As Racers, we're taught to embrace change wherever we may encounter it. And with the amount of discretion that Adventures in Missions likes to keep, we definitely encounter lots of last minute changes along our journey.
As many readers will know, our route has already dealt with several changes; from our original plan of traveling to Ireland in month 1, to the transition to Turkey, which quickly changed again to Albania.
After roughly 12 combined hours of flying from Atlanta to Istanbul, we learned that our original idea of an 12 hour bus ride to Albania would be a little bit closer to a 22 hour bus ride. Then once the bus riding process commenced, we found that our drivers not only didn't speak more than about 6 words of English, but they were only about 80% positive about the direction we were headed.
Once all was said and done, our little bus trip ended up crossing from Istanbul, Turkey, through Greece, to Macedonia, and finally across Albania. Said bus time added up to about 27 hours, and coupling that with our travels from our Atlanta hotel to the airport, and all our flying and driving, our total travel time added up to 53 magnificent hours together.
Fortunately for us, our trip is young, and we've all got such sickeningly sunny dispositions that everyone still enjoys the shared company together, and we're all still excited about the experience.
We have yet to see what shape our ministry will truly take, but we do know that we will be working at a kid's camp in the city of Lezhe, where all of our gifts will be put to good work. Our contact, George, is a fantastic guy, full of wisdom and a plethora of dry-British witticisms. One gem he rattled off today when talking about prayer went as follows, "Jesus doesn't have time for some jerk walking a tight-rope across the Grand Canyon".
Sadly I don't have any photos or video to upload yet, but hopefully that will be forthcoming within the next week.
If any Racer parents are reading this, then I can guarantee that your children are safe and sound. Sadly only a small portion of us were able to make it to the internet cafe today.
We're all going to be blogging in the near future and keeping our loved ones updated with any pertinent information.
Thanks once again to all our supports; please know that we will be doing everything in our power to represent you well, and advance the kingdom everywhere we go. The Lord has kept His protective hand over us thus far, and He will continue to allow us to only do the work which He has set us on this earth to do.
All prayers are appreciated, and I would love to receive an email from anyone who wishes to contact me; just click on the "contact me" link in the upper-left portion of this page, just below my profile photo. I can't wait to give you more detailed updates of our work.
