Saying Goodbye

As our last week or so has quickly come to a close, I am at peace with how much I love these people and this country. It has been a blessing beyond any description to be a part of Berat and Valdete's family for so long, and they will hold a huge piece of my heart forever. I've learned a lot from their hearts and the way they live so fiercely for the Kingdom as a lifestyle rather than as a job. I am so thankful for all the opportunities they gave us and all the "tours" around Kosovo they took us on. Berat's history and culture lessons were some of the best stories I will ever hear, and spending time with a godly woman like Valdete will always be some of my fondest memories. They went above and beyond to love on us.
A couple days ago they gave us a "goodbye party" with all our friends here. I was overwhelmed by how loved I felt. It was sort of a shock seeing all out close friends in one room--it made me realize just how many good friends I had made in 4 short months. Each of those kids are wonderful in their own way, and I have appreciated getting to know them. They are all so ambitious and hard working, welcoming and endearing. I can't believe they enjoy spending time with such a weirdo like me!
I am eager to see my family, friends, and church again. However I will miss my family and friends here. I will also simply miss my life here--Suhareke has become my home. Everything here is normal to me now! It will be quite an adjustment living back in the states. There are things about the way Albanians live that I plan on keeping with me forever, so I hope everyone at home stays patient me as I refuse to let go of them!
Please pray for me, Sam, and Emily to travel home safely. Also that the students who are coming to live in Snellville will arrive safely soon after we return. Blessings from Suhareke, one last time!

Timing

When we originally made the plans to stay in Kosova until November, it was just that: our plans. We had no reasoning or insight to the time period of our stay. So when the opportunity came to send some of our close friends and students to Snellville for three weeks we were honestly disappointed. It seemed weird that our closest relationships were going back to our home for the last month of our time here. And we began to question not the place God sent us to, because that has never been a doubt in my mind, but for how long He has sent us here for. My roommates and I each really desire to be doing our Lord's will, and I think He has been able to teach us what that looks like--to be living fully in His will. After a lot of prayer and advice from many people who are much more wise and experienced than I, we have reached what I truly believe to be God's will. We will be coming home a month early in order to be in Snellville when our Kosovar friends come.

The Lord has given me and my roommates so much reassurance about this decision, so I don't think it is wrong at all. He is calling us to be a piece of home for the Kosovars as they are experiencing American culture shock for the first time. I think there will be so many open doors to their hearts to show them Who we had to rely on while we were in a different country without our families. We'll be able to point them directly to the source of all comfort because of their own experiences--and learning firsthand is always the best way to learn!

I am so sad to be leaving this country. It has been one of the most difficult and wonderful times of my life. I've learned more than I could imagine about God and my relationship with Him, and I am so thankful for the way He has transformed my spirit while being here. This place will always captivate a piece of my heart, and I certainly don't think this is my last time here, I love these people too much for it to be truly over! However I am eager to bring some of my closest friends home to America with me to show them my home for a little while. And I know all the students from Grace are so excited to see their friends from summer camp! This experience will be for the Glory of God in every way and for both groups of students, American and Albanian!

As our time here comes to a close, continue to pray for our spirits to be open to the Lord. Also pray for all the final details in sending the students to America to fall in place. We are trusting fully in God and His timing and plans because they are always so much better than our own!

I am so excited to be home, and in only a short two and half weeks!

Skopje, Macedonia

Since we don't have "real jobs" here, we can't apply for a Visa, which means we can't be in Kosovo for longer than 3 consecutive months. Easy way to fix that problem is drive two hours to Skopje which is exactly what we did as our 3 month anniversary celebration! We had so much fun seeing a different place. The city center was absolutely beautiful--especially since it rained all day which I haven't seen since I left Atlanta! It was a wonderful day trip, including a stop by the local Zoo.

We are doing well, definitely excited for the way we will be spending the rest of our time here working in the schools and meeting with students! We have several meetings a week with the students who will be going to study in America to help "debrief" them on the cultural differences. (And trust me, there are plenty of those!)

Check out some of these pictures from Skopje!

Transition and Stories

We have officially completed our English classes! Our students started school on September 3rd, and their school is very difficult and time consuming, so we did not want to take the focus away from their "real" studies. Without our teaching job, we have had a lot of downtime, which also meant more time to hang out with the friends we have made. However, the amount of downtime we have had was just too much, so we are working on a couple new ideas to help with our ministry here. So this is definitely a time of transition for us, just in time for our half way mark!

Some families from Grace have volunteered to host two Albanian students for three weeks! It has been so much fun having students apply and interviewing them and picking out the groups who will be going to Snellville. Erin and Jenna, two amazing women from Grace, got here this Wednesday to help Berat work out some of the technicalities of the travelling and school documents. We've been able to visit almost all the families to tell them the news that their students were picked to come study in America. It's incredible how honored and thankful the families are, it is so surreal how proud they are! It has been such a blessing to be a part of bringing such good news to them.

Erin and Jenna are playing a huge role in our transition time. They have been so encouraging and uplifting. Their wisdom and insight from their own experiences has been incredible and reassuring. We so appreciate their husbands letting them come stay with us for a week! It's been so cool showing them around "our city" and teaching them about this culture that we love so much. They've been able to experience so many unique Albanian traditions. 

Tonight, we went to a family who has been extremely close to Berat and Valdete for a long time, the grandfather actually played a huge role in their engagement (which is such a long story, but definitely a part of the culture that I will blog about later). The daughter was one of our friends and is also one of the students who was chosen to go study in America! She lives with her mother and father, his parents, and her older brother and younger sister. Her brother went to a high school where the curriculum is focused on only studying the Qur'an and learning to be an imam. He was top in his class for the written Arabic language and for speaking, we actually got to listen to him pray for our meal and read the Al-Fatihah (Sura One). It was so great getting to honor the family by listening to that, and it was one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard. His sister, our friend, could say the prayer in Albanian, and Berat translated that to English for us. The prayer was thanking God for His mercy and His blessings being poured out on the hands of the people who made it and who were there to share it and thanking God for all His creation and praising God. It was so beautiful! 

After one of the best meals I have ever eaten in my entire life, we sat down with the family for Russian Tea (its delicious, and not actually Russian, I can make it for you when I get home). It was so interesting to talk to the brother more about his studies. He is actually going to begin teaching Berat Arabic which will be an amazing opportunity for Berat to minister to him about Jesus! Definitely be praying for that, because this family is so close to the Kingdom, we can all sense the peace of God illuminating each of them. The mother and grandmother, who are both so beautiful, were wonderful hosts who were so easy to laugh with and be around. The grandfather and father have such captivating personalities. They both shared some very intimate and personal stories about the hardships their family faced during the war. I won't tell all of their stories because I know my explanations of them won't give them justice.... 

The Serbs burnt their entire village, and the families who survived escaped into some nearby mountains where they hid from Serbian soldiers for three months. Eventually they were all found, and the Serbs arrested every young man and took them to a prison simply for being Albanian. The older men fled to Albania as refugees with the women and children. The father was one of the men arrested, and he was held captive in that Serbian prison for 18 months. (His younger brother joined the Kosovo Liberation Army, even though he was technically too young, and was killed in battle by a Serbian sniper. He is recognized as a national hero for his level of extreme service, they have a picture of him in his uniform from just before he died hanging on their wall.) The father said that he was beaten in prison three times everyday, and if we could see his body we would see horrible scars of where the Serbs literally cut chunks of his skin off. When NATO forces attacked the prison, the Serbian soldiers shot every prisoner in order to kill them all. But the father and a handful of other prisoners were able to hide among the dead bodies. He said that he had to stay still for several hours to avoid being shot in the head by a Serbian sniper looking for prisoners moving. He and the other survivors were rescued by NATO troops and immediately taken to hospitals obviously for having severe traumatic injuries. Even after the NATO rescue, the grandfather had to pay 15,000 German marks to get his son back. When I asked him how he survived, his immediate answer was "Zot" (the Albanian word for God) along with a huge smile. The grandfather said that everyday while the rest of the family was living as refugees they would all pray for God to strengthen their hearts against the extreme trials they were facing. 

Meanwhile, I was sitting on the couch balling my eyes out attempting to keep some of my composure. Listening to these stories sitting next to my friend who had witness all of this as a 2 year old and watching her mother crying as she had to reminisce on life without her husband for 18 months was the most surreal setting. I was blown away by their willingness to share such personal stories with us. They were so honored that we were interested in their lives, and they have so much respect for us just because we are Americans and American troops played  huge role in rescuing the Albanians here. Their faith was astounding too. I am still in a state of shock honestly. 

I am so thankful that the Lord gave us the opportunity to be around this family and get to know them so intimately. I feel so blessed.

Thank you for all your prayers and support, and continue praying for our time of transition! Blessings from Suhareke (:

Culture 101: Weddings

We have been building some really tight relationships with some of our students here, so we are creating a really awesome group of friends. Being able to casually hang out like normal teenagers has made a huge difference in our time being spent here. Our friends our inviting us out places and we even got invited to one of their cousin's wedding!

It was a huge culture shock, we had no idea what to expect and what we witnessed was nothing like any kind of wedding we were used to. So very briefly, the wedding is a two day event: the first night is only the groom and his family celebrating. (Celebrating is eating a huge dinner and then dancing traditional dances along with live traditional music from 8 p.m. to anywhere until 4 a.m.) The next day, the groom and his family will take several decorated cars to the bride's village and bring her back to the groom's home which is her new home. (Here, when you get married you live with the groom's family.) There they have a few ceremonies that no one could really explain what they meant, except one where the bride and her mother in law had to "bless" the front door before she entered her new home. Then the new couple meets both sides of the family at a restaurant/hotel to eat and dance even more. I really appreciated the experience and getting to see a side of the culture I hadn't been able to witness before. But I really loved spending some quality time with some beautiful girls who have been such a blessing to get closer to.

P.S. We have started taking Albanian lessons from some of our students, and it might be the hardest language ever. There are 36 letters, 4 of which are impossible for me to pronounce, and apparently there are 6 million grammatical rules. So wish us luck, we really do want to learn more so that we can adapt further into the lifestyle here!

Pray for us to have joyful and uplifted spirits. The realities of the real "grown up" world are beginning to bog us down considerably.

Here are some pictures from the wedding!

My roommates and I with our precious friends

This is a traditional dance--you also see several people wearing traditional outfits

Here is the bride (they wear soooo much makeup!) and the groom behind her

And these are some men playing traditional instruments as live music to celebrate the bride's entrance

A Sense of Normalcy

I have been here for a month and a half now, and it finally feels normal walking around Suhareke and waking up in my top bunk. Our class schedule (two classes a day, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) has really helped us feel the comfort that a routine provides. It's weird to think about how normal everything feels. It's like all of a sudden I noticed that I don't feel like a visitor anymore. This is my home. There are definitely things and people I miss back in America, but I'm already realizing just how difficult it will be to leave our home and friends here. Some of the cultural oddities have become part of our daily lives and we don't even recognize them as "oddities" anymore!

We have started hanging out with a few of our students on a regular basis. The girl I talked about in my last post has started meeting with us every Wednesday after class...to do a bible study. (Don't worry, you read that right.) She came to us about how to live her life completely devoted to the Lord. We did listening prayer with her and will now be reading a chapter from Proverbs with her every week! We are really excited, especially because she entered the Kingdom purely by the power and timing of the Lord. She has also decided to start bringing her cousin (they will both be going into the 12th grade) to meet with us too! So we are very happy that we will have a small group with some amazing girls here. We hope that it will continue to grow!

Today we got to go into a different village called Bukosh to visit a brother and sister who are both in our class (and their three cousins who are also in our class who live right next door). The father and his four brothers own all the land, it was passed down to them by their father. They each have their own home and garden, and one owns a restaurant at the very edge of the property. The mother woke up at 6 a.m. to prepare a traditional food called flia for us! We had it with a salad made of peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions all grown in their garden, honey from their own beehives, and jam made from the plums they grow. Their house was beautiful, they had a huge garden with a gazebo looking at a perfect view of some incredible mountains. I am not exaggerating when I say looking at all the flowers and the mountains in the background took my breath away. They have an orchard with over 300 trees, including plum trees, apple trees, and peach trees! They also have a "small" corn field. We had so much fun visiting this family. The father and mother told us stories (translated by their son and nephew, two of our best students) like how they met, what their wedding was like, and when they lived in Switzerland. It was really fun, they were honestly the most comfortable people to be around. Their relationship is so different from many of the other marriages we have seen here, they were really in love and it was obvious. It was refreshing to witness! Emily taught everyone how to play a card game called "Spoons" and it was seriously entertaining. We felt so welcomed and enjoyed our time with them. We're taking all the kids to ice cream after class tomorrow to say thank you, and the parents are coming into Suhareke on Saturday to go to lunch with us and Berat! It was such a blessing to be with such a sweet family, the culture differences didn't create any awkwardness like it sometimes can, and there was never a quiet moment. The questions they asked us weren't just about us being Americans but about who we really were. Something new that I know I really enjoyed was how much they told us about themselves! That never happens, and I loved hearing all the "embarrassing moment" stories and "worst injury" stories from all the kids. I cannot wait until we can go visit them in Bukosh again.

I am very thankful for the weirdness of how normal my life here is becoming. Even in the struggles I am facing, I feel comfortable, at ease, and peaceful (which I know none of those things would exist in my heart without the Lord).

Emily, Sam, and I have really meshed into an awesome bond. I love them. We are each so different and the Lord teaches us in such different ways. Their wisdom and perspectives are enlightening and I enjoy every moment with them. I couldn't imagine being here with two better people!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and thoughts. We need them.

Hospitality

Something I learned right away on my first visit to Kosova last summer was the overwhelming level of hospitality the people here offer towards us. This visit hasn't been any different. A couple of our students have already brought us into their homes to meet and spend time with all of their family and to eat traditional meals made by their mothers. Yesterday we got to visit one of our student's home in a village about 15 minutes away. We met her uncles and cousins and sat with her grandmother who couldn't understand any English. Even though we couldn't speak to her, and despite the fact that we had only known her for about 5 seconds, all she wanted to do was make sure we were comfortable. She was so willing to serve us without even knowing us. The food her mom made is called "pita" and its a flaky pie type thing filled with a vegetable and cheese. All the vegetables in the pita and served to us were grown from their garden in their yard--such a cool part of the village lifestyle that I love. Her little sister had practiced how to say "What is your name?" and "How are you?" in English and recited the phrases to all 5 of us English speakers in her home. (It was seriously the most precious thing.) The amount of effort the whole family put in to talking to us and welcoming us was amazing. It's so hard for me to understand because the level of respect and hospitality they offer to us is way beyond anything else I've ever experienced. This particular student is a friend from last year, so meeting her family was very exciting for us! And we really wanted to be as gracious and reflective of Christ as possible. Any difference in our behaviors and actions makes a huge difference here. Most of her family is fasting for Ramadan, so the fact that they wanted us over to eat with them in the middle of the day is a huge deal! Even though I don't think I will ever get used to the incredible amount of hospitality here, I am so grateful for it. I wish everyone back home could experience it. (And trust me, you wish you could eat the pita too, it's delicious.)


We have had a really great week here. Thank you for all your prayers and support! 

My view everyday:

This is from a little "mountain" behind our apartment building. It's an amazing view overlooking the city and behind us are more beautiful mountains. I am still surprised to see all of this around me sometimes. But I'm not complaining--seriously I am so thankful. We are so lucky to call this place our home!

Blessings from Suhareke, Kosova.

One Month later....

I have officially been living in Kosova for one whole month! It feels very surreal--some times I feel like the time has flown by and at other moments I feel like it's going by very slowly. There are still lots of cultural things that are hard to adjust to, and most of them are things that we will probably never figure out because we aren't Albanian. Nonetheless, I love Kosova because God has given me the heart to love it. I miss a lot of luxuries in America, like not having seasonal foods. (I never thought how hard it would be not being able to get whatever fruits and veggies I wanted, because when does Kroger not have what I want? Hah) There have definitely been some trying times and struggles to overcome. Thankfully, as my dad reminded me just today, my weaknesses are filled with the strength of the Lord.

I miss my family--especially my sisters and best friends who I've relied on everyday for encouragement and advice. But if I went back to America today I know that I would have already learned such an amazing lesson of what it looks like to wake up and "die to myself" everyday. Choosing the Lord is honestly my only option, otherwise life here is just too hard. There is so much left for my heart and spirit to learn, and I am anxious for those lessons to come and for me to share them with my family and friends when I do get home in November.

There is definitely a feeling that God is preparing Suhareke, Kosova for Him. This city is special, and so is everyone in it. We have a really great (small) community of believers here--the three of us, an Irish missionary named Gillian, some other American missionaries, and several Kosovars. We have such a unique opportunity as American Believers. The people here SEE a difference in us, besides the physical differences of being from a different country, they see something IN us that is different. What a blessing! We have already seen some amazing opportunities to have great conversations because of this. I am reassured daily that we are planting seeds in our English classes and friendships by our behavior. Just recently we were actually given the opportunity to go to a "family camp" in Albania for a week, so we have no idea what to expect with regards to that but we know it will be an adventure!

The English classes are going pretty well. We are in our third week, and I am teaching the "intermediate/advanced" level students. We have two classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There  are about 10 students in each of my classes, and they are all really sweet. It has been very interesting trying to make lesson plans, and make myself appear as though I know what I'm talking about, everyday for class--honestly I'm just winging it! I hope that I will learn just as much as my students.

Continue to pray for me and my roommates, the Gegaj family that we are working for, our fellow believers here, our students, unbelievers here, and for countless opportunities to talk about Jesus! <3

Real life.

We had our first day of English classes yesterday (Monday, July 2nd). It was definitely a lot more difficult than I ever would have imagined. There were some students who seemed completely uninterested in trying to be involved and speak English with us, and then there were some people who couldn't speak any English at all. I was very discouraged after that first day, and honestly had no idea what we were supposed to do. Teaching English is a daunting task when you're only an 18 year old right out of high school...

I had to spend a lot of time praying and really just being honest with God that I was lost with this project. I'm clearly unprepared for this job--so why was I here? It wasn't until the morning when I was doing my word study/journal time that God showed me the answer. I'm not the one doing this. I was never meant to carry the burden of this difficult task. Instead, God wants to take it from me, and He wants to provide me with whatever wisdom and power I need in order to accomplish it. His Spirit is alive and working around me to clear the path I need to take and working in me to instill an unlimited source of energy. If we rest in Him, He fills us with the energy and power we need to go do His work. How cool is that?

Our other roommate Samantha Crain got here on Tuesday, July 3rd. Emily and I are really excited to have her here, and we're praying she gets adjusted to the very different lifestyle you have to have in Kosovo.

I am thankful for all your prayers. <3

Shtepi

People keep asking if I'm "homesick" yet, but I'm not. Yes, I miss my friends and family, I miss my church and hearing a familiar language, and of course I miss Mexican food. My physical home here isn't luxurious or normal for American standards, but I love it. Emily and I were talking about why we love Kosova, and why despite the trials we feel welcomed here. We were reading a word study on the word "abide" that my dad sent me, and part of it was discussing the use of abide in John 15:5-10. In those verses Jesus is telling His disciples "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he that bears fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown way like a branch and withers; and those branches are gathered and thrown on a fire. If you abide in me, and words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be acted upon. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear fruit and so prove to be my disciple. As the Father loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in that love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have listened to my Father and abide in His love." The word abide means: to share the life of, dwell in, remain in, walk with, live in, and make a home in. Our homes are meant to be with Christ. So wherever He is will be my home. The physical building I live in or the place it is doesn't matter, I can take refuge with the Spirit. If we keep His words at home with us, He will be with us, so we'll never go without a place to call home. Emily and I really felt like that was such a blessing for us to know at this point in our lives. So no-I'm not homesick because I never left my home. I do miss everyone and certain things, but I love my home He's making for me here.

P.S. "Shtepi" means "home" in Albanian!

He is greater.

We have had a discouraging past couple of days. Constantly being unable to communicate with the majority of people around us has become really frustrating and honestly pretty disheartening. Making this our home seems to be a little more difficult than just being visitors. There are power blackouts, insane drivers, grocery stores filled with foods with labels I can't read, and no Mexican food. We stand out and I often feel invasive since I'm the one who cannot speak their language.  Feeling so alone and discouraged really put me in a spot where I doubted what I could with my time here. We spent a lot of time praying and talking about where our hearts were and what we needed to be learning in this moment. The main lesson we learned from these hard days was that even though we are out living like independent grown ups, we still need to be dependent on God. Without staying focused on Him, what is even the point of being here? I am so thankful for the trials to come  because I know they will be really important lessons to learn. However, the refreshing days hold lessons just as wonderful. Today, Emily read to me 2 Corinthians 6, and that encouragement from the Lord was amazing. I would type it all out here, but instead you should all go look it up (:

Our first day of "work" was yesterday! We held a registration for any students wanting to take the English class from us. We had to divide them up into intermediate and advanced levels based on their English speaking skills when we met them. There were 30 people to sign up, and we plan on having a class from 10-12 a.m. and another one 4-6 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Our next few days will be very busy as we start making lesson plans and getting ourselves organized. It's a very intimidating task to try to teach students all around the same age as you. Hopefully they can learn a lot from us in our time here, and we hope to build some amazing friendships!

I hope everyone is doing well stateside! (I feel pretty cool that I get to say that.)

Why is everyone staring at us...?

Emily and I have decided that we have to figure out why everyone just knows we are Americans. At home if you see someone who looks foreign, you just think "Hmm I wonder where they're from" and move on. Not here. Here they stare at you until they physically cannot see you anymore, say "Hey USA" or "Alo Amerika". How do you know we're American? Why not German, Irish, Swiss, Italian....anything? I feel like we cannot  look that different from them, because they stare at us like we have neon signs over our heads. And if we don't speak, how would they know that we're speaking English? It's very weird and a little uncomfortable sometimes. Hopefully after a few weeks everyone will just get used to seeing the American girls walking around and it won't be such a surprise to anyone anymore. 

Other than catching everyone's attention, Emily and I are loving being here! We love our anytime of the day makiato e madhe (big machiatto) and of course the Milka chocolate bars. There are croissants filled with nutella that taste like doughnuts, byrek with meat or cheese, amazing ice cream, and a lot of fresh fruits. However, we are determined to find spinach and avocados...they have to be here somewhere, right? 

The Ole' Apt!

This is our bathroom/laundry room.

This is our intense front door with a triple dead bolt lock! We also have a huge storage closet in the entryway, and we are using those shelves as our bathroom storage. It has been very convenient so far. 

Here is our HUGE living room. We have a lot of seating room, and a very nice entertainment center with a great tv. Behind the ugly hotel curtains is our front porch.

Our kitchen just got a brand new "American" sized fridge, which is very exciting, and a brand new toaster oven that even has a stove on top! (our original oven was broken) We have plenty of counter space and cabinet space to use for dishes and as a pantry.

This is our dining room and desk area! The bench seat is pretty typical old Albanian style. 

Our bedroom is "under construction", we had to buy bunkbeds so we are waiting for those to come in. All the wall colors are mix-matched and bright, and none of the furniture matches, but we think its very comfortable and our main concern was having enough room to hang out in the living room-which we definitely do! We also have plenty of storage room, and with three girls that is very important. It is a big deal to sit outside in the late afternoon and drink coffee, tea, etc. in Albanian culture, so having a porch is very "luxurious", and we have two! We cannot wait to give some students American coffee from our french press and serve it outside. I will post more pictures soon of Suhareke and the amazing views all around us. (Sunrises and sunsets + all the beautiful mountains = AMAZING)

Doin' life-

For the past couple of days Emily and I have spent a lot of time with the Grace team that is still here. It has been such a blessing to have them help us get settled in and help us make our apartment really feel like a home. Some of the moms on the trip spent their whole day today doing an "extreme makeover" while some of the team kept me and Emily busy around Suhareke. It was so nice for them to bless us that way, and we are so thankful. We can't wait for Sam to get here and for us to start inviting some students over to hang out with in our new home! Our friends on the Grace team have been wonderful and helpful, so glad we got to hang out with them and hear their stories! They wrote out names of students they met and spoke to so that Emily, Sam and I have a head start on who we need to meet and where our conversations need to begin. They are going back to Atlanta on Monday and we are definitely going to miss having more Americans around. 

However we are so anxious to start meeting with the students here and getting settled into being regular faces around Suhareke! We already have plans to see some of our friends from last year, and we found a new friend who lived in America for a few years and has agreed to be our Albanian tutor. He is so much fun and became a believer during the camp that the Grace team held, so we are very excited to spend more time with him! 

Registration for the English classes we will be teaching starts on June 25th, so pray that lots of kids sign up and are excited to learn whatever we can teach them. Our days will start being a little busier, but that just means I will have more stories to tell. I miss everyone back home very much!  

And the journey begins

Emily and I spent the day with the Grace team over here now and most of the campers today at the pool. Once we landed in Pristina Berat and our awesome friend from Grace Kyle Sklenar were there to pick us up and help us carry our heavy luggage. Berat took us to our apartment to drop off our bags and we went straight to the pool! It was really great getting to see our old friends from last year and meeting some new friends. All the Americans then went to this really cool hotel/pool/restaurant in Suhareke called Solid to celebrate two of our team members' birthday! It was fun, but to be honest Emily and I were just too exhausted from jetlag to really know what was going on around us. We spent a little tome tonight unpacking, but we plan on dedicating most of tomorrow to cleaning the apartment (we seriously need some Febreeze...) and getting ourselves organized in our new home! We've also made a great new friend, an Irish girl, who will be working with us! She has the greatest accent ever. We are really excited about getting settled in and will be sending the Grace team home on Monday, so we should be getting down some finalized plans about our time here after that! I miss everyone a lot, but I know that this will be such a great experience and I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store.

P.S. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our other roomie Sam on July 2nd!!!!! 

All set for take off...

Just a brief disclaimer: since there are several cultural differences we need to be sensitive of, this blog needs to remain private in order for my roommates and I to be able to build relationships with the Kosovar people. I do not mind if anyone shares this website with friends, I would just appreciate no one putting the web address on a public forum!

I am done packing and now I am anxiously waiting my flight tomorrow morning. One of my roommates (Emily Everett) and I will be flying from Atlanta to Dulles, to Vienna, to Pristina, then taking a taxi into Suhareke where we will be living! (Our other roommate, Sam Crain, will be joining us on July 2nd.) I have three suitcases stuffed to the max, I didn't really realize how much stuff I needed for 5 months! There are several things in my room and bathroom I wish I could bring with me, so it is hard to leave all my daily comforts behind. There will be so many new and exciting adventures in the next few months, so its all worth it!

Thank you everyone for all the time and support yall have given me. I planning on updating my blog once a week! I will have access to Facebook, email and Skype, so there will be several ways to stay in a contact.

<3 Priscilla