Our time for ATL ministry is coming to an end in Albania. These last two weeks doing ATL in Shkodër have been so so fun. It has been a time where God has been stretching us but also giving us time to bond and grow closer as a team. I know I have briefly introduced my team but allow me to use stories from these last two weeks to introduce them a bit further as well as give a glimpse into what God has been doing in our team.
Matt and Travis –
I put them together because the story I want to use involves both of them. These guys are two of the most caring guys I have ever met. They love others and our team so so well. They just want to serve God with their whole heart. On top of that, they are absolutely hilarious together. They put up with a lot of our antics (i.e. watching H2O: Just Add Water with us, AND us girls locking them in their room just for kicks and giggles). You’ve gotta give them credit for living with four 22-year old females. However, all of that is beside the point. The story I want to tell goes back to our ministry day of making flower crowns. That day was International Women’s Day. We are currently in a country that very much looks down upon females and doesn’t really seem to value them. That day, Matt and Travis went out of their way to serve us girls on the team and get us EACH a bouquet of flowers. They wanted us to feel loved and appreciated and in a country where women aren’t always appreciated, they chose to show the love of Christ and love us well. This is just one example of how intentional and caring these guys are. I am beyond grateful to call them my brothers in Christ and be living alongside them.
Matt and Travis with the beautiful bouquet they gave me
Elizabeth –
This gal is a woman on fire for the Lord. She asks some really deep questions and loves challenging ideas and thoughts, in the best way possible. Elizabeth and I have spent lots of time together and it has gotten to a point where we are almost of one mind and can just look at each other and start dying laughing. One thing Elizabeth and I have in common is our love for ice cream. And one of her ministry days she was in charge of she decided to buy a bunch of different cups of gelato at our favorite spot and hand out free gelato to people that we met. It was a little hard at first, people didn’t really want gelato, which to be fair it was still winter and rather cold so we were the crazy Americans for that. However, Elizabeth, Clara, and I happened upon this little park and there were a few tables of old men playing games like chess and dominos. We went up to the first table and they didn’t want our gelato, but the table over waved us over and accepted our ice cream. They were so excited about getting ice cream and were so kind. One of the men came over and shook our hands and even pat Clara on the back. The thing I love most about this story is the fun that Elizabeth thought about when she chose ministry that day. She wanted to do something that she knew we would all enjoy but also get us to talk to people. Though we couldn’t understand anything the men were saying to us, the joy that was on their faces when we gave them the ice cream was so pure and so sweet.
Me and my sweet, ice cream loving friend
Paula –
Paula is our alumni team lead, which means she’s done the Race and will only be with us for about another month before she heads back to the States. Having Paula as not only my team lead but my friend has been so sweet. One of the things I love and admire about Paula is that she is so bold. She has literally no problem walking up to people or situations and just being an absolute JOY to them (refer back to us crashing a birthday party). But the story I want to tell is one that happened while we were paired up to go and pray over people in the city. Paula and I had spent some time writing Bible verses on the back of small cards that she had painted prior to this day. The two of us were walking around and we come across this old woman standing on a street corner and Paula just goes “I’m gonna go pray for her.” And so we walk up to her, she speaks no English. So Paula pulls out her Google translate and tries to communicate with her through that. She says we can pray for her, even though to her it seems a little silly. Paula prays and then hands her one of her paintings. The woman didn’t really seem to want it but Pauls knew that the Lord wanted her to have it. And so we said our goodbyes to the woman and walked away. Now I am sure the woman thought we were crazy, but that’s the thing about Paula: she does not care. She lives life so boldly, a life I am trying to love, that she doesn’t care if people think she’s crazy. She loves Jesus and wants others to experience the same love she gets to experience.
Me and Paula on her Taylor Swift birthday :’)
Clara –
Clara is one of the kindest, most gentle people I know. She has such a huge heart and is someone I connected with even before I met her in person. She makes friends everywhere she goes. There are so many stories I could tell, but the story I felt appropriate to share was the day of Matt’s birthday. Clara and I both share a love of birthdays. We just want people to feel loved and celebrated on their birthday. For Matt, we wanted to serve him and love him well on his birthday. Since he loves breakfast food, we decided we would make French toast for his birthday dinner. Clara, also a master in the kitchen, even decided to make a berry topping that included strawberries (another one of Matt’s favorites). However, halfway through making dinner, the power went out. We decided to wait it out because this wasn’t the first time this had happened and the other times it had happened, the power shortly came back on. So we waited and we waited and the power never came back on. Somehow we had broken a breaker and our stove was no longer going to work for the rest of the evening. Now at this point, the only thing that had been made were some sausages and the berry topping. We had bread and the French toast mixture but no way to make the actual French toast. Clara, wanting to make this work still, found a panini maker in our house and made all of the French toast in a panini maker. She was the last person to eat as she made them as we all ate. I tell you this story because this is a perfect example of how Clara serves and does ministry. She finds ways to make things work and serve others, even if it means being the last to eat.
Me and Clara at our favorite coffee shop
That is just a glimpse of what we have been doing and how God has been working in the city of Shkodër and amongst our team. And there’s even more exciting news! As our time in ATL comes to a close, we actually get to stay in Shkodër! Our ministry host is in Shkodër and we get to stay in this city for another 3 weeks, which is so exciting!
Here are some ways you can pray for the ministry happening here:
- Pray for the people we have met here already! That God would continue to show up in their lives and that the seeds we planted would grow.
- Pray for the ministry that we will be partnering with and that the transition will be smooth for us.
- Pray for a couple of my teammates as they continue to fundraise! Their final deadline is at the end of April. Pray that they would be able to meet that deadline. And if you feel led, feel free to reach out if you would like to help support them!
Excited to share with you all what ministry looks like these next 3 weeks in Shkodër!
Here are a couple of fun photos from the last few weeks! 🙂
One of the many gelato runs we’ve made
Me making the boys watch H2O, aka us girls’ favorite show growing up
