Mire se keni ardhur - "I bid thee welcome"
A new year is full of new experiences. I have not had time to do any traveling or anything very unusual, but the everyday happenings are notably different from last year. Two new grades of students, a new building, and new staff, and a roommate naturally change many things, but there are many other things that coalesce to create a new environment this year.
We have already been graced by a few visitors this year. Late in September, Dini went on a prayer trip to Kosovo and two members of this team, Stacy Nafzinger and Eric Musser, came back to Lezha to visit with us. Eric is pastor of a Mennonite church in Virginia and I found out he used to be at Franconia Mennonite in the days of my ignorance of such things. Stacy worked at VMM before becoming a missionary in Prague and the overseer of missions in Eastern Europe. We had a meeting at church and went out for a fish dinner with them and enjoyed hearing some of their stories. It was particularly interesting to hear Stacy describe being led to Prague despite her expectations, but God had given her such a love for the place and people that she was visibly excited just to return and continue trying to reach the lonely Czech.
The EMU educated contingent here told legends about the "most famous Mennonites" who would be visiting LAC. Myron Augsburger was the president of EMU generations ago and is an internationally-respected evangelist, while Esther is an accomplished artist who often accompanies her husband around the world to speak at art conferences. Esther had come to meet with some artists in Albania and teach some art classes to the students. The first day she introduced herself, her artwork, and the purpose of art in a student assembly. She then taught the students to express themselves through watercolor and clay on the second and third days. I experimented with watercolor and learned some things about art that I had never learned before.
During their stay, I was able to spend two evenings with the Augsburgers. One night Justin and I hosted them for dinner in our apartment and listened to the stories of their many experiences. Esther grew up in a missionary family deep in the jungle of India where life was full of rich cultural and natural encounters. Myron was full of stories about the legacy of the Mennonite tradition and about people he had met throughout the world. We discussed the theology, the role of missionaries, and what was good in life. Their perspectives, language, and attitude constantly reminded me of conversations with my grandparents. When I told Myron that Harold Mininger was my grandfather it turned out he knew him from meetings and said that I reminded him of my grandfather.
We had the privilege of hearing Myron preach four times in church and at school. His messages powerfully presented the radical love of Jesus and of the Father's desire to reconcile us to Him. He spoke with great conviction and told meaningful stories that helped capture the meaning of what he was presenting. I valued hearing his messages and discussing different issues with him because of his experiences and his representation of the perspectives a faithful older generation. I think their presence in the school of living out the Gospel made an impact on the students. In addition, they had the opportunity to meet with many politicians including Prime Minister Berisha, the most powerful man in the country for the last several years.
Living with Justin Rittenhouse certainly makes things different and more interesting than last year. We are different in many ways, but these differences have not created any major problems within our abode. I have found it helpful to have a roommate to get me outside my own head, to have company, and to learn more about people. Although very different, we are able to understand each other well and have some similar interests and perspectives in conversation. We have discussed religion, science, personalities, entertainment, and India. Justin studied abroad in India for a semester so I have asked him to share with me some personal experiences related to the things I am teaching about. One night I spent several hours honing a Power Point about Indian religions because I was trying to capture some of his experience related to Jainism, Buddhism, or Hinduism, which was both fascinating and frustrating.
This year, our school policy is defined but there is still a lot of decision making on the move. Jessica and I were chosen to be a part of the Administrative Council with Mrs. Shahini to discuss and make decisions on the ground, while still working with the LAC school board for oversight. VMM has taken a step back in the academic aspect to continue working with the vision for this city and the role we play in that. The council usually meets a couple times a week, while regular staff meetings have been reduced to once a month. We usually discuss issues including student discipline, dress-code, academic expectations, and school events together before making a joint decision and moving to implement it. We are encountering many of the same academic issues with our new students as we saw last year, but there are also new experiences because the new grades are younger.
On Fridays, I typically play indoor soccer with a group of boy students and sometimes Ermal, Justin, or Dini join. My age/size advantage is often equaled out by my American feet making these fun and great games because I am able to enjoy playing hard. One thing I have never enjoyed about Albanians is their capacity to argue and yell about everything. Playing a sport is never without its arguments, no matter how ridiculous, so I am working to model playing with integrity and generosity. They also have a tendency to focus only on winning, meaning they can leave out or be too hard on those who are smaller or less skilled. Last Friday, a group of students volunteered to learn and play ultimate Frisbee and handball after school and this coming week I hope to teach more students American football.
The weekend provides a nice chance for rest and non-academic work. Saturday morning I usually sleep until after 9 and spend the morning quietly. Justin and I have split cleaning the kitchen area every week, so I usually knock out my cleaning out in the morning. We had a few nights where we played League of Legends, an online game, together but that has fizzled out. Evenings have become a time of sharing music and food together. However, much of the weekend is defined by school work as it serves as focused grading time. I often collect writing assignments, journals, or tests before the weekend so I usually spend many hours grading. The first semester with new students is always the most time consuming because I am careful to pay attention to their habits, organization, and content so that I can make corrections and comments to steer them toward what I expect of them. This means that the grading intensity has eased greatly since the beginning.
A couple weeks ago, all four of the evangelical congregations in Lezha came together in the school for united church service. It was good to see many members of the practicing Christian community of Albania coming together to celebrate and encourage each other. There was a quality worship band, Myron preached with Klementina translating, and after there was a fellowship lunch outside. Our small church has felt a little more natural this year. Rafael and some of his supporters seem more comfortable in their roles and we know a little more Albanian or at least what to expect. Most of the time I understand little of the sermon, so I read the scripture passage and reflect on this or use the time for prayer. It is nice to be able to take part in the church community despite its limitations.
This past Saturday, we hosted a fall dance for the students, the first major school event of the year. I had met several times with a student committee who decided how to organize the dance. They took care of most of the decorating and details and it was great to see the students take responsibility for their own activities. After a move that showed many of the memorable moments of last year, the students danced for the rest of the night. About half way through, many of the teachers made their way on to the dance floor and I particularly enjoyed dancing with one of the freshman, Armando. He had two traditional Albanian moves that he stuck to most of the night and pulled off wonderfully because of his classic expression and smoothness. It was a successful event and it was nice to see the students relax and have fun in an appropriate venue.
On Sunday, Klementina left for her promotional trip back to the US. She will be getting some medical check-ups and spending time with family before traveling through the Menno-lands of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to visit churches and talk about LAC. Please pray that her medical visits would confirm that she is mostly healthy because her recovery has been wonderful from where she was over the summer. Also pray that all her travels, fundraisers, and conversations would be blessed by the Lord so she could raise awareness and support for missions in this part of the world.
This past Monday was Jessica's birthday, so Kaitlyn and I made some curried chicken with rice. We lit filled the room with candlelight and Indian tunes from my laptop. Side Note: I have assembled a playlist with traditional music from every region of the globe that I often play for my students in World History class. Indian music (along with the Lord of the Rings soundtrack) has become my main study music because there are no lyrics to distract me and the eastern style allows me to rise ever so slightly out of the flow of my normal thoughts or experiences. Anyway, Dini and the teachers waited in Kaitlyn's room, while I silently directed Jessica up a candlelit stairwell to her surprise dinner. After eating, we spent the rest of the night playing guitar and singing worship songs together.
The second half of this week felt heavy. I found out on Wednesday morning that Emilee Laverty was slipping away as the cancer inhabited her lungs. We felt a deep sense of sorrow because some of us knew her and others had been in prayer for her battle with cancer. I did not want to accept her death after so many months of fighting, so many ups and downs, and so many prayers from her community of supporters. In addition, Alba's (our wonderful secretary) father has gone through several surgeries and is struggling to recover. I decided to take some time at the beginning of my classes to inform my students about these people who were related with our school community and who were close to death before saying a short prayer. The next day, Jessica and Kaitlyn each had a class where they discussed the condition of 19 year-old Emilee and shared about friends or family who had died accompanied by many tears. We later learned that Emilee had passed into heaven, so some the students decided to light candles for those who had passed away and to go to the cathedral to say prayers for Emilee and her family. In the midst of sadness, this experience brought us together and many of the student's hearts were opened to the Lord.
On Friday, we also had a more joyful farewell. It was announced that one of our seniors, Engerta Frroku, would be leaving Albania to study in the United States. Her family decided that it would be best for her to continue her schooling surrounded by the wonderful community at Christopher Dock, so the arrangements were made. She gave a speech saying goodbye to the students and she will be arriving in the States this coming week and will be hosted by a family from a local Mennonite church. Please pray for Engerta's preparations, travel, and orientation to her new home. We are hoping she will be blessed by her time at Dock and experience God through the love of our home community.
For myself, I have been challenged spiritually in different ways. After the initial craziness of the first couple weeks, I had a period of great frustration at my inability to carve out a regular time for God in my daily life. This had been a goal of mine since high school, but through the years, I have never reached the discipline of daily time set aside. I renewed my efforts to do so this year, particularly with my book of prayer liturgy and I have experienced God during this time, but mostly in community. I usually feel that I want more of God and want to feel His love and power more directly, but I am not able to commit time necessary to being in His presence in order to go deeper. Then I realize that I am powerless to do anything and it is all God, which draws me nearer to Him, but it is not consistent. All of my inner-self desires to pursue the Lord and His ways above all else and allow Him to direct me in all I do rather than floating through life pursuing the empty things of this world, but it is a struggle to have that manifest itself in daily life. I know He is working on me and has new things to show me this year so I am excited and trying to stay aware of how He could be working. Please pray that God will teach me how to experience His love in a way that my greatest desire will be to spend time with Him.
We watched the movie "The Grey" that deals our different human approaches to life and death. Something that really resonated with me was the desire to go out and fight to make every day worth living despite your circumstances. This was demonstrated by a short poem referenced in the final scene of the movie. I later added a line from scripture to the end of the poem because I believe that my faith is what gives me the perfect reason to fight. Our lives only have eternal meaning if we live for something much greater than ourselves.
"Once more in to the fray
into the greatest fight I'll ever know.
Live and die on this day,
live and die on this day..."
Choose this day whom you will serve.
Overall, I feel that life for us this year is much more balanced and healthy. God has been incredibly faithful in forming our human shortcomings into a more wholesome and defined community. Many of the daily stressors from last year have been removed. Our new home has been treating us well and our staff is a family. The differences of life provide for more health in relationships, body, mind, and soul. For these reasons alone we all have great reasons to praise our Savior.
"Tune our spirits Lord to sing out with the sky." - Common Prayer
