another saturday! wait where has the week gone?

mim and besi with the clouds that appeared over tirana when we were on the mountain

the most tasty ice cream that josh and i have tasted. we may actually go back for another one before we leave albania

the ampetheatre that is mega old (2AD) and we just got to walk over it freely

the view from a near by tower looking over at the oldest part of durres that still exists

looking down out to the waterfront where many locals spend their evenings walking, and we live near to

this week and been on the quiet side as i took an day off on tuesday morning to spend some time alone. i ended up using this time to start to get my head around this summer and the future of uni. i also received my uni accommodation which is a bonus to know that i will not sleeping in a tent of a friend who already has a house down in Plymouth. now i just have enjoy the fun again of organising uni from different places in the world.

the rest of tuesday was being a tourist after i met up with josh in town. i popped into the post office to send my mother an post card (she wont believe this) we headed off to the Amphitheatre that has been here in Durres since its construction of i think 2AD. so freely walking around such an piece of history and walking down the tunnels that would have been used 2000yrs ago for entertainment really made me realise the unique position that i have had the chance of so much this year. as well and the blessing God has given me with ability to have 'in sites' into some places that i have visited.

we then headed up to the top of an massive hill (few perspirations, lol) and up an lift to the top to receive some of the most expensive ice cream desserts I've paid for in an long time but one of the best views over an city i have seen. worth the walk, that is all that i can say.

wednesday saw us changing our plans early in the morning due to an invite from the pastor and his family of the Durres church (which Besmir is an elder for and is Ruth and Maki's church also) to head down to their place and then head out to the beach to test out one of the biggest inflatables i have seen. their son (4yr old who has awesome english [ok, may have used him as a translator at one point that day]) was brought this from a friend who had been away for work. we had great fun. and what we though would just be a few hours turned into the beach and we also really got to know their family throughout the day. it's sad but exciting to see them heading off to Macedonia with another family to church plant out there, and hoping to set up an community centre.

there is a lot that is going on in the countries around us in Europe, it is crazy to know that they are unable to preach in the country that is next to where i am currently sat but totally exciting to know that God is calling these 2 families out to where God is not being taught.

as i feel this is going into an Zoe post, i apologise but i will not cut it down, sorry Byatt.

we had set an date and went to Tirane (capital of Albania) and we were going to get an overview of the capital. we took the cable car up the mountain, this was great memories as it was the only tourist thing that i did last time i was out here 3years ago when i came to help with CEF 'Good News Camp'. we had great time to hang out with both Besi and Mim. it's hard to realised but Besi is mega busy; but then that's not really an surprise when he is juggling his paid job for 'mission without borders', and unpaid jobs: pastor of the church in Sukth, elder of the church in Durres, building site manager (what we would call here in western culture), and being an married man. then add on two visitors to his flat and it all seems a bit mad, luckily God is really blessing Mim and Besi and i just pray that josh and i are a part of this. they seem to juggle all this and it has taken me 2weeks to fully work out all that Besi does here, but it wouldn't surprise me what else is going on that i don't know about.

as the end of the week approached we went into friday and back to CEF to help with one of their kids rally again. this was a craft morning and was a nicer than the busy last week's version of the same. we had a great ratio with the kids and this meant that we weren't ran off our feet always looking at what was needed to be done. the afternoon saw us moving the CEF centre around as it has been hired out for an retreat for a group of Christians in the south. and then down to the village of Duskth for one of the clubs that CEF run, we went 2weeks ago and the kids saw us and were very happy to see us again. i have to say i was shocked that they even remembered out names let along run inside to the meeting room to tell everyone else that Josh and Dave were here again. luckily Steve wasn't with us (was on holiday 2weeks ago when we arrived here) when Maki made us sing to them in english during an song part of the session.

now it is the weekend and today we are crashing, before we go to sunday and our 2 church services which we spend our own time with God due to the lack of understanding the language. we may head off to the beach across the road. we shall see! Durres is our oyster, haha