Thanksgivng!

Well, the Thanksgiving weekend has ended. For Rachel and I, it was an extremely busy four days. We hosted two Thanksgiving meals in our apartment, one of which we did all the cooking. One was held on Thursday, where we invited friends and students of ours to come over for a traditional, American Thanksgiving meal. For almost all of them this was their very first Thanksgiving experience. Tom, a fellow employee of ours, shared with the group why we celebrate Thanksgiving, what some of the traditions are, and had everyone share one thing they were thankful for. It was a lot of fun! It wasn't exactly the same as Thanksgiving back home though. Albanian girls tend to eat very little. I've seen couples at restaurants where the man has a plate full of food and the girl doesn't eat anything. I'm used to seeing everyone, both guys and girls, stuff their face on Thanksgiving! :) I kind of felt like man, as I sat there with piles of everything on my plate. Yum, yum!!!

 

Our second Thanksgiving meal was with our team on Saturday. A couple of them came from two different countries. This second round wasn't as stressful as the first because everyone pitched in and therefore we didn't have to cook everything. We all had a good time! I ate way too much once again.

 

Rachel cooked her very first, homemade pie and I made my very first homemade sweet potato casserole. They both turned out super good!!! After spending all that time cooking, cleaning, and preparing, Rachel and I have a much greater appreciation for our mothers and grandmothers! We now view them as super women! How they've done this all these years we will never know...

 

 

 

 

 

Rachel's first pie!

 

Table setting. We had to fit at least 14 people both meals.

 

Tom talking to our guests about why we celebrate Thanksgiving and then going around the room to say one thing everyone was thankful for.

 

 All the guys on one side....

 

....and all the girls on the other side (very much a part of the Albanian culture).

 

(Left to right) Ardita, me, and "Katy"

 

Turkey for our team Thanksgiving meal

 

Desserts!!!

 

Team!

 

(Left to right) Violeta, Sundim, Luta, and Fatima

 

Me and Rachel :)

 

 

 

 

Ballet Photo Shoot!

This past Wednesday I had a photo shoot for the girls in my ballet class. Not all of the girls showed up. Originally I had 24 girls at the beginning of the semester but it has dwindled down to about 14. I'm so blessed to have the girls I do have though! They all have been so consistent and loyal! They have been learning a song from The Nutcracker for performance for their parents in two weeks. I thought the pictures turned out pretty good and I wanted to share them with you. I'm hoping to give each girl a picture or two as a going away gift.

 

Enjoy!



 

 

Olsa

 

Sara

Jora

 



 

 

Suhejla

 

 

Natyra

 

Klea

 

Rina

 

Sebergjan

 

Rreze

 

Leona

 

Group shots :)

Another HUGE "Thank you" to Fort Wayne Ballet for donating all the leotards, skirts, shoes, bags, and posters!!!

Albania!

I was supposed to send this last night but I fell asleep before I hit send! I guess all that eating got to me! (lol) Ok, so here it is:

 

Man! So many good things have happened the past five days! I am so behind! I have so much to share with you! Everything has been so busy! I came back from Albania and everything got crazy. I have had meetings, classes, coffee house, and lots of homework. We've also been preparing for today: Thanksgiving! I still cannot believe that I have 23 days left!

 

 

To start with, I want to share with you about my great trip to Albania with my friend, Esther. We left at 5am on Sunday and arrived in the capital, Tirana, around 9am. It was sunny, 10 degrees warmer than Prishtina, and covered in palm trees. It was so refreshing! We had no plans, no strategy, and didn't know where anything was. It was kind of exciting! We had asked a friend if she knew where a cheap hotel might be and she suggested a specific street that she thought had some cheap places. To make a long story short, it took us a while to find it. Almost everyone here gives very vague directions. But eventually we found the street and check out three hotels. I picked a place that was nice, had a good price, and offered breakfast. A little while later I found out that this was Esther's very first time staying in a hotel. We walked around the city for a little while and decided to take a bus to Durrës, a near by city with a beach. This is another long story, but let's just say that it look Esther and I a while to find the "bus station" (that wasn't a bus station), which took us to Durrës forty minutes later.  We then arrived at an actual bus station but then had no idea where we were. We must have ended up in a bad part of town because I kind of felt like I was in the ghetto. (lol) I don't think I've been in a city as dirty and sketchy since I've been here. I just kept laughing about it! Somehow I found it funny! We were under the impression that it was going to be this nice, tourist place and it....definitely didn't end up being that! (lol) We had to get on a local bus to the beach, which we also thought was going to be a "nice" place. Well, put simply, it didn't quite fit our expectations. There was debris and mosquitoes everywhere. It also had a bad odor. Esther asked me if beaches normally smelled that way and I chuckled and said "no." It then dawned on me that this was Esther's first time ever going to a beach. I then felt terrible for all the funny remarks I had made. But later we were both laughing :)  We didn't stay long in  Durrës. We headed back to Tirana, had dinner, and went to bed.

 

I woke up early the next morning and prayed that God would do some behind the scenes work and provide a good conversation. Right when I prayed that it hit that I have basically shared everything I could have. I have shared the whole Story multiple times, even from different angles. I felt like I didn't have anything left to offer.

 

We got ready and walked all over the city, seeing unique trademarks. One of the things we really wanted to do was take a ski lift up the mountain. This would be another first for Esther. We walked and walked toward the mountain but felt like we weren't getting anywhere. We finally stopped and asked someone and found out that we were still a 45 minute walk away. There was a taxi man right there who heard us and offered to drive us up there. I hesitated to take his offer because he looked a "iffy" to me. He was older, had a slit in his lip, and a uni-brow goin' on. He must have seen my hesitation in my facial expression. We finally just decided to go with him. He didn't speak any English, so Esther had to translate everything. Right when we got in the car he looked in the rear view mirror at me and said, "I know you're a believer and you judged me by my appearance. I've had a lot of people judge me by my appearance." I felt terrible and embarrassed, especially since Esther was the one "telling me" (since she had to translate). I took me a few minutes to finally apologize. I told him that as a young female in a foreign country I tend to suspicious toward all men. As we headed up the hill he told us he was a believer and even turned Michael W. Smith on his CD player! I almost felt like I was in a dream -- an Albanian who not only knew who Micahel W. Smith was but liked him! When we got to the top of the hill, to our disappointment, we found out the ski lift was closed. Our taxi driver felt really bad for us. I felt bad for the Esther because this would have been another first for her. There was an old church we really wanted to see and he offered to drive us there. On our way back down, I asked him how he came to know the Lord. I was genuinely curious. I can count the number of Albanian believers I've met here in the last six months on both hands. This was rare situation. He told us that he used to be addicted to heavy metal and would listen to it for four hours at a time. He picked up a track on the street one day from an "M" and read it. He became interested and eventually got a hold of a Book. He read it all the way through. He then felt very torn between what he read and his current life. Over time, he knew in his heart of hearts that the Book was completely and totally true. He wanted to find a congregation to attend and had a friend tell him that he knew of another "M" in the city. He found where he lived, which then lead him to the congregation. He is still attending there 20 years later. It dawned on me, while he was talking, that he was giving something to Esther that I could never give -- sharing the truth in her native language and also as a fellow Albanian. I felt like I was the one who was honored. I thought, "I could be anywhere in the world right now. But in this little taxi cab, in this very moment, in Eastern Europe, I get to witness my best friend hearing the Story in a very special way." He continued to share the struggles he has and is facing in his faith. He even asked Esther if she was a believer and she answered "no." He then asked her why and she didn't respond. He later apologized for maybe getting too personal. She told him she wasn't offended. When we got out of the taxi, I told Esther, "I think God brought that man to us." And she responded with, "Yes, I think He did." God works in ways you would have never expected.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!!! I thank the Lord today for those two days and for bringing me here.

 

 



 

 

 

Because Albania is celebrating their 100th year anniversary, there were flags everywhere! It was really pretty.

 

The double headed eagle is believed to be Skanderbeg's symbol.

 

Beautiful Esther.

 

The history museum

 

 

A closer look at the pretty stone mural

 

Skanderbeg Square

 

Skanderbeg, one of the Albanian people's greatest heroes

 

Beach at Durrës, one of the better shots :) 

 

Tirana had these colored light along the walking street. So cool!

 

Maybe we had too much fun with them :)

 

Bridge built in the 16th century

Having fun!

 

 



 

One of my favorite shots :)

 

 

 

St. Marie's Church in Tirana

 

We go to go inside for a little bit

Esther's first time having Chinese food! Another first!

 



 

Have to have our usual macchiato!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing for Albania!

Esther and I leave for Tirana, Albania at 5am tomorrow! I'm really excited! As brothers and sisters, I want to ask you to pray these next two/three days. Pray for walls to be torn down and doors to be opened. Please. Amazing things could happen this weekend!

Talk to you soon!

Exciting Weekend!

Two really exciting things are happening this weekend! One, I get to direct the music and games at the S.O.S. orphanage here in Prishtina tomorrow with a team of Albanian college students from a leadership class.  I had mentioned this great opportunity several blogs ago. It got canceled last month because of Bajram. This leadership class is trying to do a service project once a month and I was asked to help due to my experience with children. I'm super excited! I get to spend three hours helping plant seeds in the future leaders of this country. I'm praying everything goes smoothly!

The second is that I get to go visit Albania with a my best friend here, Esther! She's been wanting me to visit Albania ever since I met her! I'm really excited not just because I get to see another country but because I get to spend one-on-one time with her before I go home. I was hoping this trip would work out and it did! Thank you, Lord! Please, please be praying for us -- not just for safety but also for the presence of God to be with us, in every conversation.

Priceless Experience.

Hey!

It's been such a long day and I'm pretty tired but I want to share with you something that happened tonight that I'm sure I'll treasure for the rest of my life.

I went to have my English lesson with the Roma today. We usually meet on Saturdays but they have a wedding this weekend so we chose to meet today instead. They were supposed to take a test today but I walked in and saw how tired they were. They've been doing a lot of work to get ready for the winter -- chopping wood, building a chicken house, etc. So, I postponed the test for next week. I had prepared our next lesson and brought it with them, which came in handy. Part of our lesson was listening to a song and then talking about it (what they liked, what they thought it meant, etc.). The song was "Stand in the Rain" by Superchick. Great song! One said that she thinks the girl in the song "wants a new life and to forget the past." I asked them if they ever wish they had a new life and if so, what they wish that life looked like. In those several minutes of talking about what we dream a new life would look like, I felt so close to them as they opened up to me. For those few minutes they were able to dream. One sister, who's 23, said, "I too old to dream...my time over." I encouraged her to never stop dreaming. She's so young! I think maybe others are telling her that. The mom talked about how her new life would have a new home for her family. Her daughters talked about having their own rooms. Their family of six lives in a two bedroom house. One room is a storage room and the other is the living room, which is also all of their bedrooms. They all sleep in the same room, on the floor and on the two couches. The house is their uncle's, who is staying in Germany right now. Apparently he is coming back to Kosova and has plans to tear down the house in the next year. They have no idea where they will live after that. The entire family is unemployed and doesn't have very many options. Going to the university for one semester is 50 Euros. That may not sound like a lot to us but to the average Albanian it's a lot! One daughter in particular loves to learn and dreams of going to college one day but has little hope in actually going because of finances.  I felt like I was able to see their hearts in a new way today.

After our lesson, I started to get my things together to get ready to leave when they asked me to stay for dinner. They had asked me before but I wasn't able to. I had a little time to stay so I said yes. I wasn't sure where we were going to eat since they don't have a kitchen. I went to go wash my hands and when I came back to the living room they had pulled out a little wooden table that came about 8 inches off the ground and placed the bowls of pasul around it with some speca and chopped cucumbers. Something about it warmed my heart and made me feel at home. It wasn't until just now that I realized that that was the first time in about four months that I had eaten with a family. We all sat on the floor around the wooden table and eat together. The pasul (bean soup) was wonderful! I cannot tell you how honored I felt. They had invited into their home, to have dinner with their family. I cannot put into words how precious that was to me. I haven't been with my family in five months. To have a family accept me as one of their own was an irreplaceable gift. It was by far the most beautiful, cultural experience I have had since I've been here. It was priceless. I looked around the table and saw a new beauty in that family. I was so honored. I almost started to cry. I prayed for each of them and begged God to help open their eyes to His love.  There is something about them that is so real and authentic. They wear no masks. They are so grateful and appreciative. They have huge servants hearts and a genuine love for one another. It is going to be the biggest challenge to leave them.

 

Their beautiful, simple wooden dinner table. Love it.

Sunday School.

 

 

 

Guess who busted out the flannel board today for Sunday school???

 

Our kids made their own version of Joseph's colorful coat