hosts even walk us home most night.
What is the city like spiritually? What has God been showing you about it?
Shew. It is a spiritually heavy month. This seems vague, so I’ll try and explain. Our first few days here, we didn’t notice much, but as we talked to people and looked around, we noticed something is off. The city feels weird. We get looked at by men all the time. There are far more men than women around during the day, and homeless children are common. The people look unsatisfied and vulnerable. When we walk during the day, we notice there are literally hundreds of men sitting around at coffee shops at all hours of the day but no women anywhere. Women stay at home, and that is pretty much all they are seen as good for here outside of the Christian community. I am not a super women’s right advocate kind of person, but this is a real thing here. Even our ministry hosts don’t know what to have us do because they don’t know what women are capable of or can do. They were surprised when we went out and found the grocery store (4 blocks away and we had passed it on our way to the apartment the first time with them) by ourselves when we first got here.
After doing some digging, we learned that the domestic violence rate in Albania is extremely high and you can feel it in the city. There is simply a tension in the air. It definitely makes me a little uneasy when I am around the city.
What does ministry look like?
Good question. Our team had a Team Time Discussion (i.e. talked about it in our daily check in with each other as a group) to try and nail this down. This month, we are doing a lot of outreach to children plus we are painting (maybe) the church to make it look more modern. We have done some park ministry where we simply did outreach to the community through a little fair kind of thing so that the name of the church will start getting recognition in the community. We also did a field day for the children in the area where approximately 70 kids showed up to play games.
Our hosts are first-time hosts so they are not sure what they should do with us most of the time. As a result, we have a lot of downtime. My team and I have decided that we are going to start prayer walking the city during our down time. This city needs prayer, and that is something we can do that doesn’t require the other person to speak English. Also, it is something that truly leaves an impact that no one can prevent.
So that Logistics job…. How is it going?
After prayer walks, this is where most of my free time is going this month. For those of you who don’t know, I was asked about 5 months ago to step into the position of Logistic Leader for our squad of 34 people. My co-logistics leader, Ashlyn, and I are in charge of moving the entire squad from country to country and planning lodging for times we are not with a host. Next month, we are in Spain, and we are pioneering a new Month 11 program for the Race. (AAAAAAAA! So excited to be guinea pigs for this one!) We will not have hosts but will be finding our own ministry. Because we have no hosts, my co-leader and I are, to some degree, acting as hosts. We are finding lodging and transportation to all the cities we will be in. We will be in four cities for an extended time as well as hiking 130 miles of the El Camino (!!!!!!!) while we are there. All of this needs to be planned by Ashlyn and me, so we are unusually busy this month. It is fun serving the squad in this way. God has already opened some cool doors for next month!
Please pray that doors are opened in Spain both for ministry and lodging. Apparently, (this is a real thing) the whole country takes the month of August off to go on vacation, hike the Camino, and a bunch of other things. Because of this we are having a hard time finding places to stay let alone in budget.
What has broken your heart this month?
The women in this city. As I said earlier, poor treatment of women is common here. From talking to one of the church girls who speaks English well, it sounds like there is a lot of shame, lack of self-worth, and abuse that happens in this city. While sadly true of many cities, it is extra apparent in Korce. Having people talk negatively about themselves (women or men) breaks my heart. God made them, and they are therefore extremely amazing and interesting by nature. When people lie to themselves and others lie to them, it creates this really sad void. Men openly cat-call and look women up and down in this city. It’s sad both for the women who are receiving such treatment, but also the men who believe this is acceptable behavior. Both parties in this city need help and truth.
What is God Teaching you?
This month, God is teaching me a lot about balance. Balancing how much I work with how much ministry I do and with how much rest and fun I have.
He is also teaching me perseverance in pursuing Him. I kind of feel like I have hit a wall the past month or so when it comes to connecting with God. I honestly keep playing the comparison game when it comes to how easy it appears for everyone else to connect to God. First, this is a lie. It is hard for other people to connect and it simply may not show. Second, God made me to connect to Him in a way that is specific to me, and that is ok. Just because I don’t connect the same way or it is “harder” for me doesn’t mean I should give up.
And that sums up my month thus far! It has been really cool and as always different from all the other months! It is something else to be able to pour into another country and place. So cool and so much fun!
Blessings and happy, belated, 4th of July!
Elise
