School, flatmates, and the Adriatic

Time is flying! I can hardly believe it is the end of May!

Susan my flatmate and I

A few weeks ago I moved in with Susan, she is from England and she is delightful! She has been in Albania for about 6 years now and is a teacher at GDQ International School, which is a school for the missionary community here in Tirana.

I've really enjoyed living with Susan and getting the feel of single living (outside the U.S.) as opposed to family life. We play games and have people over because of our centralized location!

The other day we traveled to the Adriatic Sea!! Its about 45 minutes to a town called Durres and there we enjoyed the beach!!! It was nice to get away from the city!

The past two weeks I've been volunteering at the GDQ School and mostly thats involved covering textbooks with lamination so that they last longer. It isn't the most glamorous job, but it's helpful to the school so I was grateful to help. There was also a production of "The Hiding Place" that was performed by a group of actors from London. So I helped them set up and get props ready. The event was really well done and hopefully some of the community were reached by the message of the ten Boom family's faith.

I realize I haven't been updating this as often as I should. Because as I write this about my new housemate, I am actually packing to leave! I leave on Thursday and arrive in Germany. It seems crazy that my time here is over. I have really enjoyed this city, and getting to know the culture. The people in Albania are so caring and unique, even though they ask a lot of questions and sometimes personal questions they mean well!! I have really enjoyed getting to know the friends I have made here.

Ornela!! She works at AEP!!
Loved working with her!!

I came with certain expectations. That will always happen, every country I travel to and every step of this journey I will have expectations. Sometimes they will be negative and other times positive, some of them will be met and most probably wont be. I've realized that my expectations aren't God's plans. One example of this is: I was expecting to work with a lot of Albanians, and to do ministry with Albanians.Which I did do some of this, but most of my time was spent working with an office that is a help ministry for missionaries. So I was able to learn about and practice support for missionaries. I helped organize events and did administrative assistant work. But even though I wasn't going door to door sharing the Gospel with Albanians I know my time here was a blessing to others, and I also know I learned new skills and gained confidence in areas that lacked before. I feel like my time here was pleasantly unexpected!

Please be in prayer as I travel on Thursday. Also, for Albania, they have just had elections and there is a lot of corruption so one party claimed there needed to be a recount; just pray for guidance and wisdom on the leadership.
Thank you for following my journey!!