Reflections on Our Life-Changing Mission Trip to Albania
Building Bridges Across Cultures Through Christ's Love
Sunday, 4 August 2024
Despite three weeks having passed since we returned from our church mission trip to Albania, Frieda and I find that we still cannot stop thinking about it. It had that big of an impact on our lives. A few thoughts and observations:
It drew us closer to our church
Despite having attended Two Rivers Church since the fall of 2022, we had never met Pastor Tim Bubar’s parents — Joe and Charlotte — until we signed up for this Balkans Mission Trip. And while we had met and spoken to Tim several times when we saw him at Sunday services, we did not know him well. Needless to say our relationship with the Bubar’s is completely different now having shared this amazing experience together.
Being involved in the church is obviously important on many different levels and to have the time and resources to lend assistance to a mission trip is truly a blessing. We recognize that while many members of our church would probably like to go on foreign mission trips, the reality of jobs, family commitments, etc. simply make it difficult if not impossible. It is therefore with appropriate seriousness, humility, and respect that we embarked on this mission trip as ambassadors and representatives of our church.
It connected us to Dardania Church in Gjilan, Kosovo
Despite not having yet been to their church in Kosovo, the quality time we spent here in Albania with Pastor Paulin Veleciku, his wife Violeta, and their two sons and daughter bonded us in ways that made us friends forever. We so look forward to seeing them again and to supporting their church on future mission trips.
We made so many new Albanian and Kosovar Albanian friends
So many of the wonderful people you’ve seen in these posts are now friends and acquaintances. We remain in contact with several of them and many of the others we will see on future trips. We made meaningful and deep bonds with these wonderful people. We were there to serve them, but they ended up serving us by changing our lives for the better.
We are now familiar with the wonderful work of Radstock
Radstock is a global network of churches with an aim to see mission-driven churches equipped and planted throughout the world, in some of the toughest places.
It was through Radstock that our church — Two Rivers Church in Lenoir City, Tennessee — was connected to Dardania Church in Gjilan, Kosovo. Radstock seeks to create these partnerships between its member churches and more established and larger churches such as ours.
Our relationship with Altin Kurraj, Radstock Balkans Director, began when we met him at Joe and Charlotte’s house in Knoxville, Tennessee on 13 June 2024. He happened to be in the United States during this time and getting to know him before the mission trip really helped break the ice when we met again three weeks later in Tirana, Albania.
Altin would be our host, guide and translator for the entire trip along with his daughter Esina, who recently turned 16 and was quite proud of having recently received her drivers license. She was also proud of the full set of long nail extensions that were recently applied. Having shown us that one had already broken, I bet she would lose at least one more before the week was out. Four days later, she acknowledged I won the bet.
It would be impossible to fully describe how wonderful and helpful Altin and Esina were to us during this entire mission trip. Truly, they are now special friends along with wife and mom Juliana who we got to meet our last night in Albania.
I must also acknowledge one other member of the Radstock team who helped and assisted us from Day 3 thru Day 7 — Klea Mitku — daughter to one of the pastors at Nxënesit e Jezusit in Shkodër. At 15, and just like Esina, Klea had the maturity and poise of woman in her 20s. These are special young ladies who are filled with the love of Christ.
Klea will be moving to Chicago in 2025 when her father starts seminary and we look forward to hosting the Mitka family on a future visit to Tennessee. And of course, we hope to see the Kurraj’s in Tennessee one day soon too!
Albania is a fascinating country with very special people
With a history that goes back to the Illyrians of the late 6th and the early 5th century BC, there is an amazing amount of history everywhere you look. As described in the previous posts, we frequently saw Roman ruins, Ottoman Empire ruins, and the occasional bunker from the era of communism. I frequently thought about the fact that three millennia of people had walked on the very land that we were walking on now.
Every Albanian we met was kind and welcoming. It’s baked into their culture and it was a refreshing experience. It was hard not to marvel at how happy and friendly they are despite suffering under the horrors of communism as recently as three decades ago. From airport employees to hotel staff to old ladies selling corn on the side of the road. All were nothing but friendly and kind.
An interesting observation we had was that most young people we met spoke near-perfect American-style English while those who were our age or older spoke very little. Teenagers and younger were especially skilled at English. The reason they all cited? YouTube and video games. In fact, during the church retreat, two different teenage men, in separate conversations, told me I was the first American they had ever had a conversation with face-to-face. When I asked how they were so skilled in American English, each cited the many hours they had spoken to other players in video games. It was remarkable.
Another experience that happened several times was that we were at the checkout in a store and the owner could not speak any English nor were we able to speak any Albanian. Who came to the rescue to translate? The 12ish year-old son of the owner.
We were in Illyricum
In Romans 15:19, the Apostle Paul states “by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ”. (ESV)
The Roman province of Illyricum roughly corresponded to part or all of the territories of today's Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia.
The fact that we too were on a mission trip — like the Apostle Paul — in what was once Illyricum — was meaningful in a way that is hard to put into words.
It was an honor to serve the Lord
This experience changed our lives and made us better followers of Christ. To have the opportunity to serve the Lord on this — our first mission trip — was a remarkable experience we will never forget. The praise, the messages, the people, the songs, and all the happy faces occupy a very special place in our hearts and in our memories. We prayerfully hope this will have been the first of many such mission trips back to the Balkans.
Thank you for following our mission trip to Albania.
If you would like to make a donation to Dardania Church in Gjilan, Kosovo, you may do so through the Radstock giving page here. Alternatively, you can become a paid subscriber to Oliver’s Travels in which case 100% of your payment will be sent to Dardania Church on your behalf. Thank you for your consideration.
And a special request
If you enjoyed this post — and this entire series about our Albania mission trip — would you please send this post to someone else who might enjoy it? Thank you!
Next up are a few posts capturing our trip to see our son Brian, wife McKalie and grandson Mason in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii from 22 July to 7 August, 2024.
Scott & Frieda- Thank you for sharing your wonderful experience and sharing God’s word.
Bravo and may The Lord continue to do great things through the hands, harts and minds of the two of you.