Hey all you wonderful family and friends!! Mirembrema! (good evening)

This is Steve and I want to update you on what happened today with our team. I am very proud of this team, many on their first mission trip, and to see how they are allowing God to use them, it is aaaaamazing!!! Shum mire!!! ("very good" in Shqip, or Albanian as we call it...)

Today was exciting, we spent the morning and early afternoon perfecting our drama, discussing how our evening outreach would go. I took a good chunk of time to prepare a message, because I was preaching tonight...The girls also took some time to prepare for tomorrows outreach to the teenage girls of the village of Dushk. Tomorrow, when we go, the girls will meet with Albanian girls to share testimonies and do a craft together (making bracelets). The guys are going to get destroyed by the teenage men of Dushk when we play soccer with them tomorrow. Afterwards we will share kafe together (coffee). One thing I am learning here is the refreshing respect Albanian's have for others. It is an honor culture. When someone has a message, they listen, and you respect them and listen to them as well. There is a mutual give and take. This is in contrast to our society where most people will not even give you the time of day to listen to your message when you mention Jesus. Mustual respect is a refreshing aspect of Albanian society.

Let me explain what happens when you visit an Albanian home. After a quick greeting outside the door, the guest takes off his shoes and enters into the living room. Once you have sat down, the host will often come and greet you again, at which time you will stand up again and say something like "si jeni" or "how are you?". Then the host will offer you drinks (juice, raki...a homemade Albanian liquor, or turkish coffee) and food (often cookies, cakes, etc). Then will ensue conversation that will include anything and everything. Albanians do not mind personal questions, like, how old are you, how much money do you think, etc. They will also talk about themselves. They love to talk of God, even though they do not quite understand the message of Christ all the time. They listen respectfully, and then you listen to them. This can go on for an hour or more. THe hospitality blows me away, and challenges me to open up my life more to others when I come back to US. To focus on relationships as a priority and respect and honor others.

Let me get back to today. In the village of Dushk, we rented out a Cafe where we set up a sound system and led an outreach service with ALbanian Christians. ABout 75 people total were there (including our team and Albanian/OM Christians). We started with 4 songs in Albanian sung by ALbanians and a missionary with OM. Then came a testimony by Julie. Then we got our drama going and it was awesome! More about that later... Finally, I preached a message from Rev 20:11-15 about God's judgement due to our sin, and what God did to provide a way to be saved: Jesus! It went well, by God's grace...

Afterwards there were some cool stories of how the drama and message impacted Dushk villagers. I will tell you one story: On wednesday, a group from our team visited the house of a muslim lady. They were accepted well, but any mention of Jesus caused the lady to simply say she was Muslim and she seemed more closed than other Albanians we had met. They invited her to the outreach today and she came! Afterwards, she told the girls who had come to her house that the drama impacted her greatly. She then asked for a Bible and recieved an Albanian New Testament, then she asked us to come visit her again! Praise God! Once again, relationship is so important here. The love shown in spending time with her the day before, brought her to the outreach where God's Spirit moved on her heart. Pray for her salvation!

Afterwards I got to hang out for awhile with many of the youth that will be back tomorrow to play soccer with us and go out for coffee. Pray that the youths who come would open up when we go out for coffee and that we would be able to minister to them effectively.

I do like Albania...I joke with Tim and Jamie by saying that I was prepared for Albania by living in Oregon: Long gray rainy winters, mountainous landscape, and.......A COFFEE SHOP ON EVERY CORNER!!! Ha ha... Albania may not be perfect, as every country has its major problems...but, it is a wonderful place to experience with many redeemable qualities embedded in its culture, as I explained some above. The landscape is also beeyootiful, green mountainous, oregon-like....

Is this a long blog? I hope I haven't bored you!!!!! I know Cisco's posts are much more funny than mine...hahahaha. Oh well, I am the "team leader" and I have to pretend to be mature...

I love you guys...Naten e mire (goodnight!)...

-Steve