On Friday night we said 'goodbye' to the Santor family! It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a visit goes by after months and months of planning...
This visit has been in the works for more than two years, since we stayed at their home in the mountains of north Georgia one ice-y weekend in January 2013. Having connected online in 2009 through the common threads of our faith and Albanian adoption, you'd never have known that before last week we had only visited in person on two prior occasions! While they ended up adopting from Bulgaria, not Albania, they maintained a heart for what they had learned about the little Balkan country and desired to take a mission trip as a family to see the place that had captured their hearts.
This family was a prime example of getting out of an experience according to what they had put in. From fundraising and ministry planning, to praying for village families each day before coming by name, and spending time in advance study of Albanian customs and language, I could see every member of the family taking in something from each moment they were here.
And we crammed a lot into every day they were here!
They were able to visit a few homes in the community which gave them glimpses of 'real life' here and opportunities to share their testimonies and pray for our neighbors.
Interesting tidbit about the family below ... until the end of this visit, they thought Aaron was actually Nathan's brother Stephen. We think maybe the fact that they both have five children??? Regardless, 'large' families (as in more than three children) are quite unusual in today's Albania. Especially families that already have four bio kids and choose to adopt? Whoa!
Grandma, though, was particularly pleased to meet another mama of five kids as she had had ten children herself, with five surviving.
They generously brought over a lot of gifts for the center like four-square balls, volleyballs and a soccer ball. Every afternoon they were right there out with the kids playing!
One of my favorite things about hosting visitors, particularly those that include youth, is how excited our village kids are at hanging out with their new American friends. There's no such thing as a simple walk -- it's like the Pied Piper himself has come to Vlashaj and people join up all along the way, regardless of the destination! (below)
We had a morning 'here' and an afternoon 'there' in the schedule which we used to tackle some much needed projects around the center like painting the two front gates (which desperately needed painting).
As well as assembling some previously used shelves for our crawlspace storage area.
Everyone pitched in. No excuses.
(Well, except me, who conveniently found laundry and kitchen work to keep my hands from getting too dirty.)
I loved that hosting a family with older children provided great examples for our kids to see of pitching in on chores and work.
Not to mention Ellie and Reni enjoyed having friends in house of the same gender. I wish I had some photos of the daily wrestling matches and nerf gun wars.
We are still finding nerf bullets in the oddest of places. Oddly, though, I'm not finding any bruises on Reni. He wrestled until he sweat and he wrestled hard!
This photo below pretty much summarizes how Ellie felt about her new friends.
The Santors all tried new foods! Below Rachel is showing off her first Albanian souflaqe! Think value-meal-in-a-pita. It contains shredded pork or chicken, french fries, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and xaxiki sauce (yogurt, garlic, and cucumbers) and it's yours for a whopping 150 Albanian lek (or, $1.10 at today's exchange rate).
There's so much more that they did which are not included here in photos:
- There's Jen's testimony during women's Bible study that left the women hungering for more,
- There was the girls night (which I have yet to post about) that brought out village girls that we hardly get to see anymore, where they heard that they were God's treasure for whom he was seeking
- There was our visit to Reni's orphanage where they made a craft with the older children and played games that brought out smiles from an obviously traumatized four year old who had just recently been removed from a bad home situation.
- There was the boys carpentry event that enabled a couple of dozen boys to whack out their energy with hammer and nails on kits that we'd never be able to find for purchase here.
- There was Aaron's sermon during church that challenged our little fledgling body to live out the Kingdom of God right here in our little community...
All of these are blessings that we Waggoners cannot bring to this village on our own. God has given them a different story than us, different gifts than us, different skills than us, different love languages than us.
Our village got to see a bigger picture of the Body of Christ. The Santors left a piece of their heart in a little Albanian village but went home with a whole slew of new Facebook friends. --Not to mention, some new phrases in Albanian (such as, "Have you read your Bible today, __________ ?") to practice while staying in touch with said Albanian Facebook friends.
That's why I love short-term missions when it works hand in hand with long-term missions.
God takes 1+1 and makes it come out so much more than two.
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