These first few weeks in Albania have been an awesome experience. Our whole squad has been working on a farm in the mornings and then adventuring on the weekends. Every day I love my team more and more. I have spent quite a bit of time with Lincoln especially, many evenings we have spent exploring the Lezhe area, climbing mountains, exploring castles, talking with local people, and trying traditional food. One day we climbed a small mountain with a castle on top of it, once we got to the top and explored the castle we realized we had to be home in about 30 minutes (it took more than an hour to get there). We both do some parkour and so we literally jumped and sprinted down this mountain and then continued sprinting through town to get home. We ended up getting a ride from someone who lived near where we are staying, arriving only 5 minutes late but sweating like waterfalls. In the mornings we have a meeting where our host, George, shares some thoughts and then assigns us our jobs for the day. George is very funny, but not a fan of my parkour. Most of the time my team has been clearing a yard of junk and sorting through it to find what is worth keeping. Almost every day we have worked in swarms of wasps and bees, one day we destroyed 5 nests. The last few days we moved rocks and used pickaxes to move pig poop.
During this time, I have been studying the bible in small portions, just focusing on a few verses at a time. Just a few days ago the passage I looked at was Acts 2:42-47, these verses describe the early church and how they lived in community. It struck me because the way my squad has been living has been quite similar to how the early church lived. We share everything, we go about our day with joy and praise, we eat together, we discuss things together, we worship together often. My hope is that we could reflect this picture of the church even more as the race goes on, and that we will live this way even after the race. This passage shows what the church should be; all sons and daughters living there lives in pursuit of Christ and in community with each other.
Acts 2:42-47
And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And awe came upon every soul, and many signs and wonders were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
