So there we were – minding our own business, waiting for a game to start, when out of nowhere this man walks through the church door. He saw us and immediately began speaking in Albanian. We told him we didn’t understand. He continued. We told him we were American (which should have been obvious by our skin, hair, eyes, chacos, and water bottles) . He continued. I told him, “Une Nuk Kuptoj (=I don’t understand)”. He continued. I even google translated that it was hard for us to understand because we were American. HE CONTINUED. We finally heard a couple more words like “Shu Mire (=very good), “Zot (=God)”, “catholic” and possibly “psalms” and repeated these words back. Ya’ll. he kept talking in Albanian for about 2 minutes and even counted a few times in English. Not sure why. I’ve learned a few words and phrases, but nothing prepared me for his speech. I have no clue what he was saying and neither did my team, but his effort kept our attention. When he was finished he said, “mupafshim (=bye)” and walked out. We were all so confused and felt both relieved and sad. Relieved that the confusion was over, but sad that we couldn’t help him or understand.
A little while later while the door was still wide open the man came back. This time with two different drinks and a pastry snack. It was snacks for us! *Pictured Below* I was always told not to take candy from strangers, but nobody ever said, “don’t take snacks from them either.” We thanked him as our hearts melted into puddles onto the floor. He walked out with a smile on his face.
Ya’ll. This little old man that we didn’t know and couldn’t understand just blessed us more than I have ever felt a blessing. Not once did this man seem frustrated that we didn’t understand. He taught me not to be discouraged without even speaking English to us! He remained persistent. We can do this with God. Our languages might be different and not understood all the time, but there is no language barrier that God cannot demolish.
Prayer Requests:
-Pray that God would return the favor to this man and that we would meet him again and be able to better understand and communicate.
-Lift up our ice cream suppliers and that we could better understand each other and be able to show them Gods love better. (The owners name is Ditta)
-We have been painting everyday we have been here and it is starting to take a toll on our attitudes so pray that we would be filled with joy, energy, passion, and excitement for what we are doing.
-Pray for our Coffee dealers, Donny (the owner) and Jetese (a waiter)
Shihemi me vone! (See you later!) 
