"Out of the Frying Pan & Into the Fire"

Now, contrary to what you might think, this story is not about my steel pan, which is lovingly called my “frying pan” by Doni or “your strange instrument” by others.  In fact, this story has nothing to do with a frying pan, figuratively or literally.  Just a fire…

Now, sadly, I have no pictures at all from this week.  So instead, I’ve thrown in some leftovers from the travel weekend.  These ones were taken on our way home, when we stopped in Gjirokaster and toured a castle.

In mid-November, the students were divided into three groups and sent out to different locations throughout Albania to do outreach for a week.  My team was small – just me, Visi, and Elisa – and we spent the week in Tirana.  We were working with Campus for Christ which recently started a new church in Tirana.  To be honest, it was a difficult week.  I wanted to be doing more.  But God had a pretty important lesson for me.  On Thursday night, we were putting on a little program with music, a drama, my testimony, and a chance for discussion.  The attendees were supposed to be a bunch of students from the Fine Arts University, and several of them were going to perform, and then I was going to perform some pieces on my pan.  Well, a last minute rehearsal at the University meant that I was the only one performing, and those that we hoped would be attending didn’t come.  On top of that, I was disappointed with our drama – I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to have any meaning to those watching.  By the time I shared my testimony, I didn’t have any faith that God was going to use this evening at all.  Imagine my surprise when my testimony encouraged one of the young men to share very openly about his life and struggles.  I was humbled that night – who am I to question what God can use?

Are you still wondering about the fire? 

For the last couple days of our week, we were helping at the Global Leadership Summit in Tirana. The Summit was held at the Institute building where Campus for Christ is based.  It’s four stories tall, and has offices and meeting rooms, large and small.  We’d already participated in the Summit in Erseke, and this time we were helping – mostly preparing for and serving the coffee times. 

On day 2, we showed up at about 7am, ready to make a lot more cheese/olive/red pepper toothpick skewers.  As we headed up the stairs towards the kitchen, the smell of smoke became stronger and stronger.  Upstairs, Mark was just emerging from the kitchen, along with a cloud of black smoke.  The smoke seemed to be confined to the kitchen.  We all peered through the window in the door, trying to detect the source of the fire.  The smoke was dense, and everything in the room was already generously coated with thick black soot.  Meanwhile, Mark cheerfully encouraged us to “just leave your bags in the next room for now.”  I’m thinking, “Are you kidding?!  If the building is on fire, it’s generally advisable to get out!”

Several more times, Mark filled his lungs and plunged into the kitchen for as long as his lungs would allow.  Then we came to the alarming realization that the smoke was not, in fact, originating in the kitchen, but rather, it was pouring into the room from a heating vent in the ceiling!  I still can’t understand how Mark remained so calm as he bolted downstairs.  At that point, we were advised to take our things outside!  My favorite image of the day was watching Mark cheerfully and casually grab a fire extinguisher on his way up the stairs.  You would think that he did this every day!

For a little while, we thought that the fire originated in the heating system, but then Mark discovered a very hot office door upstairs.  Some drama ensued when the key for that office could not be found!  I think it was at about this time that Mark called the fire department.  About 30 minutes later, a policeman arrived to survey the scene, and then he paused to have a smoke outside.  Later, a fire truck from another era pulled into the yard, and eventually, the fire was taken care of.  I never heard the cause of the fire, but I know that the office where it began was completely destroyed, and there was significant smoke damage in parts of the building.

Unbelievably, the conference resumed only a few minutes after nine (the whole drama began at about seven), and we relocated our snack-making to another room.  Much of the food was destroyed from the smoke and soot, but we managed with what remained plus some extra groceries. 

I spent much of the day in the kitchen, washing soot off of every single surface.  I never want to smell building-burning smoke again.  I am so thankful that some of us arrived early that morning – had there been no conference that weekend, the damage may have been much worse!  

Greatest lesson:

We are free in Christ, but we live for a higher purpose than our own rights.

Fun fact:

We love to talk about the weather, don’t we?!

It is winter here, but it is often quite pleasant.  It snows sometimes, but it also rains sometimes.  The snow doesn’t usually last long at all down here, but the nearby mountains always have a pretty coating.  Erseke means “windy city”, but it doesn’t usually hold a candle to Lethbridge.  A couple days ago, though, I actually had to lean into the wind to stay on my feet.  Felt like home!