February 5th 2009

This is a picture from class last night. The Bulgaria Team is on the left and the Albania team is on the right.

DIV> <>d<>IV>Front Row (l-r) Sarah-Bulgaria, Elvina-Bulgaira, Miranda-Bulgaria, Becky-Albania, Me-Albania, Abby-Albania, Prof Bleattler-Albania (Chair of our Politics, Philosophy and Economics Degree), Dr. Tokarev-bulgaria (in the black he grew up in bulgaria under Communism but moved to the states when he was 21 and now teaches Economics at Kings), David Leedy-Albania (in the cord suit jacket-hes on staff for our Residents Life team and is leading the trip).

Back Row (l-r) Anna Peters (Financial Aid Staff, also my House's staff advisor), Elijah-Albania, Wyatt-Albania, Burke-Albania

>((Just a side note....We have a business casual dress code for when we are on campus from 8a-8p so this is just normal dress for us))

This week we are starting to learn the basics of speaking Albanian. Our homework is to be comfortable interacting using the 19 basic phrases and words they've given us. Also, we just found out that a grant came through from the Koch Foundation which gives each person a base of $1,000. God is so good, even in times of economic down turn. Keep praying that the prayer support comes in to match the financial support--only prayer and God's grace will help us bypass the corruption so integrated in the Albanian institutions.

January 27th 2009

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for checking out my blog! This year the the trip preparation is in the form of a class (I get three credits for my time and we meet Wednesday nights 5-8). The class is comprised of my team going to Albania and another team of students and faculty going to Bulgaria to the same thing! Right now we are studying the history of the Balkans. It's humbling to learn that while we were walking on the moon and desegregating our water fountains, Albanians were forbidden to worship and drive cars. It is easy for me to distance myself from the pain of communism, believing its one of the evils my parents and grandparents defeafed until I see color photos of its current effects and tribulations.

This isn't the typical mission trip, but then Kings isn't the typical Christian college. If you have any questions about the format or details of this trip, please feel free to email me (chlushak@gmail.com), post a comment on here, or go to King's International Venture's website:  http://www.tkc.edu/students/international .  I will write again soon and I hope that all is well. I'd love to hear about what's going on in your lives!!

Under the Mercy,

Caitie

ps. Shpreh means "to discuss" in Albanian so I'm just going to be sharing the ideas we are discussing, what I'm learning, how I am preparing for the trip, and our specific prayer requests as they come up.