Instead of trying to make some catchy introduction to this blog, I’ll just let you watch a photo slideshow of my last month.
Ministry
As you know, we spent the month working with Campus Crusade at Fan S. Noli University in Korce, Albania. Ministry consisted of working helping out with the staff who were stationed there. We spent one week passing out flyers and collecting surveys, one week focused on coffee dates and meeting up with students in the dorms, and one week having English club and having more coffee dates.
For me, I couldn’t have been happier to work with Cru. Cru was a huge part of my life in college, so being able to help out with Cru again was great. It reminded me of summer project back after my freshman year of college. It was also a huge blessing to understand the ministry and why they did what they did. For instance, I understand why we focused on getting freshman surveys and meeting all the new students on campus. Basically, it made for an extremely easy transition to ministry this month.
While it was sometimes difficult to just sit and listen to our contacts speak with students in Albanian, I know that we still had an impact in Korce, and even us praying for each student we talked to is as good for the kingdom as sharing the gospel with them in poor translation.
Family Force 6
I’m not going to lie, I love this team. Our first month together was full of growth, fun, and especially laughs. The biggest downer about this month was the fact that we were split into pairs all over the city. It meant that Steven and I got to bond a lot, which was awesome, but it also meant that I couldn’t get that close to our four girls. That doesn’t mean we didn’t make the most of our time together.
We had bible study once a week and book study once a week. We studied Thessalonians because we were blessed to go to Thessaloniki, Greece for a weekend, so we thought it would be appropriate to hear the encouragement the church received from Paul. As for the book study, we are going through Culture of Honor, and it is so worth it. I love that book, as you all know, so to be able to put into practice with my team brings me so much joy.
Fun
This month was a lot of fun. Our team likes to laugh a lot, so we had some good times. There wasn’t much to do in Korce besides eat and sit in coffee shops, meaning we did that pretty much every day. Steven and I had to eat out for every meal, so we got build friendships with restaurant owners of three different restaurants. We had our usual tables, our usual waiters, and our usual orders!
We got to visit a beautiful lake and hang out with our contacts for a day. We got to eat crepes all the time. We got to try pretty much every coffee shop in Korce and see which one was the best….and which had the fastest wi-fi. We got to have a “Fall” party on my last night there where each pair made part of a meal. It was so delicious, and we left actually full. It’s a Christmas miracle!
The highlight, however, was probably going to Greece for the weekend. We got to stay in a sweet apartment, explore an awesome city, eat great food, and even experience some ridiculous moments.
I can’t finish an end-of-month blog without including some fun numbers!
Albania by the Numbers
Number of days in Korce: 22
Number of crepes eaten: 18
Number of gyros eaten: 15
Number of apples eaten: 10
Number of hot chocolates I “drank” (they were basically hot chocolate puddings): 8
Number of times we worked out to Insanity: 16
Number of Speedo pictures: 16
Number of times the cops were called on us: 1
Record in billards with freshmen guys: 6-2
Number of coffee dates we had: 10
Number of skits at weekly meetings: 2
Number of random dance parties: 1
Average temperature for the month: 40 degrees
Coldest night: 25 degrees
Number of candy bars stolen by our Albania roommates: 1
Number of English Clubs: 2
