Who is the Bathroom?

I wrote this last week and never posted it: 

Right now there are 3 men in my house YELLING. 

The man (we will refer to him as "The Hairy Man" because he has more hair on his arms than I do on my head) who installed our "heating system" for 4 days apparently didn't know what he was doing. 

AT ALL. 

We first realized this when the stove began to smoke. 

Then we heard an explosion. 

Cory was the first to realize the explosion came from Shiloh's room where she was sleeping. 

He opened the door and it was full of steam so that he couldn't even see the crib. 

Thank the Lord she was unharmed. 

A boiling tube of water exploded. 

The Hairy Man came to see what the problem was, said it wasn't his fault and left. 

That was yesterday. 

Today, another man (we will call him "The Smoker Man" because he probably smoked a whole pack from the time he got here until the time he left) who has installed systems like this before, came to see what had been done wrong. 

He started laughing, taking pictures and I kept hearing the word "bomb." 

Maybe that means something else in Albanian? 

Finally our friend Klodi translates..."This is like a bomb." 

"NO, not like, it's BOMB." The Smoker Man says. "This is all wrong you have to throw it out." 

"It's upside down. It is bomb. What was this man doing?" 

Beyond that he didn't put a safety valve on the stove so there was no way of controlling the heat from making the water too hot. At least that's what I understood. 

We call The Hairy Man to come over so The Smoker Man can explain to him what he did wrong. 

That was about an hour ago and they have been storming around my house yelling since then. 

I didn't realize I was stressed until I went into my room and ate a whole Snickers bar. 

Basically, the whole system has to be removed. It doesn't work in our home. 

The stove was the wrong size. 

The pipes were going the wrong direction. 

The boiler thing was way too small. 

Furthermore, the system wasn't built to code. So it was illegal in a sense. 

This means all 5 radiators and the stove need to be returned.

The Hairy Man refuses to be responsible...

That was last week. 

Since then we have come up with some conclusions. The system that was in our house will be used in our church building. We are going to have a different system installed tomorrow by The Smoker Man who is very good at what he does. 

O bobo. That is that they say in Albanian when things like this happen. It's kind of like "Good grief." O bobo. I'm probably butchering the spelling but thats what it sounds like. 

I have mentioned before that "life takes longer." This is what I mean. There were 4 days of men in our house drilling holes and covering our house in dust, only to find out they did it all wrong and we have to start all over. 

The electricity went out last week when we were gone for the night. It didn't come back on. When we got home, everything in our fridge was bad and everything in our freezer had melted. I had been stockpiling food for the winter in the freezer and had to throw a lot of it away. 

My doctor (It is true Baby Cramer 2 is on the way, we put a pic on Instagram to announce it :)) is 3 hours away. 

There is no garbage disposal or dishwasher. 

My dryer takes 2 hours. Or 4. Or 6 when the electricity goes out every 1/2 hour.

Sometimes there's a house in the middle of the road. 

Obviously things like this happen in America or anywhere, it is just more common here. It is a part of every day life, not an out of the ordinary hiccup. 

We were in Greece for a day this week to get some things that we can't in Albania. 

There is a Starbucks in Thessaloniki. There are trash cans along the side walks. There are places to buy clothes for Shiloh at a reasonable price. There are different kinds of restaurants that have more than sausages and bread. There is no dust. 

It was a little bit overwhelming at first. 

I don't want to dwell on the things that are hard about living in Albania. I love it here. I love the mountains and the lake. I love the people. I love the hunger for truth, the questions about Jesus and the opportunities to share with everyone. 

When I think, "Gosh this dust is horrible," I just push past it and remove it from my mind. 

When the smells of burning meat and trash on the street turn my pregnant stomach, I just think about something else. 

But going to a place where those things were absent, made me realize how much I actually do think about them. Especially how much my pregnant brain thinks about them. Because a Kristine pregnant brain and a Kristine unpregnant brain, are two very different brains. 

I really hate the dust and trash. 

I really don't like the smells of sewage and raw fish.  

I really want Chipotle. Like really bad. 

I really don't like when the butcher hands me bloody cow money. 

And Cory and I were talking about how crazy, amazing, scary and enveloping the plan of God is. 

He didn't pick us to come here because we love to rough it. I hate camping. I don't understand how its a vacation. Like its more work than real life. 

He didn't pick us to come here because we don't care about material things. I like shopping. I like things I don't need. I like putting my baby in cute clothes that will only fit her for a week. I like fall decorations and Trader Jo's seasonal snacks.  

He didn't pick us to come here because we love to eat bread 3x a day. Bread makes me fat. Bread makes me sick. I personally believe there will be a Chipotle, a Stonefire, and a Chick-Fil-A in Heaven. And everything in Trader Jo's. 

He didn't pick us to come here because we are super smart. I still cannot get it in my head that "Ku" is "Where" and "Kush" is "Who?" Therefore, I always want to say "Who is the bathroom?" 

In fact, I don't really know why he picked us to come to Albania. But I know he did. I know He laid it on our hearts and gave us a passion for this place and these people. And I know that we told him we would do anything. And I know that we told him we wanted to truly be used by Him even though we don't deserve to be. 

And I know that He wants to grow us and change us. And we've asked Him to do that. And maybe we are just extra stubborn, snobby people that have to be thrown way out of our comfort zone to be changed at all. 

And I know that He wants us to rely on Him. If this was easy or we thought we were "good at it" it would destroy our ministry. 

But as it is, we are very much out of our element. We are very much trusting in God that if this is what He wants from us, He will help us. 

And I wasn't planning on writing any of that, but it's just what came out. That's what I was thinking about yesterday. 

I'm thankful for the prayers and encouragement of many. We are so blessed to be here, amazed at the Lord's guidance in our life and so excited to see what He will do.

Making Fire

Our life here, at times, has been one incredible adventure of traveling back in time. 

We are currently having a wood stove installed. 

My home is COVERED in a layer of dust because they have been drilling holes in the walls all day. 

We will buy wood, stack in on our balcony, and from that wood will heat our house this winter. 

I know a thing or two about many life skills...

I can check the oil in my car...not change it of course, but check it. 

I can tell you if your tire is flat. 

I can punch an address into google maps and get directions. 

I can cook thanks to Pinterest. 

I can sew a square pillow...yes that's the one I'm probably most impressed with myself for. 

BUT...

I do not know how to start a fire from a chunk of wood. 

I do not know how to live in the snow. 

I do not know how to BE cold. When we snow skied in Brian Head, I cried. 

Seattle for a year just about did me in. 

And now I have a wood stove. 

And I will learn. Things that I never really wanted to learn but now will out of necessity. 

If I could live in 100+ degree dry heat for the rest of my life I would be perfectly happy. I love to be hot. I love the sun. I didn't have air conditioning in my car for years in the Southern California summers and I just liked that I could leave for work with wet hair and arrive ten minutes later with it dry. 

SO...the LORD is S T R E T C H I N G me. Sometimes on rainy days I feel as though He is asking me...

Do you really love these people? 

Will you really go anywhere? 

Will you have joy even when the summer isn't hot and the winter is full of snow? 

I get it. This sounds dramatic. To some it is a joke. 

But everyone has their struggles. 

This is mine. I love the heat and I don't get it here. I hate the snow and I sure will get it. 

BUT, I KNOW this is where the Lord has us. I LOVE these people. I feel so blessed that he has brought us here. 

So I will be sure to let you know when I build my first fire (I wish I could use emojis on here...I would use the fist bump one in this instance).

In other news...

*Last week, we went on a little family vacation to spend some time together, rest from the summer and get a little sun before the winter hits. Because in many senses, our home is our ministry, (we have events and bible studies and an open door policy) we kind of need to leave Pogradec to spend quality time together. 

So we packed up and drove away. We didn't REALLY know where we were going or where we were going to stay. But that was part of the adventure. 

We drove to the coast of Albania. It is very beautiful and untouched. We found an awesome spot close to the beach.  It was such a blessing and we are very thankful after such a full summer. 

Beautiful Albanian Coast

**The last day of our vacation I was struck with some kind of bubonic plague sickness that knocked me out for the next five days. Cory and Shiloh had some great bonding time while I tried to let my body heal. Today is the first day I have felt normal.

***In the midst of all of this, two of our FAVORITE people are here right now. It has been so great to catch up, hear about their summer and spend time with them. 

****There is currently a Futbol (soccer) camp going on for boys ages 12-14 this week. There were 100 this morning! NONE of these boys come to the church. Every night they have a meeting where they are walking through the gospel. Please pray for Cory as he teaches tonight. From this we are hoping to begin a Bible study with this younger age group. 

Now I have to go sweep and scrub away the 6 inch layer of dust covering everything in my home :) 

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.