Farewell, Albania: A journey of impactful memories

Hey & welcome back to the blog! 

Today I sit soaking up the Guatemalan sun so what better time to sit, chat and reflect back! 

So in the last blog I was doing hard things in Albania, and by the time another month rolled past, I might have said I was doing harder things in Albania- but now another month later those things don’t seem so bad…the power of processing truly changes perspectives. As mentioned before my team’s ministry in Albania was ALT aka Ask The Lord aka different forms of street evangelism, the goal of all of this walking, talking, and connecting with people was not only to spread and share the light and love of Jesus but also to make friends and connections with local young adult women. Once we had made connections and friends, my team would be tasked with planning a women’s bible study and encouragement night called Beauty for Ashes. As February rolled around we began to plan, setting a date and times for this event, collecting contacts and creating invites to pass on to these women. We also planned and created Valentines day handouts with chocolates as a sweet encouragement to these local young ladies, which was surprisingly a great avenue to start sweet conversations and connections. 

As a team over the past month we had struggled to make connections deeper than a street conversation and  we were feeling heavily discouraged going into the beginnings of planning this event. The first two weeks of February sparked an excitement  though, we were meeting women left and right, people were excited to talk to us and even approaching us on their own, we had connections and even began to form relationships, meeting up second and third times to hang out and grab coffee. We were finally building connections, we finally had a spark of hope in the midst of this gray city. Team radiant was beaming as we planned, shopped, and decorated, we were bonding and finding the light and love we were so desperately seeking for so long. One week out from our event we had 10+ rsvps, we each had made a new connection plus had a few women from the church who were excited to join and help conversate between language barriers. 

Then February 24th arrives, just a few short hours until our Beauty for Ashes event. Team Radiant spent our morning in prayer over these women, we spent the afternoon decorating, and finally by evening we grew worried as many women had begun to ghost our messages, reply changing their minds, or telling us they would no longer be able to attend. By 6pm we had zero women saying they would be able to attend, full of  sadness and disappointment, we called our host in panic. He quickly reassured us not to stress and to enjoy our night, even if it was just for us. But 15 minutes later the church filled with around 10-15 women of all ages, some family, some women of the church, some girls who heard by word of mouth, young and old we gathered and soon we began our evening.  Though unexpected we had a beautiful night filled with conversations, laughter, worship, testimonies, food and  of course ending with Albanian dances! 

The next day we had a short debrief with our host expecting him to be disappointed or explaining that we did ATL and ministry poorly but instead he encouraged us, he reassured us this is how ministry is in Albania. You could ask 100 people and have 200 beautiful meaningful conversations but when it comes to inviting them to a physical church building he would only ever expect 5-10 out of those 100 to show up. Though we were disappointed, it changed our perspective on ministry in Albania. Carrying faith and having a passion for spreading it among the nations may not always look like picking ripe fruit, sometimes, most of the time even, it looks like showing your faith, showing the love and hope possible, and planting that tiny mustard seed. The seed you may never see break through the surface, begin to grow, flower, or produce fruit. But that doesn’t negate your job to show up, to spread love, hope, and faith. 

Throughout the last weeks we had in Albania I began to see that maybe my personal ministry wasn’t all about ATL, maybe it was the people right in front of me. The women of the church, the youth group boys, and my own teammates. Those last 2 weeks I poured my time into planning outings and adventures between  my team and the youth group boys. We hiked, we ice skated, we had lunch and coffee, we had long conversations, and created memories in simple little drawings! Those times are spent in simple joys, goofing around, sharing time in our favorite things, learning more about each other’s passions and future goals. Maybe this was the joy we were all searching for, sitting right in front of us in community. How sweetly I will always treasure those last few days, singing on the long sunset drives, conversations admiring the Tirana bus in traffic, signing the cast of an injured arm, waving goodbyes at the boys as they rode into the darkness of the Tirana streets. Those last weeks were filled with such a bonded community, the community we almost missed even as they were sitting in the chairs next to us week after week. Sometimes I see myself and even others get so caught up in the task and the opportunities of life we forget to take a quick look around and see the people and community that has already been formed waiting patiently for us to notice them, to ask the lord how we can connect and serve them, to pray for them, their health and daily lives, to build on to the community provided instead of trying tirelessly to build a foundation we may never be able to finish, leaving some stray building blocks hoping someone else will have the attention, passion and strength to pick up what we left behind. Tirana, Albania may have been a gray cold city with few sunny days and fewer friendly faces as we walked the streets searching for a connection, but Tirana, Albania was also the city where I found friends within my once teammates, where I was able to overcome my fears of talking to strangers, where I was able to be in the kitchen making favorite meals from home. Tirana, Albania was the city where I fell in love with the beauty of Valentine’s day, tulips, peeling pomegranates, annotating my bible, and discovering the power of prayer. 

Tirana, Albania may have been a dual city, streets lined with twig trees and flea ridden dogs, it may have been cold mornings and loud traffic, 2am garbage trucks and bitter coffee but Tirana, Albania showed me how important showing up is. Showing up for yourself, creating a routine, communicating, getting out and into the fresh morning air. Showing up for your community, even on days when you don’t feel like it, show up, after all we only had 8 weeks with them, show up & create new memories. But  most of all I learned the importance of showing up for your team. It was through each time of showing up that what was once 10 girls made into a team, turned into a friendship & forever family. Showing up every morning to worship and show up every night to make dinner, sing, dance and be grateful together, show up every other late night to make cookies, show up when the tears are running and offer a sweet word or a hand of encouragement. Showing up when you hear them laughing in the next room, it’s when I pushed myself to show up time after time that it didn’t feel like showing up, it felt like joyfully joining. The art of showing up time after time turned forcing myself out of the uncomfortable into the comfort and similarity of friendship.

 Tirana Albania oh how bittersweet, somewhere I felt so lost yet so familiar a city full of so many hopeless people you somehow gave me a new hope. Thank you Albania for so many connections, so much community, so many sweet memories, a new perspective on history, and of course another opportunity to bloom and grow in faith in a new way. Thank you for receiving my testimony and thank you for the many challenges that will continue to grow my testimony as I continue across the globe. 

Which leads me to my next adventure, travel day to Guatemala! 

We departed Tirana, Albania on February 27th on a short 2 hour flight to Athens, Greece where we were warmly welcomed by a local camp who kindly informed us that what we thought would be our flight our the following night on February 28th would most likely be canceled due to riots and protests happening all day in Athens on the 28th. So for the following two days all 34 of us would be staying at a beautiful camp in Greece, with luscious green grass fields, a beautiful house, soccer fields, worship centers, and a sense of refreshment as we hadn’t been altogether as all 34 in 2 months! So many sweet conversations, memories shared, games played, long walks, sunrises, sunsets, and of course new memories made. On March 1st we all packed up and headed to Athens airport…without a flight. Hoping to rebook the flight we waited on the airport floor 100 feet inside the main door for 10 hours, checking and rechecking if any flight for 34 people was available to get us to Guatemala. With no luck on March 1st we returned to the camp with our only plan to keep looking online and contacting staff in America to help us find a flight. By March 2nd we had no flight and were given permission to go and explore Athens! We saw the Acropolis, old temples, arches, the Panathinaiko stadium (where the first olympics were held), the national archaeological museum and many more! While we were out exploring the city we received news a flight was able to get booked for that night! We hurried back, packed, and headed off to the airport where we would wait 2 more hours before beginning the check in process, then chaos of flying began. Our first flight was 2 hours from Athens Greece to Egypt, then a 9 hour layover in Egypt before a 12 flight to New york! Then we were in the USA for a grand total of 4 hours, where we enjoyed seeing our favorite snacks, american money, and english signs! Then we boarded a 6 hour flight to Panama where we had a 1 hour layover and then a 3 hour flight to our final destination of Guatemala, landing just before midnight on March 3rd! Was this the expected route? Not at all but it went so smoothly, everyone and everything arrived safely to our new base in Parramos Guatemala! Where we will be all together as 34 members of Gap M for the reminder of the World Race until mid May! 

My next blog will be coming shortly including topics of mindsets shifts, identity, ministry, team growth & more! Thank you for your support in reading this blog! 

With many adventures & much love! 

                             Aliya Koziol