Our first week here at the University of Vlore is almost complete. It has taken a while to get accustomed to the new language and culture, but we are now starting to settle in. The language barrier has been an interesting thing thus far. We have discovered on a couple of occasions that the best way to communicate with the students is to speak in Spanish, lol. So, they don’t speak English, we don’t speak Albanian, so we speak in Spanish. It’s a funny thing how the world can operate.
One of the first ministries we took part in was the selling of a Campus Crusade magazine on campus. We sold them for 50 Leke (Translates to about 50 cents) and if they bought one, they filled out a card with their info so that the Crusade people can contact them and set-up a possible meeting with one of us in the future.
The magazine
The other ministry we have done has been simply getting to know the students. We struggled with how to do this for a while, but one day we decided to put some blankets outside of the dorm and play some cards while Allison and Amanda played some worship music on the guitar. We figured it was worth a shot and to our desire, people started to come up to us and wanted to talk to the “Americans” (Allison is Canadian but we will forget the details for now :). Through these informal interactions we were able to invite them to the weekly Crusade meetings and to our “American” nights on Fridays (American nights are when we teach the students about our culture and then share the gospel).
The girls singing and playing the guitar.
For me it was amazing to see how willing people are to talk with you when you make yourself available. Many of the students identify as Muslim but it is very nominal and they do not really know what being a Muslim means. Our contact even told us that we may know more about Islam than the students do. This allows us an avenue to communicate the gospel and explore what they truly believe.
My team would appreciate your prayers as we continue in this month. Most of us are out of our comfort zone right now, but we are encouraged by the steps that are being made. We continue to learn and grow more every day which is exciting. Also pray for the Crusade meetings on Thursday nights and the American Nights on Fridays. Thanks!
Our team at some castle ruins.
P.S.- I now have my own room in the dorm which is nice.
