WOW! It has been almost a month since I’ve moved to Albania! Time has really flown. I can say that I have officially settled in to my new town, family, and school. Life has started to seem normal, and our schedule has been pretty stable.
We have had 3 different speakers come in so far, The first two weeks were done by Will Ackles about ‘Encounters with Christ’ and ‘The Parables’. It was a really great start to our lessons as he made us connect with every person that Jesus encountered with, and I saw areas in my life that I didn’t know that I needed fixing. My favourite lesson from him was about the disciple, Thomas, and redeeming him from being named ‘The doubtful’. When you study the bible and are able to read familiar stories but get so much new information out of it is a really cool experience.
The next week was done by Andy M(something) and we went through the book of 1st Corinthians. We had some really good conversations on controversial topics such as head coverings.
This week we have a Messianic Jewish teacher, Wayne Weissman (Prior Director of the Torchbearers in Colorado, Ravencrest) He is leading us through ‘The Feasts of Israel’ We have had 5 classes so far, and the last class was the first time we touched the actual feasts. He made it very important for us to understand how the bible is ONE BOOK, by God. Not 66 book thrown together by different people from the past. We have gone through Genesis to Ezekiel to Revelation it is so clear to me how God’s plan for humanity has never wavered, but it all points to the Messiah.
Annnnnnyways, that’s enough about the schoolwork talk.
My mom and dad came to visit!!! This was an amazing experience for me to show them where I live and the town as well as all my classmates. They came camping with us and went to some cool hot springs not too far from the school.
I have some cool travel weekends planned for November so stayed tuned for that!
FUTBOLL!!!
A cool opportunity that I have since being here is to join a girls/ladies soccer team in a town 45 minutes away. Because of this distance, I practice with a 13 y/o boys team here in Ersekë but for games I will travel and meet with the team. I had my first time meeting with me team last Saturday. This also happened to be my first time meeting any of the team, as well as the coach. And none of them spoke English. Greeeaaattt.
It actually turned out fairly well as I can communicate enough in Albanian to ask for the ball or a pass but any of the plays or locker room talk I didn’t get anything out of. The team is not a very high league so it isn’t too tough for me, but it is certainly an experience. The Albanian culture is VERY different from Canadian, and this doesn’t change on the futboll feild. My first game consisted in a huge fight between about 10 girls from each team including kicking and punching. It was both amusing, and confusing as the outsider, considering I didn’t know what started it or what to do while it was going on. The plan is to only continue playing as long as it doesn’t interfere with school and studying.
This has been a fairly short update in consideration of how much has happened this month but there just isn’t enough time to explain it all!
But as for now, Life is good, coffee is good, Albanian food is GOOD, and God is GREAT!
Feel free to shoot me a message sometime or email! I’d love to hear from anyone back home 🙂
Big Opinions from a Small Girl 