These past three months have been… Something else. Each month has brought a new struggle, and each day has tested my patience and my spirit. Some of the members on my team would say that they’ve learned about independence, others would say that they’ve learned to love God more through the days they struggle than through the easy days. I know I’ve learned some of each, but that’s not been my biggest lesson for this country. My biggest lesson has been that of patience. Now if you’ve ever known me, really known me, or even just stumbled across me on an off day, you’ll know that I am not a patient person at times. Sometimes I’m the most patient person you know, but those occasions are few and far between. I’m quick to turn to anger and frustration instead of turning to peace and patience. I’ve got a long stubborn streak and I hate having to give in during arguments, even the ones I know I’m in the wrong for or the ones that I have with God. It’s something that I’ve had to work on, for sure, but I haven’t spent much time on it because I’m too stubborn (see, it’s not so good to be a stubborn person sometimes) and didn’t want to. These past few months living in community, I’ve been forced to practice patience instead of anger. I’ve been made to turn to peace instead of frustrations. God has put me in positions again and again where I have had to calm down and keep my mouth shut instead of opening it to say words of hate. It’s been a learning experience, for sure.
So now that my lesson part is over… Imma tell you a more fun story.
So last night, our ministry host decided to take us out to dinner (I’m assuming as a celebration for finishing up our three months of work but I could be wrong). Most of us weren’t looking forward to it because the last time we had dinner with him it turned into a meeting and not just a friendly dinner. As we pulled up to the little pizza place, we were slightly worried about what events the evening might unfold. As we walk in, we see how nice this little place is and comment on how cute it is. We go sit down and George tells us to pick six pizzas to eat and that we can get one drink that he’ll pay for. We talk it over for a minute and pick several before starting to talk freely with each other. About halfway into the evening, I look around at all of the laughing or smiling faces around me in turn and realize how much I love each of these people. Even if we have our difficulties, and are hurt or disappointed in each other at times, we all still love each other. When I was sitting there, I couldn’t believe that I cared for Jen, Isaac, Christal, Tyler, Abigail, Libby, and our leader Hillary, as much as I do after just a few short months. Each of these people are part of my family now and I could never imagine life without any of them.
Soon after my sudden realization, the owner’s daughters came over to talk to us. The eldest told us about her plan to travel to New York and live there as a student for three years. She asked us questions about what we were doing in Lezhë. We answered and we laughed and enjoyed the company of some different people. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but the sisters offered to teach us traditional Albanian dances, so we spent the next 20 minutes learning a few different dances, and then they wanted to learn some of ours. So we taught them a few of our line dances and we all laughed and had fun dancing and just being teenagers. I don’t think I’ve laughed that much in weeks, it was wonderful. As we rode back to the compound, we thanked George for the wonderful night.
I had never thought that working on a farm (maybe not a farm, maybe just THIS farm) would end up being such a learning experience, and end up being a lot of fun. I’m very thankful for the long months on this farm, and I wouldn’t trade these last few months for anything in the world. So thank you, LightForce for all of the experiences you’ve given me, even if I didn’t want them at times.
Goodbye Albania, you will be dearly missed.
