Right now we have a Titus Project team in Albania. Sonya (you may remember, she is our Ukrainian teammate that has taken leadership of Titus Project Europe) is in Albania leading one of our teams that I (Angela) helped train in England last month. Her perspective is very interesting!

It’s been only ten days here in Albania, but it feels like we have been here so much longer! In this time we ran children program, training for YWAM staff, visited village to encourage believers there, preached in churches, facilitated a personal retreat for leaders of one of the churches, clean and iron more than ever…

Such a rich time! Such a privilege to be a part of this.

Durres met us with wonderful weather, great people and some good lessons to remember.

Before we came, we read some facts about Albania. Did you know that More Albanians live outside of Albania than within? Or that this is one of the few countries in Europe that does not have McDonalds? And that people from the country hang stuffed animals from half-completed homes and buildings to ward off evil spirits? It is also a country with amazing hospitality. I don’t know how many Albanians live in or outside the country, but the rest is true. We got to see and experience it ourselves!

It was Sunday afternoon, we found ourselves in a little church worshiping together with other believers. We might didn’t understand the words, but we felt the hearts :) After the service and endless hugs and kisses we invited our new friends for ice-cream but somehow instead ended up at their house for lunch… Minutes later water was boiling, someone went to the store to buy vegetables, another went down to get bread and drinks while someone else started to set up the table..

In the kitchen we can hear the laughter and loud conversations from the living room where nine people were trying to find space to sit and language to speak.. between four Albanians, Brazilian, Chilean, two Italians, Ukrainian, Swiss and Finish we speak about ten of them… That rare moment when an Italian has to speak Albanian to a Chilean in order to be understood.
This makes me smile.
“Together we are rich” – said Prele as he put freshly cut vegetables into the frying pan with one hand and accepted a bag with desserts with another. When we alone, we have little, but when we are together, we are rich, he repeated. He smiled and kept stirring.

Finally food is ready. We sit tightly around the table, someone says grace for friends, food and all the blessings we share. And we eat. passing plates, spoons, butter, salads around. Talking.
Laughing.
We are captivated by this moment.
We are present.
We are alive in this moment.
So much diversity in one place!
It is messy.
It is real.
IT IS RICH.

We might not share the richness in material things but we are rich in and with people we meet every day. People we share our lives with, challenging and encouraging each others faith.
Life happens around the table. Who is at yours?
Invite someone to join in.

In just few days I have been challenged to love better and to give more, to open my home and enlarge my heart to fit people, those I love and those I need to learn to love more.
This is a lesson I will remember.

Join us in prayer for this nation and the rest of our time here:
– we need Gods wisdom and his guidance
– more teaching opportunities and ability to serve well, knowing exactly what to say and see church here falling in love with the Bible and its author. 
– growth of the churches we worked with and their ministries. Let their influence spread and more and more people come to know the truth and find a true family
– all the travel and teachings: next week we are teaching in public school on internet safety and running Bible Overview seminars in three churches at the same time, pray for us!

This is why we moved to Europe- so exciting!

Josh and Saana were great ministry partners and friends who pioneered a new ministry for us here in Kyiv. It was called Aqueduct, where we take Inductive Bible Study and offer it to working professionals and students in the city (twice a week in the evening). This past spring Josh and Saana left Kyiv to go pursue further education in Canada, so our small team of Bible teachers wondered- what shall we do? Thankfully this fall Titus Project in Montana is sending a team to Kyiv so that we can continue to run Aqueduct in Kyiv. They will help cover the teaching load and we are so thankful. Keep praying for God to send more workers here to Kyiv, and for us to raise up more Russian speaking Bible teachers. It is going to be a great fall!

A story from our team in Central Asia-

Upon getting to Karakol, we quickly learned our contacts had big plans for us! Karakol is the fourth largest city in Kyrgyzstan (though it has a population of just over 60,000, so it feels quite small), and it is the largest city on Lake Issyk-Kul, in north east Kyrgyzstan (we’re not too far from the Chinese and Kazakh borders!). There are about 180 villages around Lake Issyk-Kul. Our contacts here, who are leaders in their churches in the surrounding area, have a big goal: a house church in every village, with two leaders in every house church. They hope to see this goal fulfilled by 2020. So where do we fit into this?

When we met with the leaders, they expressed their hope that we would train twenty believers identified as having a teaching gift, to teach inductive method, so that these house churches would be able to study the Word in this way! In addition to training these teachers, the leaders asked us to do mini “outreaches” with them – watch them  teaching other groups, evaluating them as teachers.

While this is a really exciting opportunity, there are some significant challenges. The leaders asked us to teach three separate groups of teachers, on three separate days. This means we had about five hours with each group, to train them as teachers, before sending them on “outreach.” A few of them have seen the Philemon seminar, which is the best tool we have to equip them with learning the inductive method in a short amount of time, but most of them have not studied using inductive method before. This is significant. When we train our Titus Project participants (like Sasha and Julissa) in teaching inductive method, it is after they have spent nine months studying the whole Bible for themselves, using the method. They know the method very well, and are prepared to pass it on to others after three weeks of training. The group in Karakol wants us to train three groups of teachers after one day of training each. Sasha summed it up very well when he said after our meeting with the leaders, “They are asking for a miracle.” Fortunately, our God is in the business of miracles! We are doing our best with the time we have, emphasizing that good teachers are first good students. We want them to realize that to teach the Bible, they have to study it for themselves. We want our new students to understand we can provide them with tools they can use to study and then teach other books of the Bible. Yesterday (Friday) was our last day of prepping our “students.” On Sunday, we start mini outreaches with them – watching them teach the Philemon seminar to others, and evaluating them so they can grow. We have done our best, and pray God uses what we taught to expand His Kingdom, and that He speaks to our students about being studiers and doers of the Word, before they can be teachers. Please be praying for us and them!!!

Michael, Helen, Sasha & Julissa (Team Stan-Stan)