Albania you will be missed! After the hectic city lifestyle in Cambodia it was a welcomed change of pace to be surrounded by the quietness of nature and stillness. This month marked the halfway point of the World Race! At times it feels like I left home yesterday and then other times it seems so distant. In my time in Albania was a needed month of refocusing and rejuvenating time. There was a lot of hard work balanced with peaceful and intimate quiet times. Keep reading to hear more about what life in Albania looked like for me.
What city did you stay in? What was your living situation?
- The month of March I stayed on a farm in Lezhe, Albania. Wow, this country is absolutely stunning! The farm was a part of a camp and so the four girls stayed in one room with the boys in another. We were all on bunk-beds with many, many blankets . At the beginning of this month it was very cold which was quite the adjustment. When the sun came out during the day and it was B-E-A-UTIFUL which made it nearly impossible to go want to spend anytime indoors.
What was your ministry for this month?
- Our ministry was helping out around the farm. Most of this looked like shoveling poop, painting, cleaning up, weeding, disinfecting, cutting down trees and more poop scooping. And surprisingly I enjoyed it all!
- We got to get to know Frrok and Dusha who both work at the camp as a maintenance man and cook. These two made like all the more fun, we were constantly laughing and joking around with each other. They both love deeply and quickly. I will miss them most of all.
What language do most people speak?
- Albanian. I ended up learning enough to converse very very superficially. It had slight similarities with Spanish but mostly Frrok and Dusha taught all I know.
What foods did you try? What was your favorite?
- A main food group in Albania is bread. We had more bread than I have ever had before. If you know me you know the true weight of that statement.
- We also had a ton of cheese that was made from the goats milk that lived on the farm.
- If we ever had meat that would also come from the farm, mostly it would be pork.
- Other than that we had a lot of plain noodles or rice, potatoes, or lintel soup. My favorite was the potatoes!
What was the hardest thing about this month?
- The hardest part of this month was not knowing the true impact of what we were doing. Some days we would be doing work that didn’t seem all that important. I learned how to trust in the Lord knowing that we may never understand what He puts in front of us, yet there is still purpose behind it all.
What was the best thing about this month?
- The best thing about this month was the rejuvenation of my prayer life. I caught myself loosing track of time because I was so focused on the conversations I was having with the Lord. I loved sitting and talking with Him about anything and everything that was on my mind.
What was unexpected this month?
- What took me by surprise this month was how much I loved all of it. I loved the lifestyle, I loved the people, I loved the nature that surrounded us, I loved the weather. When coming onto the race I didn’t really know what to think about all the European countries. I skipped over them in my mind because I didn’t think there was anything too exciting or special about them. Boy was I wrong. I loved Albania more than most of the other countries I have been to so far.
Where did you see Jesus the most?
- Living on a farm and getting to work with pigs, sheep, and goats surprisingly brought to life a lot of the biblical stories that I have grown up hearing. I was able to see these stories in a different light and to the full effect because I got to know the nature of these animals. For example our need for a shepherd. Watching sheep try and figure out which way to go showed me how lost we are without Jesus as our guide. Although this is very known seeing the live reference that is used brought deeper understanding.
Next stop is Serbia. We are just now getting settled into our ministry here. We are working with a church and helping in anyway we can. My team is partnering up with one other team on our squad this month which will be fun and different. I am going to be doing something a little different with blogging this month so check out my next post to hear about what that is going to look like!
So much love,
Martha Kuhn
Prayer Warriors:
- I pray for bold conversations this month as we build relationships with people in the congregation and youths of the community.
- I pray for that we would all be more aware of the Holy Spirits presence this month than ever before and that we would be obedient to where He is leading us.
