Welcome to Albania!!! We made it and y’all the Lord is already working. It has been so incredible to see. But it was no easy trek, that is for sure. Here’s what our travel day looked like (I even included photos!).
Sunday night we did not go to sleep because my entire squad (43 racers, and 3 squad leaders) had to be awake and in the lobby at 2 a.m. We hopped on a bus and headed to the Atlanta Airport. Once we got there, my squad leader Madie and I went inside to find a place that my squad could essentially camp out until check in’s opened. We ran into this man, Josh, who was more then helpful but he was also very interested in the giant packs on our backs. Of course, we got to talking to him about Jesus. He did not accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior that morning. But now Josh knows that the Lord of the universe loves him more than he will ever understand. Josh knows now that God is not angry at him for things in his past and that He meets us all with grace and mercy. Wow!! We hadn’t even left and God was allowing us to be present where He is working.
Fast forward, my squad hopped on a plane to Miami at 7:45 a.m. and we made it safely by 9:30 a.m. Now here comes the fun part. While part of the squad left to head to Serbia, my team and two other teams had different flights and planes to catch because we were headed to Albania. This meant that we had an 11 hour layover in Miami. Which really means that we had 11 hours to catch up on sleep, watch movies, hangout, and whatever else you can do in an airport for that long. Then, we had an 11 hour flight to Istanbul, Turkey. Once in Turkey, we had a 4 hour lay over. Again, sleep trumps everything at that point. We hopped on a plane for about 2 hours and ta-da!!!! Albania!
Here are some photos from the travel day:
It’s safe to say that we can wait three more weeks to travel again. We are safe and sound in Albania and loving it so far!! This month will look like us going to the prison a few times a week, but we will mainly be going out to make contacts with highschoolers to bring them to the church that we are partnering with. Prayers for the heat, for the strength to push past awkward conversations and that my teammates and I will seek the Lord in all that we do while we are here.
With love, Sav
PS- Juliana, I have yet to run here because it is so hot here.. Like 100 degrees by 10 a.m. But I promise to run once just for you girl!
