Albania –wow! I’ve only been here one week but it feels like a month already. Two things stand out about Albanian culture.
- Relationships
The focus is on relationships here – and I love it! Our ministry hosts are first concerned with getting to know us and us getting to know them before the actual work that we are doing. The culture is very accepting and comfortable. By day #4 I felt at home.
- Time
Most people here have a lot of time to get to know each other. This usually happens at the coffee shops, which are everywhere. Time goes slowly here.
The team hanging out with locals after church Sunday at the coffee shop
Ministry
The time goes slowly here even though we’ve been very busy in our first week. We are working at a church in the coastal city of Durres, the 2nd largest city in Albania. This church has many ministries beyond the standard Sunday routine: we’ve been teaching at their MorningStar Kid’s Bible School, which is like a pre-school with a Biblical foundation; we’ve worked at their autism center, which specifically serves children with autism; we’ve been praying with and for the staff at morning prayer, and leading afternoon devotionals with the staff; we’ve gone to the Durres hospital to pray for the sick.
I’ve had the opportunity to lead a Bible study in a neighboring village and to teach at the kids Bible school here is Durres. We acted out the parable of the sower and the seed (Matthew 13), and then had the kids try to spit sunflower seeds into a bucket. We have also spent some of our time preparing the basement of the MorningStar building for September (the demand is really high and they currently do not have enough space for the number of kids enrolled). On Fridays we also are helping lead the youth meetings – had a ton of fun with this; three of my team members taught on our individual identities, our identities in the body of Christ, and practical applications.
Basement of the MorningStar building that we’ve been preparing for September
I am so encouraged by how much this church prays – it is the first thing they do here, not the last when all other options have been exhausted. Just last Friday we participated in an all-night prayer vigil for the church. Last Tuesday we hiked to the top of a hill on the outskirts of Durres to pray over the city with the youth leader Jeton, who does this every Tuesday morning.
We also had an opportunity to go to an orphanage in the northern city of Shkoder, but that’s a story for another blog post.
I haven’t had much time to process everything that is happening – this lifestyle is completely new to me. I am so thankful for my teammates who are teaching me a lot about ministry. We are still getting to know each other but we have a very diverse group of people with strengths in a variety of areas. Looking forward to week 2, especially the seafarer’s ministry on Tuesday!
Love,
Zach
