Camp at Vlora

On July 16th we loaded up 45 students and about 15 staff and headed off to the beach town of Vlora, which is a 4 hour bus ride, for youth camp. The theme was "True Happiness" based out of The Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5. One of the greatest lies that the Albanian youth have bought from the father of lies is that the wealth of the west will bring them happiness. The streets are full of people searching desperately for hope in sex, drugs, alcohol and materialism. Sadly, they are catching up quickly to the youth in America. Kris and I have had the privilege of attending and serving at this camp for the past two years. It was so neat to see how God has grown those we ministered to in past years.

Here is the whole group together in our camp t-shirts. There were 101 stairs from the bottom floor to the top rooms (!). Thankfully, our room was only half way to the top. The mornings were set aside for small group teaching times on different verses from the Sermon on the Mount.
Kris and I enjoyed being here with our kids. Of course, having kids at camp was very different than it had been in previous years. Chelle was not as free to spend time with the youth girls because she was focused on the kids, but she did have some wonderful time with the one of the staff wives, and Albanian pastors wife, and some of the staff girls. Kris preached three times at camp and helped lead the music for worship in the evenings. He preached on what true happiness is, how holiness leads to happiness, and Solomon's take of true happiness out of Ecclesiastes. Kris was very thankful to have three other men from the team share some of the teaching this year.
We are so thankful for the commitment to prayer that the staff had. Every morning at 6:30 all the staff met for prayer on the pier. The sweet time of unity in the Lord surrounded by the breezes from the Agean Sea was a true taste of heaven.
The girls had such a fun time at the beach. Here is Breanna searching for shiny rocks on the beach. The water of the Agean is very salty and has few fish. There are, however, lots of sea urchins. Thankfully, we brought water shoes for the rocky beach, but the first day I spent a couple of hours digging sea urchin spines out of the feet of many students. Using a dirty needle and rusty tweezers on multiple people went against all my nursing training. So far, I haven't lost one of those patients. :)
This is view of the hotel we stayed at and the beach below. I wanted to include this picture to show how wonderfully God protected us. Kris took this picture and he is standing only a few feet from the edge of a wildfire burn area. On Thurday morning at 1:30 we were awakened by our team leader to inform us that there was a fire just over the ridge. We were to prepare to evacuate. Our room is right on the corner of the building and we could see the embers from the fire and see the flickering of the flames. I had our Bibles, camera, and computers packed to get out with the girls when they put the fire out. It is amazing what becomes really valuable when you have to chose what to take with you. We had great opportunities to use the fire to talk about God's sovereignty, the transitory nature of our lives and how God cares for His children. The camp's purpose was to encourage and challenge the believers from the youth group at our church in Tirana. All praise to God that while we were there one of the girls, Deni, who was staying at the hotel, but who lives in Tirana made a profession of faith. Kris had the privilege of talking with her about her new commitment to the Lord. She came to church on Sunday, the day after we came back from camp. She and I exchanged cell phone numbers and we are going to get together. Please pray for Deni. Thank you for praying so faithfully for us and for the team from Texas this last week. We are confident that your prayers were effective as we saw and heard many students impacted by the Word of God being faithfully taught and lived out in the lives of the staff. Now we have the privilege of staying here to nurture and see the results of camp for years to come! Praise God for His goodness to us!