Attack of the Turkey and Getting Tired

The past few days have been lots of fun and quite interesting. On Wednesday we went to Durres and walked around the city and went to Sazan and Laura's house for lunch. Durres is not nearly as crowded or big as Tirana. I like it very much. We got to go to the very top of a building, 15th floor I think, and have coffee with some of the Durres church members. It started with our group, Sazan, Laura and their girls, Taulant (the Tirana pastor) and Freddi, the church member who picked up Gerhard from the airport, and then 3-4 more church members joined us in our time sitting and talking. It was pretty cool.

After a HUGE, yummy lunch, Tiff, Rachel, Laura's sister Jorita, Freddi, Festim, and I went for a walk. We visited the amphitheater ruins where supposedly Titus was beheaded and Paul preached there. It was so cool. There were some animals inside, and we met a turkey. Freddi had a confrontation with the turkey, and Rachel and I were running away from it because it was trying to follow us. It was hilarious. It kept following Freddy and almost got Rachel.

The girls went to church in Durres and the men went back to Tirana. One thing we loved was how loud all the people sang during worship. There was probably about 20 people there, but we could tell they sang their hearts out as they sang at the top of their lungs to the Lord. It was amazing how passionate they were. One of the girls sang especially loud, and it was such a blessing :)

Yesterday Jeff came in and he took us around Tirana telling the story of how the church began. Hearing how God works is very encouraging. Even in the annoying times when they got kicked out of their apartments, God used it for good because they would tell their neighbors about Jesus every time they moved. Even though at the time it was novel for the Albanians to see an American and that helped draw them to the church, as time passed we can see the fruit of their ministry in the church that is now established and those who truly want to follow Christ.

During our walk, we crossed a street and Rachel tripped over a bike and got a tire mark on her leg. After we knew she was okay, Gerhard commented the Rachel must be TIREd now. Later, Ray was retelling the story and told Donald that Rachel is just like him now, reTIREd. :P

Today we are going to pass out more brochures to high schoolers about the film the church is showing tomorrow night and giving the gospel at. They are showing Fireproof, which I am pretty pumped for. I am praying for opportunities to have some conversations and share the gospel during it. Yesterday it seemed like none of the students wanted to talk to me in English, but then Tiff encouraged us to ask them their name and year and get them talking before inviting them. Pray for boldness today...it's easy to be friendly towards those who are nice to you, it is more difficult when the students have no reason whatsoever to be interested in what I want to share. We need to show them we care before they care about what we say.