A day in the life of a world racer, not knowing what to expect, but helping in any way we can and having fun while doing it. Our host said there’s an opportunity to help at a youth camp if we wanted, and we said yes!
There is only enough space for a few of us to ride with our ministry host, a couple others as I got in another car driven by our ministry’s host friend. We are following our host’s truck, but as we get closer to our destination, we end up getting lost. Eventually, we make it to the church where the camp is with about 50 kids singing. We jump right into trying to sing the songs in Albanian and do the motions. After that, we broke up into two groups; younger and older kids, and two of my teammates and I went with the older kids. We circled up and talked about God’s love, played games and we taught them an American game. The older kids prepared a lunch for the younger kids and then we all ate lunch and then it was time to go home.
My teammates that were in the other room with younger kids had a different experience with kids singing, running around, and having fun, but it was what I will call controlled chaos. Even though I didn’t know the kids, and I didn’t understand most of what was being said, that stuff didn’t matter. Sometimes on the mission field, I think about what good could I do when I don’t know the people or the language, but time and time again God shows me that His love breaks through any obstacle.
The sweet moments of kids giving us hugs and asking what our names are and where we’re from. Getting to talk to them about dreams they have to visit America and them asking us questions about what we think about Albania. The camp was in Albanian, but some youth knew English. When we were talking about God’s love with the older kids, the girl next to me said in English, do you want to be friends? I said yes and she told me that she would even translate for me. Also, when the older kids prepared the sandwiches for the younger kids, they did it was joyful hearts and they even made our sandwiches and brought them to us. We just met them and they chose to love and serve us so well at 15 years old.
I’m grateful to have shared this experience with my team. I’m grateful for the connections made at camp. I’m grateful that even when I doubt and limit God to earthly limitations that He is still faithful. God is so good to us!
