I am currently waiting for my final flight from Rome to Tirana (the capital of Albania). I had a long layover and I have been up for a very, very long time (haha), so I thought it would be good to update all of you.

I have appreciated very much that all of you are interested in what I am going to be doing in Albania. Much of that will emerge as I live there and begin to mesh into the Waggoner’s ministry there. If you would like to see what that ministry is about, check out this link: http://waggoner.blogspot.al  

I am technically a “Volunteer in Action,” which means World Gospel Mission allows me to act as a missionary under the guidance of missionaries on the field; in this case the Waggoners. 

Having been in the Rome airport for just a little while, I can already see that differences between cultures are much bigger than I thought. It's apparent surmounting any roadblocks those differences create will require patience, understanding and teachers. For that reason, and many others I will find out soon enough, I’m very grateful for a program that allows me that guidance. If any of you reading this would like to do something similar, please let me know, and I will explain more the process I went through in order to become a Volunteer in Action. I chose to be apart of the missions of World Gospel Mission, because they allowed me to find something that really fit into my own calling. They have been superb at assisting me logistically (advice on travel, organizing things like insurance, organizing the money I raised and distributing it to me, and reminding me every step of the way). 

I am very excited for the coming weeks, especially, because so many things WILL HAPPEN AT ONCE (haha). That will be good though. I have heard that entering into a new culture goes in a few stages but to say it simply as I understand it, the steps are: 1) excitement of/romanticizing differences; 2) singling out differences as problems, with much annoyance and homesickness; 3) normalizing into the new culture- not that I will be Albanian, but I will accept and “love” the differences in the gospel’s sense of the word. I will be living in the Hope Center orphanage, and though a few will be able to speak English, easy conversation will be something I most likely won’t take for granted again. But that is where God will shine, I am sure. It’s probably easiest for God to work when we are more out of the way- and being in such a foreign place/language/culture will definitely do that. I fully expect God to come through, however long it takes and in whatever fashion- I will have faith.