Travel Update in Sarandë, Albania

Përshëndetje!

We left Düress and arrived in Sarandë. Our travel day was 5 hours. It was a fairly good travel day. We were able to see the beautiful mountains in Albania, as well as the beautiful crystal clear Mediterranean Sea when we arrived in Sarandë.

God has blessed us with this wonderful opportunity to serve Him here in such a beautiful country. We had adventure day today, and our Sabbath tomorrow, so we can explore the city, and figure out the “Heart beat of Sarandë.” We want to see where people are, at what time of day, and what may be needed. We have been walking and praying over the city and asking God to reveal to us our next move while we are here. I will keep you updated on ministry opportunities as they arise, but I wanted to tell of an observation that I made on the way here.

We were driving right up a mountain on the side of a cliff, and we could see the bunkers down below. Now, if you don’t know what the bunkers are in Albania it would be a really interesting thing to look up, but I’ll give you a bit of background. During the communist regime, the dictator at the time was worried about another war, and built thousands of bunkers all over Albania. They still remain after so many years of being free from the communist government. Some people here want to reuse them for something better, and some want to just forget them.

But as we were going up this mountain I looked down at these bunkers, and couldn’t help but think of all the hurt and fear that was behind them. These bunkers remind me that this country and its people have fresh wounds still trying to heal from communism. Communism is an atheistic form of government and so most people didn’t believe in God. Then when people started to believe they began to cling on to Islam.

Despite all the past hurt of this country, people are so nice. It would be understandable if people were hesitant and stand-offish, but they’re not, they are kind, caring people.

It reminds me that even though we have been through hard things in life it doesn’t mean that we let those control how we react and interact with people. We control our actions, and we can choose to be loving or hateful. The people of Albania chose loving. I will strive to continue to love people despite the fear. Despite the pain. Despite what it costs me. I will love people until the end. I will continue to show them I love them even when they don’t want it or feel like they could ever be loved.

God is good. Zoti eshte i mire. Faleminderit! Unë të Dua!