Welcome back everyone! I hope you enjoyed your short break!
While you’ve all been relaxing and
enjoying your time off from my blog, I’ve been working away over here trying to
find some more interesting things to do so that you’ll have something to read
about. I hope you’re thankful!
Now, before I delve into the past again, here's a little "real time" update:
Yesterday was our last day of classes. We had a graduation ceremony in the evening. Bittersweet is cliche, but it's really the best way to describe how I feel. All of the foreign students are heading to Greece for a few days before going our separate ways. After Greece, I'll be back in Erseke for a few days before flying home. I arrive home on April 1. No joke.
Alright... back to the past...
November 20 was one of my favorite
days of my whole time here. It was “Solo
Day”, which is very much what it sounds like: each of us spent the entire day
on our own. We had plenty of time to read,
pray, and process our first couple of months here.
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| Erseka is in the distance. Rehova is the closer, barely-visible village. |
I grabbed a lunch, my Bible and
notebook, and every rain-precaution-item I could think of and headed for the
mountains. The weather didn’t look
great, but I wasn’t about to let it keep me cooped up inside all day trying to
avoid all the other hens in the coop. The
first twenty minutes of the walk towards the mountains is on a beautiful,
well-paved but scarcely-travelled road up to a village called Rehova. Rehova is one of my favorite places in this
whole area. It is quaint and quiet, and
when I walk there, I feel like I have stepped back in time to a time when life
was simpler. On the road to Rehova, no
one ever seems to be in a hurry. The odd
vehicle manoeuvers through the little maze of streets – the ones that are wide
enough, anyways – but most of the traffic is of the two- and four-legged
variety.
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I spent the first hour or so enjoying
Rehova with my camera, and then headed out towards the valley between two
peaks. As I expected, I soon came across
a creek and started following it up.
This creek became my theme for the day; or rather I ought to say that
God revealed to me that the creek is an illustration of my relationship with
Him. He gave me an idea, and it
resonated in my mind over and over all day: “Further up and further in”. (The observant among you may have noticed
that this chapter title doesn’t, in fact, come from Tolkien’s writings. I have allowed myself an exception, because
it truly was divinely inspired, and C.S. Lewis also holds a special place in my
heart!)
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| Further Up and Further in to the Source |
My journey that day was towards the
source. I didn’t reach it, but neither
will I reach the Source in this life. I
never need to have any fear about losing my way, because as long as I walk always
by the creek, I will never get lost. At
times, I may be tempted to stray from the proximity of the water, but the sound
of the rushing water helps to drown out the distractions of this world. And when I walk away, the sound will help me
to return. There is always water to
clean and refresh me, and it becomes purer and purer the closer I get to the
Source.
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| Prickles, prickles, beautiful prickles! |
Here are some
thoughts from my journal on Solo Day:
God doesn’t
call me to do anything,
only to make myself available to Him so that He can do
things through me.
“Why are
you in despair, O my soul?
And
why have you become disturbed within me?
HOPE
IN GOD, for I shall again praise Him
For
the help of HIS PRESENCE.”
(Psalm
42:5)
I
am a glove, Christ is the hand. I am a
car, Christ is the engine.
In
my life, only the activity which stems from Christ is valid.
“We
have waited for You eagerly;
Your
name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls.”
(Isaiah
26:8)
Fun fact about Albania:
The Albanian alphabet has 36 letters. It is based on the Latin alphabet (as English is), but has 11 extra letters and one less. The added letters are ë, ç, dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, and zh. Each of these pairs is treated as a single letter. There is no 'w' in the Albanian language. One of the most wonderful things about the Albanian language is that if you can pronounce each letter, you can read anything, because the letters always make the same sounds. (None of this silly: "ough says oo, except in enough, though, thought, cough, and plough" nonsense. Who invented English, anyways?!)
