I love flying. I’m
lucky, I suppose. Many people find it
boring, stressful, frightening, or claustrophobic, but when they are cramped and cranky, I am bubbling with excitement!
I like the exhilarating feeling of taking off. I enjoy the ups and downs, the sudden roller
coaster drops that leave your stomach in your throat. I hate roller coasters, but I love flying.
My favourite is the clouds.
They are always beautiful and ever changing. I like to imagine the clouds as their own
little land: I see hills and rivers and islands and mountains. There are layers and layers, and towering
clouds that you fly right into. I want
to reach out my hand and touch all the different textures.
I love flying because it is always the beginning of an adventure. This particular adventure is taking me across
the world to Albania, where I’ll be attending Bible School for 6 months. So, the purpose of this blog is to let you
share in my adventure with me!
A little more about the adventure:
Albania??
Where is that?
Albania is in Eastern Europe. It borders on Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro,
and the Mediterranean Sea. It’s not far
at all from the heel of Italy’s boot.
According to some stats I’ve seen, Albania
is the poorest country in Europe. It was
communist until 1991. Its own government
declared it the first atheist nation in the world. Until 1991, ALL religion was illegal. Interesting place to go to Bible School? I think so!
Udhekryq (that's the name of the school, pronounced OO-the-krooch) is located in a small town called
Ersekë. It’s not too far from the Greek border, and
it’s up in the mountains. Udhekryq means "crossroads" in Albanian.
Why Bible
School? Why Albania?
Long story.
And I don’t think I know it all.
I’ve wanted to go to a Capernwray Bible
School since high school. Capernwray
schools have a different focus from many other Bible Schools. I’ll be able to explain that much better once
I’ve gone!
The Capernwray in Albania (there are
Capernwray schools all over the world) has always jumped out at me. Maybe because it is a poorer country; maybe
because I’ve never seen that area of the world; maybe because there is a
significant emphasis on outreach; maybe just because it’s found at the
beginning of the alphabet! Whatever the
case, God has made it very clear that this is where He wants me to be right
now. And so, like my very good friend
Heidi said, I am going to go and find out why!
Will you
have internet?
Yes.
I’ll be skyping, (is that a word?) and will have access to email. Facebook? I probably won’t be spending a lot of time
there. Phone? Nope.
I didn’t realize how often I reach for my phone until it wasn’t
there! I think it will be good for me.
What do they speak there? What language is
the school in?
Albanian.
You know the ‘language family tree’ that you learned about? Albanian has a branch to itself. It’s not closely related to any other living
languages.
The school is translated. When the teacher is English, there will be a
translator. Vice versa, there will be a
translator. And, we get to take Albanian
lessons!
What is
the school like?
Small.
Really small. Tiny. No one seems to quite comprehend this
part. There will be 12-15 students. Yes, total.
Approximately 3 from Canada (yay!), 2 from the States, 3 from Germany, 1
from Kosovo, and 4-6 from Albania. We
live in dorms at the school. We’ll have
some travel weekends, and spend a couple weeks living with Albanian families
and doing outreach projects.
How are
you feeling?
I’ve experienced the full range of emotions
in the last couple weeks: Nerves. Excitement!
Sadness to leave home. Stress. Right now, sitting in the Vienna airport
waiting for the final leg of my journey, I’m pretty excited!
Some of you are here because you said you’d like to pray for
me. I really appreciate that. Right now, I’m thankful for an uneventful
journey so far, and I’m praying that my last flight will go smoothly,
especially meeting up with a couple people from the school at the airport. We’re going to be staying over one night in
the capital and picking up another student at the airport on Thursday before we
head to the school.
A week ago, I was listening to my iPod and a song jumped out
at me. It’s one from my Aunt Jane,
though I also remember it from the nineties era at church. The words have become my prayer for myself
and all the other students.
As we gather may Your Spirit work within us
And
as we gather may we glorify Your name
Knowing
well that as our hearts begin to worship
We’ll
be blessed because we came
We’ll
be blessed because we came
