Update on Craiova, Romania and Düress, Albania

Merhaba (Hello), Buna, (Hello).

Rojbas (Good Morning), Buna diminea?a (Good morning), Buna ziua (Good day/afternoon), or Buna seara (Good evening) depending on what time you are reading this.

Kaifa halok (how are you), Nasilsin (How are you), Ce Faci (How are you).

I have been praying for you guys as you’ve been praying for me and my team. We thank you very much (Shumë faleminderit, Mul?umesc foarte mult, Sipas, Tesekkürler)

I have been learning a few languages. This is just a smidgen of what I’ve learned. There is some Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, Romanian. and Albanian in the above words and phrases. I love learning languages. I think they’re so beautiful. It is a gift from God to be able to learn about these languages and the cultures behind them. The way people feel seen or heard by something as simple as learning their language and giving it your best shot is the best. So many people smile. They ask if I’m Romanian or Albanian. No one has asked if I’m a Türk yet, but one day. 

I have been blessed to be put into this place to worship God by loving His people that He created. I have met some amazing people in the first 5 weeks. We’ve done some amazing things and seen God move in miraculous ways. 

While in Romania we got to evangelize, put on a few events for women, young adults, and a cultural event. We passed out New Testament bibles to a bunch of people. We also passed out a bunch of posters at the markets. God is so Big and Strong and Powerful. We had 20 people RSVP for the young adult event and ended up having 45, which is surprising because we were told that we were more likely to have less than those who RSVP’d. This was the biggest turn out they’ve ever had for a young adult party. 

I made a couple friends named Onur and Zee Zou. Onur is Turkish and Zee Zou is Kurdish. They taught me some Turkish and some Kurdish. We played soccer together and hung out and talked for quite a bit of time. Onur, Lee (A fellow World Racer), and I got to sit around at a Coffee shop called, Ponton, and talk about religion. Onur is Muslim and we are Christian so it was very nice to be able to sit and talk about God and Jesus. For us to see the similarities in our beliefs, and to see the differences we have. I feel that we both learned a good amount from one another. It was a blessing. He is a great friend that I have made and maybe if we end up going to Turkey in the future we will be able to hangout.

Onur, Lee, & I 

While in Romania we also passed out posters. We went to the street markets and passed out thousands of posters. People love them. We would say, “Gratuit” which means free. And then some would say “ce este” which means what is it. We would show them the poster and they would say, “Frumoasa” which means beautiful. Then they would happily take it. It is a different kind of special to see hundreds of people have the posters you have been handing out all afternoon. Praise God for the mighty works He performed while we were in Romania. 

We got to Albania a few days ago, and have been training every day. We have been learning about the different cultures, and about how to share God with different people. I love connecting with people so in these first few days here I have learned a few basic Albanian words. Like Përshëndetje (Hello.) Si jeni? (How are you?) Mire (Good.) Po ti? (And you?) Faleminderit (Thank You!) Mirupafshim (Goodbye.) It really brings a smile to people’s face for you to just try to speak to them in their language. God has blessed me with the mind to learn languages pretty fast and it has been thoroughly useful. 

We also got to prayer walk/pray for Düress one afternoon. I was gonna go to the roof to pray over the city when Claran A.K.A Mr. Claran A.K.A Mr. Mom, said “Bradon you’re going with me to pray for the Afghan refugees.” I said I guess I am. The Afghan refugees were about 100-150 meters away from us so we walked down the street towards the house when I asked Claran how I was supposed to ask. She said, “I don’t know.” So, I pulled out trusty ole’ Google translate and found out how to say can we pray here (a mund te lutemi ketu) in Albanian. Praise God they could understand me and what I was saying. Well then they said, “Jo Jo” which means no. And I was like outside not inside and they said, “Oh Po Po”, which means yes. So, we prayed then went on our way. We hiked for what felt like 1000 Kilometers, then came down the beach side. I stopped to ask a man who was fishing what he used for bait, but then he didn’t speak English. So, we kept walking until we met another couple of guys that were getting out of their paddle boat. He spoke a little English, and told me he fishes with shrimp. Well then they were pulling in their fishing net so we asked if we could help him. He said yes and went to the other side to pull it in. It was such a blessing to bring it in tbh. It was so fun, and the guys were very thankful. He tried to offer me a cigarette as a thank you, but I kindly refused and told him no thank you and thanks for letting us help him.

God is doing big things here in Albania and we have only been here for a few days! Zoti eshte i mire (God is good.) 

We are doing ATL (Ask the Lord) this month. I will keep you updated as we go on this wonderful adventure with the Lord. Shumë faleminderit (thank you very much) for all the continued prayers.