Off to new adventures pt.1

Hey everyone!! Before you start reading I want you to get in a good spot and get comfy. This is a wild ride that I am going to break up into two different posts so you can reasonably read it. To start off God is so good and I hope and pray all of these testimonies increase your faith and lead you to more curiosity and understanding of Jesus!!

Wrapping up Albania

Albania already feels like a long time ago. We had a quick three weeks of Christmas preparation, testimonials, teachings, and church services. For Christmas preparation we were able to hand out over hundreds of

Christmas child boxes, food parcels, and clothing boxes. Packing up boxes into the van and delivering them was always made into a fun time with our team. It was such a blessing to see families and kids receive these boxes. Many who came didn’t know Jesus but we hope and pray that they saw Jesus through us and Living water ministry!

Christmas productions

Each of the churches we came alongside in Albania had their own Christmas production where the kids sang and did little skits. These productions always warmed my heart and got me into the mood for Christmas. Also I believe that God is raising up the next generation of Albanian kids to be sent out to neighboring nations to share Jesus. While watching these productions it was so special to think about that!

So many sweet connections were made at our churches and I think about these people so much! What a blessing it is to have people all around the world you call your brother and sister in Christ!

Jackets

Before coming to Albania Nathaniel (a teammate) and I prayed about finding jackets in hopes to go skiing. One night our host comes into our room and tells us he has something for us. We walk into the common area to find jackets for us. What a crazy answer to prayer and as you will soon read we really were blessed by those jackets! *we still sadly haven’t been able to go skiing though

Mural painting

One week into Albania the church we were living at asked us to do a mural on the children’s classroom wall. We brainstormed and decided to paint Jesus washing his disciples feet in like a Charlie Brown kind of way. After working on it on and off for weeks we finally finished it the night before leaving. It was so sweet to finish and honestly looked really good!!

A couple of fun little side quests that happened.

Our driver Klevis took us to a a beautiful overlook called Lin! We went at sunset and it was just so beautiful to sit and soak in Gods creation!

We decided to go to a wine and chestnut festival one night. They had music and of course the wine and chestnuts. We also got to learn the Albanian dance and dance with some locals! Another ministry in pogradec put on a Christmas festival for the community that was also fun to go to!

I am going to miss Albania and I am thankful for all I learned and grew in! It’s such a sweet place! Now here is a story to buckle in for.

Going into Macedonia (ATL)

What we decided to do, dreams and deciding on our first stop, ohrid.

Before leaving for Macedonia my team was prayerful in the weeks leading up to what we were suppose to do and where we were suppose to go. As I was praying God brought to mind a dream I actually had in Guatemala. It was a three part dream. The first part came to fruition in Guatemala and the second part is what was brought to mind in Albania one day. In this dream we were driving in a van through a town that looked like Antigua Guatemala. So I decided to look up if there were any towns in Macedonia that had similar architecture to Antigua. What I found was Ohrid. A couple of my teammates felt on their hearts Ohrid as well. Confirmation! When we continue to ask God what else he has for us in Macedonia we feel like God is calling us to walk. We don’t know how far and we thought it was crazy but you know our God is crazy! We packed up our things, got dropped off at the boarder, said goodbye to our Albanian family and started walking to Ohrid. Crazy stuff!! One other thing. My team felt like we shouldn’t use our phones during our two weeks of ATL. We would keep a phone available if we had a problem but we otherwise wouldn’t use it. This whole experience was without phones and only a paper map. Oh and of course Gods voice!! Can’t forget the greatest thing!

First stop- Ljubanishta

We were told that there was a monastery not too far from the boarded so decided to make that our first stop. A little less than an hour walk later we made it. Such a beautiful place. We hung out there for a bit talking to people and trying to find a place to stay for the night. We had a couple people tell us to catch the bus but we don’t have much peace about it so we started walking up the road. We get to a cross road, left or straight and at this point it’s almost dark and we are unsure of what to do. We stop and pray and I hear God remind me that he led Israel in the desert with fire by night, he’s going to lead us. We have a split opinion but decided to go left after a couple of dogs stop barking. We don’t get very far when a car stops and we ask them if there is a place to sleep somewhere around there. The guy goes up the road and comes back a couple minutes later. With broken English he asks us to follow him up the straight road, the one we could’ve gone on. That was so cool to me because God knew we had to go left to then go straight. Anyway he leads us to this house on the hill with a bright light lit in the upper room (fire by night). We met Jiro and his wife (grandpa and grandma) who welcomed us in. They had the perfect amount of bed space for us and cooked a delicious bean meal for us. They also spoke no English so it was so fun communicating with them.  That night was so cold but we had a ton of blankets and woke up to some fried bread before going to explore a bit of the monastery again.

Walking to ohrid, team split up, hostel.

After going to the monastery for a nice little side quest and exploration (so beautiful!) we packed up and left grandpa and grandmas house. The sun was down when we left and as you will soon find out our team really enjoys doing things at night. Anyway we have our big packs on, walking through this mountain pass, on Christmas Eve, in Macedonia. How often can you say you’ve done that before? Haha. We get about an hour in and one of the girls is sticking her thumb out and sending up prayers for someone to pick us up. When it seems like she can’t go any farther someone stops. It’s this sweet family who says they can take two people with them. Making a quick decision both her and one of the guys go with their packs on their way to Ohrid. We make a plan before they leave. If we don’t find them by 10 the next day we will call but when they get there find a place to sleep and pray that we will find each other. Remember, no phones. The rest of us keep trekking through the mountains. We walk for another two ish hours and then we start putting the thumb out. We are tired and gravity is taking a toll on our bodies with our heavy packs. We also know we won’t make it to Ohrid after seeing a map and not even being close. Haha. One car stops and it’s boarder patrol. Ope. They just ask where we are going and they ask for our passports. After telling them we are walking to Ohrid they say “you aren’t going to make it, take the bus. It’s at the next town”. We keep going with the thumb out and catch another boarder patrol who tells us the same thing and drives off. We stick the thumb out a third time and it’s the bus who picks us up in the middle of the road!! What a blessing we didn’t even have to go to the stop. What was a 45 minute drive would’ve been another 4+ hour walk. Before being picked up we laughed really hard about what our guardian angels thought of us walking when multiple people told us to take the bus. Anyway we were dropped off in the middle or Ohrid, which was much bigger than expected. Now the next order of business is finding our other two teammates. We start praying. As we were driving into Ohrid we saw multiple lit up crosses on the hills we had passed. We pray and hope that the other two might’ve followed a cross or are by one. We start walking following pretty lights and going down dirt road ally ways. We then find a map and looking up from the map to see a cross lit up above some buildings. “Let’s follow the cross” someone says. That’s what we do and at this point we are exhausted and almost at our wits end. We get to the end of the road and are about to give up and get some food when all of a sudden a guy jumps out of his car and calls to us. “Did you guys walk from Pogradec?” We all perk up with a YES. He proceeds to tell us our friends are at his hostel down the street to the left. With no thoughts we all start running and screaming and greet our teammates in the hostel. Every time I tell this testimony I am so amazed by God. He knew everything and increased our faith so much! We sat in that hostel for a good while amazed! Yes he does hear! Yes he does speak! Yes he does provide!

Five days in Ohrid 24-30th

Ohrid is such a beautiful place. Said to be the Jerusalem of the Balkans because of its numerous churches and significant religious heritage. It sits on lake Ohrid which is one of Europes deepest and oldest lakes. During our time here we got to explore orthodox churches, mosques, and castles. During one of our prayer walks my heart broke for the Muslim culture. There is a lot of works based beliefs instead of relational beliefs within the culture of Europe in general. It brought me to a heart of Thanksgiving knowing I don’t have to work for my salvation. We also got to know the people at the hostel and cultivate a space of worship in one of our rooms. The space we made in the secret place bled into our conversations with those we lived with. We got to know more about those coming in and out and share the pure love of Jesus with them. We had hard conversations and good conversations. Being challenged in what a pure love looked like grew us closer in unity and vulnerability. We also got to see a man named Dong from China come to know Jesus! Praise God! I am so thankful for this experience. Everyone at that hostel became a good friend and taught us so much.

Now onto part 2…

https://sydneyhood.theworldrace.org/post/crazy-seasons-and-more-to-come-pt-2/