As I rode my bicycle down a mountain road outside of town today I literally began shaking with excitement at the exquisite beauty around me. The sun was beginning to set, snow capped ridges loomed in every direction and my feet peddled just a little faster as the wind toyed with my loose hair and then I noticed a bright sphere rising above me. Stopping to take a picture I realized there was no way to capture or put into words the deeply complex and serene beauty before me.
I glanced behind then at the concrete dome bunkers that my friend Emily and I had just come from and instantly grinned, soaking up the remembrance of simple pleasures the day had held. Having biked up the mountain to a place we call the "alien world", the two of us sat and enjoyed our Pepsi and chocolate bar picnic atop one of many large, abandoned bunkers snuggled away among the hills behind our school. They serve as a remembrance of times not so long past when communism ruled and the threat of invasion was forefront in many ways.
In 1990 Communism fell in Albania but much remains as a reminder of former days and thinking. Everywhere I walk scattered rubbish contrasts the beauty of the hills and new buildings sit next to aged, decaying structures that have almost become landmarks in some ways. At first arrival I found myself rather frustrated at the lack of care and respect shown by so many and even tried to change some of the people who I knew but even that simple act of throwing rubbish on the ground seems to attest to something deeper, a way of thinking that I'm only beginning to understand. Some of which I don't always agree with, but many I find very eye-opening and thought provoking.
Being in a school with more than 6 different Nationalities and 3-4 different languages has given me a new appreciation of diversity for one. A favorite moment here was being in church the first week (before any of us foreigners had learned any Albanian) and listening to worship songs sung in 4 different languages. Astonished by this profound encounter it took me by surprise the sudden camaraderie I felt with not only the new friends I had acquired that week but with Christian brothers and sisters around the world. I realized in that moment, standing in a little stone church in rural Albania, that I was experiencing a mile marker. Always I've had a difficulty relating when anyone talked about Christians in other parts of the world but when we were all singing together the world seemed to shrink like a balloon being kissed by needle. I had a flash of all God's people standing together with their faces turned up to God and a crazy, joyful song bubbling out. All of us were like brothers standing together. There was no racial or cultural dividers, no language barriers.
God understood them all and with Him there was no need to worry about clarity of translation.
I could almost see His face filled with tenderness and joy...even laughter, as our small assembly lifted their voices and clapped their hands in joyful delight of the Savior. Somewhere deep within I could feel an ear-to-ear grin Bubbling up like helium under water and it surfaced with a burst of laughter and singing. God is worthy to be praised.
I don't know what exactly God has for me in the days, months...even years ahead, but I am excited because my journey is with Him.
