Thanksgiving in Albania

Thanksgiving is a day that evokes wonderful memories for me. I remember going to pick out a turkey with my family as a child from the turkey farm. Of course, it wouldn't have been such a pleasant memory if I had seen what they did to that poor turkey. I remember being a pilgrim in my 4th grade thanksgiving play. I remember waiting expectantly by the door for all my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents to arrive for a whole day of fun and food. But most of all, I remember all the years of recalling what God had done during the previous year to show His love and providence. Of all the Thanksgiving traditions this time of reflection and sharing is the most meaningful. This year was no different.

Thanksgiving was quite a bit different in many respects this year. First of all, our whole family spent the morning at the local soccer field to watch Kris play in the annual "turkey bowl". This much anticipated event features males from churches in the Tirana area playing American football for a turkey bowl trophy.
Here is a picture of this years participants. Sadly, our church team lost the trophy to another church's team this year.
The men enjoyed playing together and also sharing in a time of prayer before the game. Getting together with fellow Christians for fun and good sportsmanship is a great way build unity. The down side of this is that you have a bunch of "young" men most of whom are over 35 running around like they are 20 years old. We only had a few injuries. Unfortunately our team leader ruptured his ACL practicing for this years game. He will be heading back to the states over the Christmas holiday for surgery and rehab. But, in spite of his injury, he was out on the field as quarterback on Thanksgiving day. Talk about commitment, or something. LOL!
The highlight of the day was getting together with over 40 people from our church for a traditional Thanksgiving feast. Most of those who came were American, but we did have a Korean family and a few Albanians. Everyone brought a dish or two and we laid out a table packed with all the turkey and stuffing and cranberry relish and pies you could want. Of course, some things were different than I was used to. The turkeys are quite expensive and hard to get a hold of in Tirana, so we had turkey breast instead of a whole carved turkey. Cranberry jelly has not been introduced into the Albanian culture yet (sad for them) so we had one can cut up into little pieces. Someone did find a box of frozen cranberries to make some yummy cranberry relish. There were lots of "pumpkin" pies and a "sweet potato" casserole. Actually, they were carrot creations made to taste just like pumpkin and sweet potatoes. The pumpkins here are not like the traditional orange ones in the states and there are no sweet potatoes (sad for me). However, these substitutes were hardly noticeable.
I thought we would never eat all the food that was laid out. I was amazed that there was hardly a crumb left in the dishes at the end of the meal. It was unusual and a little sad for me to meet in a restaurant for Thanksgiving instead of being at home preparing the whole meal. Kaitlyn said that it didn't really seem like Thanksgiving because we didn't have our family to spend it with. There were some sad times in the day as we recalled all the fun memories we have made with our family stateside. However, we quickly turned our thoughts toward all that we had to be thankful for this year and the joy we have in sharing this holiday with our church family.
The kids had a blast playing with their friends, having a coloring contest and winning small prizes for games. It is neat to think of the memories that they are making of childhood Thanksgivings to recall later in life.

After we finished our wonderful meal we pulled our chairs into a circle to share in a time of prayer, praise and public thanksgiving for what God has done for us. It was a poignant time as I heard people who have been faithfully serving Him all over the world recount how God has proven Himself abundantly gracious year after year. We prayed for each other and for America. I was more thankful than ever to be an American citizen with a rich heritage of godly men and women as founding fathers.

What would Thanksgiving day be without some college football? We had a few people from our team over to our house after dinner to watch a game on line. Due to a poor Internet connection we watched about 2 minutes of a game. It all worked out because we had a great time talking, laughing, and eating more food.

All in all it was a wonderful first Thanksgiving in Albania. We are thankful to God for His amazing salvation. We are thankful to God for how He has cared for us in the past few months of transition in Albania. We are thankful to God for stretching us in new and sometimes painful ways because it transforms us more into the image of His Son. We thank God for friends, old and new, who have filled our life with a fragrant aroma of brotherly love. We thank God for our dear family who sent us on our way here to Albania with some tears, but mainly with great joy that we can honor God in our lives across the ocean from them. We thank God for our four daughters who have soft hearts towards the Lord and who we have the privilege of discipling for God's glory. We thank God, and often, for you. Thank you for making every day a day of thanksgiving as you pray for us and support us so faithfully.