Time in Albania (plus an update)

My time in Albania was very different from my time in Romania. Going from partnering with an organization already there in Romania to going from doing ATL ministry (Ask the Lord ministry), relying solely on being obedient to what the Lord says to us that day or for the week.

If you read my last blog I posted about how I was going to talk about the boldness that happened in Albania within my life. I was fully holding onto and expecting for me to have the boldness to go up to everyone and talk to them. I tell you what, I was definitely wrong. I got shrunken back and didn’t necessarily feel like I was supposed to talk to many people within my time here in Albania. Now you may read this and think “what is Michael doing” and “he should be doing this and doing that”. I assure you the time here in Albania as a whole squad and just within my team has still been very fruitful and very edifying. I also felt like my team was here to plant seeds and tread the land with prayer (as we did do a lot of that and had prayer walks). Some of my team danced with homeless kids while playing worship music in front of a Mosque. We’ve given food to some of the homeless here. We’ve built connections with people not just within Albania but around the world as well because we have been doing ministry in the more tourist areas of Albania. We’ve gone to church, we’ve grown some as a team. I even personally have talked to people by myself and also with others from my team. For instance myself and one of my teammates (Bradon- who’s a mighty man of God, who is also very wise in many areas and brings joy to others. He plays a huge part on the team. His presence shifts the room, as it should as he’s the only extrovert within my team) well we ended up talking to a guy one day about his life. The guy is from Berlin, Germany and has had three strokes. Because of those strokes he lost the ability to know some of the languages he has learned throughout his life such as Italian. Please keep this man (whom I shall not name as I did not get his permission to mention him by name in the blog), please keep him in your prayers. Pray that he will be able to remember the languages, especially Italian as he expressed he deeply misses speaking the language.

Now back to what boldness did look like during my time in Albania for me personally. Boldness for me primarily looked like being able to speak up more about my mental and emotional state of mind. Being someone who’s grown up in a broken home and who’s also moved around a lot in life it’s been hard to be able to express outwardly to people my thoughts and emotions with them. Since being on the World Race I have grown drastically within this and been able to speak more about how I’m feeling. I’ve also been able to communicate better with my team. As someone who hasn’t truly grown very close relationships with people (deep connections) and as someone who struggles with keeping communication with people this has been a huge improvement. Or the fact that I ended up isolating myself at times when people don’t reply to my message, text or call even though I see they have clearly posted on social media, seen my message and/or have heard they have talked with mutual friends (primarily after a few days). This has been a huge improvement for myself with communication, building relationships and for my mental and emotional health. Also for those who may be wondering, the next country I am heading to is Kosovo.

So, to sum up. My time in Albania indeed was drastically different than my time in Romania. I also apologize if this blog seems all over the place; that is however how my time in Albania has felt. I went from having some more training on the field and having suicidal thoughts, to having debrief where I opened up more about my testimony and how I grew up. I went from one tourist area for training and debrief to another tourist area to do ministry. All in the process of having my brain rewired, my mental and emotional health change and getting a little bit bolder with talking to people (including my own team). I would love to continue to see not only the growth within myself but also I want to continue to see what the Lord is doing and will be doing on this 11 month mission trip and I need your guys help to do that. I have reached out to 98% of the people I have met throughout my life (including those from elementary school). Yes, I have reached out to over 700 people all different responses or no responses. My ask is that you would consider partnering with me both in prayer but also by donating if you can. I have just $6,945 left to go until I am fully funded. Much better than having over $15,000 left to fundraise in April 2021 when I launched in August 2021. My final deadline is technically the end of November. That’s about $3,470 each month. If you aren’t able to donate at this time I ask that you may please share my blog/donation link around so we can partner with one another to advance the Kingdom of God.