This summer seven of us from our youth cell went on a mission trip to Albania. Albania is the poorest country in Europe. The trip came as a result of a vision shared by members of our cell to go abroad and share our love for God with others and help with ongoing projects.
The journey to Albania was very long as we had to travel on two planes before we reached the capital city of Albania, Tirana. Once in Tirana we had a five hour bus journey to Korce, the city where we would be staying.
When we arrived we were all amazed by the natural beauty of the country. It is a very green country with lots of hills and mountains. For the first week we ran a kids club during the day for some local Albanian children. At the kids club we played games, sports, did crafts, danced, sang and used puppets. We had a translator who was very helpful when we were trying to get across messages to the children without being able to speak the language.
Also during our time in Albania we evangelised to Albanians in a park, we dismantled and helped to rebuild a toilet for an old lady, we went to the local church and also shared in an Albanian cell meeting.
For me personally, the experience was life changing. Spending time in a completely new culture made me reassess what is important in life and made me realise just how blessed we are and how much we have. As a race, the Albanians are very friendly and make sure they spend time on relationships.
Everyone really enjoyed their time in Albania and I feel we have all grown closer as a group, as well as changing personally and growing closer to God. I would also like to say a massive thankyou to everyone in the church who supported us both though fundraising and prayer, without you all this mission would not have been possible. | 
