I want to take some blog space and give my supporters a summary of the work that I’ve been doing here in Albania.
Primarily, I have been doing relational ministry with orphans. We have worked with six orphanges in two different cities. Because of time constraints and the amount of paperwork that is expected of someone who works with orphans we were only allowed to spend time with them in the evenings doing purely relational things.
For the teens, that meant watching movies and playing ping-pong or sharing musical interests. In all of these things, however, we looked for opportunities to share the gospel and the wisdom that God has given us. When the songs were about unhealthy relationships, we challenged that, when the movies were unsavory, we asked questions, when the competition got too intense, we stayed loving. My team had to stay on point at all times because you can show Christ to people in many ways without preaching or condescending. It can be as simple as being patient and letting little things slide, or as big as telling someone that they should consider forgiveness for the first time in their life.
For the children, it was all about playing, laughter, and love. As is tradition for all missionaries, we played soccer, and inevitably we had matches of native people vs. Americans, and I can proudly say that we even won a few games! For short term missions, we are sometimes limited in our ability to share the gospel without forcing it upon people, and the most impactful things we can do is show love to children in ways that they normally do not receive. These children did not have regular visitors, and they certainly don’t get the opportunity to play soccer with people from other cultures. We played games and toussled their hair. We played peekaboo and gently rocked the little ones. We took time to draw pictures with others. We tried in ways that we were able to be family for those kids, even if it was only for a few hours at a time. We tried to treat them as God would treat them, which is to give them unconditional love from an unexpected source.
Briefly, we moved north and worked in a pastor’s house doing small chores that alleviated stress for him, cooked for children in the town, and Kelly Ann painted a mural in the Church’s fellowship hall. (Which was BEAUTIFUL! Go KB!)
We also spent two days in Kosovo, (Team Kairos is ON THE MOVE) and there we watched a Christian movie with some young Muslim adults and I led discussion questions for the group. That area was a particularly challenging ministry, as the men and women who came to us were often mocked for interacting with Christians, so their presence was a blessing and a gift from God. The day after we moved into the mountains and poured concrete for a camp that hosted mission groups and held banquets for people in the community.
Month one for me was scatterbrained and unsettled. We had four ministry hosts, a tremendous number of teenagers and children to build relationships with, an unfair number of coffees to drink (the Albanian people drink coffee before they do ANYTHING. I am not exaggerating), and a good bit of manual labor to keep the muscles fresh and to burn the carbohydrates off.
Month two begin with us working for Lightforce: Albania, which is a camp in the Northeast. Initially, the labor has contained gardening, demolition (with hammers), construction, pig- wrangling, gate-watching, and taking out the rubbish.
Month one taught me patience and trust. It taught me to address issues and work with past hurts. Month two should come with buckets of humility and sweat, and I think it will be good and healthy for all of us.
