Week 6 -- visiting a dear family and min at the center

This week we stayed with a sweet Albanian family.  During our time there we had the opportunity to learn more Albanian and practice it the natural 'family life' setting.  I had the opportunity to write down and teach 18 new songs to their young daughter.  We got to share a song on Sunday morning in their gathering and on Wednesday afternoon in their gathering.  It was an encouragement to them.
    Kaitlyn and I returned from Albania on Thursday and we were immediately plunged into the activities here.  I had the opportunity to spend over two hours in an encouraging conversation with a couple from our agency.  They helped me talk through some ideas for the future.  It was very encouraging to hear the story of how the Father has worked in their lives over the years.
    Friday we invited a local young lady to the center to learn how to make pizza.  It was fun spend time getting to know her as I shared my 'homemade pizza' recipe.  The guy interns had two young men join us for dinner together at the center.  After we cleaned up, we walked the 20 minute walk back with the young lady.  She invited us into her house.  We talked and she helped our new intern Kari learn how to make an ankle bracelet.  We stayed until dusk and headed back home.
    The next afternoon this young lady came and helped us learn two pasta recipes that she knew.  It was fun to exchange recipes and build relationship with her.  We walked her home and then returned to the center for a 'movie night' that the guys organized.  That night we had 4 local young ladies and  3-4 local young men.  We had a good time and talked to some of them who stayed afterward. 
    Sunday we had a team meeting for 2 hours in the morning and we had our evening gathering in the evening.  We reflected some on how Gd is using the center to build community between locals and the expats here.  We pr/y that Gd will continue to do this and the center will be a place where locals can come and continue to hear the good news.