Albania

photo by Ron Acord Day 1 Thursday July 2 Back for a third time! Kinda hard to believe we got 20 people. We have 2 teams full of great people and we’re here and ready to rumble. Will and Lauren are leading one team of 10 that’s staying in Tirana, while Lucy and I lead the team that will depart to Elbasan on Sunday. Getting here was much better than last year, thanks mostly to Lucy’s organizational leadership and Will’s being on the ball with prep. In fact I pretty much left most of the prep work to them. It’s great that Lucy’s leadership style is pretty much the opposite of mine. We complement eachother well even if we butt heads sometimes. ...

In less than 2 weeks, I’ll be in Albania :) This time just for 2 weeks, but I’m ready to go for good. But, all things in their time: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1 ...

Travel Days July 12-13 We flew overnight on Austrian airways, leaving early morning on the 12th with a layover at Washington Dulles. We were all tired, but some of us were awake enough to go out to the National Air and Space museum Udvar-Hazy center for a couple hours. My dad decided to meet us there, since my parents live in Washington DC. He, my little sister Alina and I hung out with Will, Danita, and Ron at the museum, which was pretty awesome. ...

Day 1 Thursday July 18 I don’t even know why God brought us down here. What more can we do that He’s not already doing? Today we got off the plane, and found out our luggage won’t arrive until tomorrow. We rode into town with a nice guy who picked us up. We were met at the hotel by Aldo, who is one of the leaders of Ice and Spice. ...