Greetings all. Our squad has now been in Albania for over a month. We arrived in Krujë early in the morning of the 18th of February after riding on a bus for about 19 hours. This was a long trip, but it was a beautiful time spent as a squad sharing conversations and music and enjoying each other’s company. Travelling can be stressful and we may get tired, but I thoroughly enjoy the changing scenery and just being with my squadmates. Thankfully, our logistics team has been doing a wonderful job making our travel/lodging arrangements. Anyway, we spent two weeks in Krujë, each with a different purpose. The first week was debrief. This time was meant for each team and individual to debrief from our first month of ministry. Our mentor, Brandon, and coaches, Jenn and AJ Hebert, all flew out to be with us for this time. It was a blessing to hear from them and spend time with them one on one. For the second week in Krujë, we had different trainings each day from leadership. They did a wonderful job exegeting the Word and giving us a taste to motivate us into further individual study.
After this time, we split off into our teams for ATL ministry in different cities and towns across Albania. Spending time in prayer, our team, CIA, felt led to head to Vlorë, a coastal city on the Adriatic sea. We actually ended up in Orikum, finding a wonderful Airbnb hosted by a kind woman who turned out to be Christian herself! Upon arrival, she was so kind and welcomed us by telling us she would cook us a traditional Albanian breakfast the following morning. Her generous hospitality continued throughout the duration of our stay and she honestly ministered to us much more than we ever expected.
Ask the Lord (ATL) ministry entails full reliance on the Holy Spirit to guide each day. In countries with a host, it is typically more seamless to plug into and partner with the ministry that they have already established. My point here is not to say there are no challenges in hosted countries, but the window of potential opportunities is narrowed which in turn enhances one’s focus. The more I write on ATL the more I realize perhaps I may have been thinking too hard about what ministry should look like instead of simply going out and living life. However, I digress. For me and some of my team, we struggled to eradicate the notion that a productive day of ministry looked a certain way. I personally struggled not really knowing where to go or what to do, but it can really be much more simple than I expected. I was encouraged by my team after being honest with them that I didn’t feel like I knew what I was doing. They reassured me of my God-given talents and gifts. Perhaps during this 17 day period of ATL I missed some opportunities in the city of Orikum, yet I am confident that the relationships that we did form will bear fruit even if we aren’t the ones to see it.
One of the sweet things we got to do in Orikum was spend time with a woman and her family. Some of the girls on my team met this woman (we’ll call her Christina) at a salon in town. They had a great time at the salon talking with her through Google translate and she was very excited to spend more time with them. Over the next week we spent a few days with her and her family. She had a 14 year old son and a 19 year old daughter who came with us as we went to different places around Orikum. It was a sweet time to get to know them and love them. As I said with Anita, they ministered to us a lot. Christina had us over to her home and fed us after we went with them to a national park. As our time came to an end, some of us were able to talk with her daughter about the Bible. She was eager to get her hands on one and though we weren’t able to get her a physical copy, we provided her online resources to read the Word in Albanian. Just this small interaction made all the time we spent with this family worth it. We continue to pray for her eagerness to read the Word and that she would come to know Jesus personally.
After leaving Orikum, our team, CIA, traveled to Elbasan, Albania. The Early Birds team is with us in Elbasan and we are all partnering with Pastor Bani and his Church, New Heights Elbasan. This is the first time that New Heights Elbasan has hosted anyone from the World Race and it is an excellent opportunity to be a part of building this relationship. I will be writing another blog soon with updates about our time so far here in Elbasan. We have only been here for one week, but feels like a month because so much has been happening! Each day is very busy and God’s kingdom is being built! I pray for you all and thank you for reading my blogs and supporting me.
God bless,
Nathan Schubert
