There and Back Again: Road trip to Albania

As I told you in the last post a couple of weeks ago we went to Albania for Ermenita's wedding reception.  David, Debbie, our friend Tracie, and I departed from the Bible School  on the 30th to begin our trip to Albania.  The first stop that we made was in Fararra to pick up Andrea and then on to Croatia.  We spent the first night in a town called Sibenik, a 12 hour drive from Firenze.  the next day we went to a national park near Skradin on the Krka river.  It had beautiful waterfalls and places to swim there and of course it was swimming with tourists.

After we saw the waterfalls and had a picnic lunch there we went on to Dubrovnik and spent two nights and one day there.  It has awesome old town walls and streets to explore.  We walked the streets, climbed them in some places, saw some old churches and monasteries, and even a Jewish Synagogue that had documents from WWII.  Some of us went swimming in the sea as well and it was so refreshing.  I couldn't help but praise God as I lay in the water relaxing in the cool water from the hot day.  The day we left for our first stop in Albania, a town called Shkoder where we would meet up with Ermenita, we had a little bit of trouble. 

We had a beautiful drive through Montenegro, but after we crossed the boarder into Albania, we discovered that they were doing construction on the road all the way to the town, about 50 miles.  When we were almost to the town we hit a huge pot hole and after a few minutes we discovered that the car was leaking oil.  However, we happen to break down right in front of a place where a group of men were standing around and a few of them spoke English.  In fact, a couple of them have been living in the UK for the past 14 years and was back visiting.  He kindly helped us push the car off the road, call us a tow truck, call Eremnita and her friends to let them know where we were going, and give us a lift into town to the service station where the car was going and all without asking for payment or any kind of compensation.  The people at the service station fixed our car by 10:30 that night and it only cost us 150 euro for the tow, labor, and parts!  God was really looking out for us that day and we were so thankful for his presence with us.

The wedding reception of Ermenita we went to was different than any other wedding I have been to.  It didn't start until 9:30 pm and Ermenita and the wedding party didn't enter until after 10 pm.  There was so much food!  To them, if there is food left on the plate, then it means you had enough to eat.  There was a course of food and the dancing.  Then after a couple of hours the 2nd course of food arrived and more dancing. And finally, around 1:45 in the morning, the 3rd course of food and then more dancing.  The wedding lasted until 4:30 am, but we left at 2:30 am.  It was a good time and fun to do the traditional Albanian dances and eat their traditional foods.  I were so thankful and blessed to be invited by Ermenita.  That Sunday we went to the church there in her hometown, Korca, where Ermenita went before she came to Italy.  It was such a blessing to meet and  worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  There were so welcoming to us and one lady even translated the sermon for us.

The trip back  was a little more adventurous since we didn't have any hotels booked.  Our pattern was to drive until about dinner time and then find a town and try to find a place to stay for the night.  The only problem was that we went along the coast of Croatia during the high tourist season and didn't have a lot of luck finding a place.  But God is good and took care of us and we found some nice places to stay.  One thing from this trip is how hospitable and friendly Albanians are.  You read about the people who helped us with the car, but we found out that many other people stopped and wanted to help as well, and Ermenita's family and friends were very welcoming to us as well.  I knew, from a previous mission trip, that Croats are very generous and hospitable and it still stands true today.


As I close out this blog I ask that you will continue to pray for us over here.  Pray that we will be kind and generous to everyone we meet and that we will treat them the way that Jesus would have treated them.  Pray that every word we say, every action do, decision we make, and thought we have will glorify our heavenly father.  Pray also for the church we visited in Korca and that they will keep doing good things for the kingdom and that God will continue to bless them.  And one last request: my brother and sister-in-law left last week for Argentina to do mission work there for a year, so please keep them in your prayers as well.  I'll update again soon and let you know what else we have been doing.  Ciao for now and God bless.