When the Teams Leave

In the last 10 days....

*I have been struck by the incredible lack of jobs here. It is truly heart breaking.The girl I mentioned HERE came to my house yesterday because we have begun reading the Bible together. I read it in Albanian and she corrects me and translates. 

Her mom is in need of a surgery. I couldn't quite understand what kind, but I believe she needs to have her gall bladder removed. The recovery will take about 3 weeks. 

But here is the problem: Her mom has 3 jobs. Her Dad has none. He had a job for 15 years and was fired. Because he went to school and was trained for that specific job, he has been unable to find another one for years. This probably largely also has to do with the fact that he is an alcoholic. 

Her mom takes care of an older woman every day and cleans a house and a medical clinic. If she were to take the time off for the surgery, she would LOSE ALL HER JOBS. She would lose all her jobs, and the family would therefore have no income. 

I don't know how to help. They don't need money for the surgery. Her mom needs a job when she recovers. Actually, she needs multiple jobs. Jobs that will support her and her husband for the rest of their lives. 

I asked this girl if she could work her moms jobs while she recovers but the employers will not allow that. 

Another lady I know has a little stand by the lake where she sells little trinkets and snacks. Her husband used to beat her. Then he left her. She has a 5 year old little boy. She looks so sad every day that I have a hard time saying hi to her. If she does not sell the little items that 18 other people along the water sell, she won't be able to provide for herself and her little boy. 

There is an 8 year old girl named Esmeralda that sells sunflower seeds along the water all day long almost every day. I don't believe her Dad is in the picture. Her mom sells some other things. This is there only income. Esmeralda always comes and gives Shiloh and I big hugs. She is the sweetest thing and I wish I could take her home with me, feed her lots of food, and let her play like the 8 year old little girl she is. 

**I said goodbye to my sister Lissy and my friend Natalie a few days ago. They have been here for 6 weeks. And it hit me that I live here in Pogradec all over again. All of a sudden, my family felt very far away. This will be the longest time that Lissy and I will go without seeing each other and I don't know what I would have done without her this summer. When we moved here, I knew that she was coming soon. Now she is gone and I can't believe how quickly the six weeks went by. It was really hard to see her go. But, it also made me thankful that the Lord has made His path so clear to us. In the midst of the sadness of being away from family, I have peace knowing that we are in the center of God's will. There is such joy in that! 

***This week marks the first time in 5 months that our little family of 3 has lived alone. It was a little bit of a shock waking up in the morning with no one in our house. I keep thinking someone will stumble down the stairs and pour themselves a cup of coffee. I can hear people walking around upstairs in my head. In the last 5 weeks we have had over 30 people stay in our home, sometimes 20 at once. And it was PERFECT because that is what our home was designed for! There is a room upstairs that has 3 triple bunk beds. There is a room with more bunks and pull out couches. There were mats and bags COVERING the floor. But there was plenty of room and space and it was such a blast to use our home in this way!

Yes, there were TIMES when we had 20 people in our house that I felt like I was in the middle of a mosh pit...

The pile of dusty shoes made me feel a little panicky. 

The creaking doors and loud voices that woke Shiloh up an hour early were not my favorite. 

The pile of cloth diapers I had to wash began to smell like a moldy hamster cage because my laundry machine was occupied. 

The 30 hungry people in my kitchen was a bit of an adjustment to only cooking for Cory.  

But it was SO FUN and such a BLESSING...

To have all the bunk beds upstairs full of people excited to serve in Albania. 

To have meals with so many dear friends. 

To stay up late laughing and talking and sharing about what the Lord is doing. 

To have so many people love on, play with and giggle with Shiloh. 

To share our life, our ministry and our passion for Albania. 

I am so glad that our summers will always be full. Full of old friends. Full of new relationships. Full of mattresses and bags on the floor. Full of dusty shoes. 

****These are some of the boys that haunt our house. Many of them came to camp. I wish they could live with us too. 

***** There are about 80 old men that sit outside all day, every day and play dominoes or chess or something. They wear the coolest clothes and hats and I just want to sit with them and hear their stories. 

******I had a girls night at my house on Tuesday. We simply met these girls through the camps. They were invited, they came. Some of them claimed Christ for the first time. The hope is that this slowly changes into a Bible study. Rather than feeling like I don't know where to begin, I feel like there is SO MUCH TO DO that I will never be able to do it. There are so many girls that are hungry for the truth. There are so many girls that need to understand how precious they are to Christ. So I pray that Jesus would bring me the right ones. The ones that he wants me to love and minister to. 

*******We are so THANKFUL that this is our home. We are so thankful for the relationships built this summer. We are so thankful for hearts that were changed by the power of the gospel. We also KNOW that the real work is going to begin now. The discipleship, the relationship building, the LANGUAGE study. Thank you for being a part of what the Lord is doing here! 

American Invasion

This weekend, we had two teams in Pogradec at once. 30 Americans. We are quite the entertainment. The pile of boys that sit on the steps outside and watch our house is growing. Almost every day I meet a new one. 

We are continuing to hear the stories from camp last week. There were a some kids at camp who had gone to the day camp in Pogradec. A few of them had such open hearts that week and seemed so close to receiving Christ. They just weren't quite there. 

They went to camp. Heard more truth. Heard the gospel again and again. Heard about God's love for them. 

They were some of the ones who gave their life to Christ last week! We are so excited for the summer to die down and to continue building relationships with these kids, to get them plugged into church, to see them discipled. 

We are so thankful we do not have to leave this summer! This is home. We have watched the seeds be planted, we have watched the plant begin to grow, and NOW we get to stay and watch the fruit. We feel very privileged and blessed. 

Her SHIRT! She is trying to blow a bubble for a game. 

Shiloh playing some Chess

Thank you for your prayers for the sweet girl I mentioned in my last post. She had an amazing time at camp. So many people loved on her and shared with her. 

She wants Jesus, but continues to believe she is too undeserving. 

She wants, basically, to pay for the wrong she has done. She wants to be responsible and has not yet opened her heart to the grace of God. Please continue to pray for her. Continue to pray for her family.

She already however, is a different person. She smiles more. She is making friends. She is less insecure. She laughs. 

 We are going to begin studying the Bible together. I truly believe that God has His hand on her life. 

In other un-camp related news....

*I have been practicing saying "djale"(boy) instead of "djall"(devil). The only difference is the "L" sound. They have two different "L's" and neither of them are the one in our alphabet. I need to have my tongue stretched or something because it is an intense struggle to make my mouth make some of these sounds. 

When you are at a coffee shop or a restaurant, instead of saying "excuse me" like you do in America, you say "boy." So it's actually important that I learn to say "djale" correctly so as not to be yelling " Hey DEVIL!" in public at the waiters. 

**There was a legit street fight outside our house the other night. Yelling. Fists to the face. The whole deal. We watched from our balcony and took pictures, because...why not? 

***A year ago I was 20 weeks pregnant at camp. This year I have a 7 month old. Everyone tells you how fast time goes by but I truly cannot believe it.   

                                      

I also cannot believe the opportunities that open up because of Shiloh. Everyone wants to hold her and kiss her and play with her. 

Because of her, I talk with girls that might normally stand in the background. 

I build relationships with women because we have babies the same age.

 I relate to parents who are scared to send their kids to camp because I can tell them I understand, I have a baby, I would want all of the information as well. 

She is truly a blessing in so many ways and we thank the Lord daily for her. 

****We live next to a wedding venue. Like a foot away. Weddings here are a whole different ball game. They have a wedding for the bride AND a wedding for the groom. And it lasts for like a week and goes ALL night. SO the smell of burnt meat and the sound of very loud Albanian dancing music normally lulls us to sleep at night. 

*****Three summers in Albania with these friends! They have been with us the whole way and I am so thankful for all of them and the blessing they've been to me. 

Our FINAL camp for 2014 begins today. Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. Pray for us to finish strong and hard! 

An Egg for Shiloh

This is my new friend Irida who I got my nails done with. Her hair is normally in a VERY fluffy, curly fro of ringlets. It's beautiful. But yesterday she asked if she could come over so I could STRETCH it...

...it is now stretched. One day she wants to get a STRANGER of her own so she can STRETCH her hair. I love her. 

The fruit from the day camp in Pogradec the week before last is incredible. We were able to meet and build relationships with SO many kids that live right in our neighborhood. That is how I met Irida. 

Many of these kids only came to a few days of the day camp and some of them are now going to the CAMP camps happening in Cangoni the next two weeks. 

Cangoni is about an hour away so many of the parents are tentative about letting their kids go. They don't know us, they don't know where Cangoni is, they don't know why we want to take their kids camping in the middle of nowhere for a week. 

I mean, I get it. 

So, I have made some visits to parents this last week. I explain where the camp is, what we will be doing, why it is safe and that they can have their kids come home whenever they want. None of the parents speak English so all of this is done with their kids translating for them. 

One girl wanted to come so badly and she does not know Jesus. I have shared the gospel with her completely and she says "I want to believe, but it's so hard." 

Her story is a very sad and one that I cannot share in total here. I first heard it one night when I was feeling particularly sorry for myself that I could not be at dinner with the team because I had a sleeping baby. She came to my house that night around 10 and sat down at my kitchen table. She shared her story, she cried, we prayed. 

I knew it would benefit her incredibly to be away from her home for a few days.To be with people that will love her, to hear the gospel over and over again, to have fun and laugh. 

I was praying that her parents would let her come. I went and visited and talked with them twice. Her Father was very closed to the idea. He finally told her she could go adding a few conditions. Her joy was diluted by the pain of his unkind words (sorry to be vague). 

She is on her way to camp right now. Pray for her although you don't know her name. Jesus does and I keep telling her that. She is known by God the Father who is perfect, loving and unchanging. 

On another one of these visits Shiloh was given an egg by a girl's mom. Yes an egg. An uncooked egg. Apparently it is tradition that on a baby's first visit to a home, they are given an egg. I was directed to cook it for Shiloh and give it to her with garlic. 

The longer you look at this pic, the funnier it gets

So even though last week was a bit of a down week because there was no camp, it was still full in many ways. We also had some great friends of ours here for the week so there was a lot of Washington in Albania! 

It rained all week. 

BUT, we are (still) so thankful to have so many of our friends be a part of our ministry here! 

An awful morning breakfast picture

Camp 4 begins today and we are so excited and burdened! We know many of these kids already. We know where their hearts are at before the Lord. We love them. We want them to know Him. This creates both excitement and burden. 

The team this week is special to us because some of them were a part of the very first trip we took.

 2 years ago. 

We had no idea what we were doing. We had never been to Albania. We had never been a part of JV camp, but we asked 10 people to join us. 

And this is our third year here together (minus Shiloh of course)! We feel so blessed to have some of dearest and closest friends be such a vital part of our ministry. They have walked through this with us from the very beginning. 

They have eaten A LOT of bread and Nutella. 

They have played A TON of Kijabe. 

They have shared the gospel MANY TIMES. 

This team is from Alderwood, our sending church in Washington. We were a part of this youth group when we lived there and Cory was a leader and on Staff there for almost 10 years. We know many of these kids and have had some of them in our small groups. So fun to catch up with them and share stories of our new life! 

Pray for this team this week! 

Pray for the hearts of the Albanians. 

Pray for the strength of the team. 

Pray for the truth to be proclaimed. 

Also, you could pray that Baby Shiloh's cold would get better and she would stop blowing bubbles out of her nose.