Welcome to Albania!

All the things we are doing in Albania!

My team and I are located in Durres, Albania, which is a lovely city on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (that’s why you’ve seen the lovely beach pictures!). We are working with an international church called GraceLife. It is a church plant from South Africa with its pastor also being from South Africa. It’s been such a blessing to be here, the focus and goal of this organization is so inspiring.

Before I tell you more, I want to let you know who I am with! I am with the same team as I was in Romania, except for the leaders. While in Romania our team leader was Amanda and we also had a squad leader, Lucas. Amanda is now training to be a squad leader as the original alumni squad leaders are preparing to leave next month. Those two have joined another team for this month. Emily is now the team leader for our team which we have renamed Living Water! I am with three other lovely ladies and the team dynamics have switched a lot since Romania. I have been enjoying how we work together, the communication, and the respect we have for one another. Through not changing teams for this country, we have been able to grow a little deeper with each other (still not at the level I want, but better).

Same team, New Name; Living Water
Anahbelle, Myself, Libby, Emily, Kiley

I am enjoying all that we do here. At first, I was a bit nervous as I was told we would be doing evangelism, which had not been a good experience in Romania, however, it has been completely different here. GraceLife’s goal is to equip us for evangelism. There are three courses we are taking with GraceLife which include activations. The three courses are called Engage Muslims with Christ, Silence Breakers, and School of Believers.

Wednesday is our first ministry day. In the morning we have been told to be a tourist and make connections! Here we are encouraged to engage with the people we come across and make friends. At 3 pm we start our “Engage” course with the pastor of GraceLife, Alecia. Islam is the main religion in Albania. In Engage we learn about the Muslim culture to best help reach these people enchained in their religion.

Thursday mornings are also left open for evangelism. We are encouraged to practice what we are learning in our courses. Thursday afternoons are life group which is where people of the church build community. We bring a dish to share for supper and eat together!

Fridays are Silence Breakers with a Vytas. He is a missionary from Lithuania serving the GraceLife church. Silence Breakers works by defeating the lies that we as Christians are not called, equipped, or qualified to evangelize. They give us practical tools to reach others. During these sessions, we do activations which is where we hit the streets and practice what we have just been taught. This week we learned the three circles which is a diagram to help explain the gospel. Therefore, when we were walking the streets asking people if they knew what the three circles were.

On Saturdays, we do school of believers which is instructed by GraceLife’s home church in South Africa. The pastor’s husband, Carel is facilitating this course. Here we learn about the biblical truths about evangelism. Saturday evenings we help out with a local youth group that teaches their students English.

Sunday is church with another delightful potluck and in the afternoon we do a variety of things. This week we helped out our pastor with decluttering her house!

I love it here. I really enjoy the ministry. Our host/the pastor is intentional and values communication. I have been so blessed here especially coming from a place where I felt so unseen. I can do this work God has equipped me for it.

I’m also so excited about these courses and how they will impact my future. As some of you may know I would like to work in Egypt in some capacity which is an Islamic culture. This gets me one step closer to that goal!

(Living Water presenting ourselves to GraceLife church)