Cow Head Soup

Shom merror pronounced shoe mirror is "very good" in Albanian and today was just that, very good. The day started at 6:00 am as we drove toward the boarder of Greece in the Toyota. The new camp property is only several kilometers from the boarder of Greece. Mark, Edie, and I picked up Takcho on the way. He is our tractor driver. We stopped for breakfast, Cow Head Soup, naturally, what else would one have for breakfast before a day of work? Cow Head Soup is a traditional Albanian breakfast, much like cereal or a bagel in the states.

This property is phenomenal, and the story of how they acquired this land is even better. Today Takcho excavated land for the kitchen, volleyball court, fire pit, amphitheater, runway for the flying squirrel, and a pond. I already have dreams of slipping some rainbow trout into this new pond. Imagine a view of the Greek mountains, rolling meadows, pine trees, fall colors in the leaves, a crisp fall breeze, and some creativity. That was our day. Not a lot of manual labor, but Mark and I had many extensive conversations about the 5 building phases of this camp. From hydro electric opportunities with the 2 springs on the property, to incinerators for trash, property staff housing year round, a welcome lodge, an adult guest/guard lodge, kids cabins, Frisbee golf course, fire pit, flow of the camp, Jim Rayburn's early camp philosophies, ropes course, zip line, and many more small details. We both see the big picture and my eyes are big. Mark has a God sized vision for the country of Albania knowing Jesus and it continues with ministry to 1,200 kids per summer with the hope to team with World Vision and in the next 3 summers doubling that and have 3,000 kids told about Jesus. This is going to happen, its amazing.

After reading the book dance children dance about Jim Rayburn's life I had many flash backs of what it could have been like being Jim and looking at Star Ranch and Frontier Ranch in Colorado, and since I am most familiar with Malibu, I envisioned Jim chomping at the bit the first time he saw Malibu and within 10 minutes of him being there he said to his sea plane pilot, "this is Young Life's next camp." I felt the same way today, I spent the day full of adrenaline thinking this could seriously be one of the greatest things to happen to the country of Albania in its history. This camp property will change this entire country for Christ. Seeing it bare this morning, then this evening before we left seeing all the excavating that was done was really incredible. Right now there are no buildings on the property and in a few years Mark has the vision for this to be looking like Young Life camps we would see in the states. I hope to be involved in the project for the long run, and you could be too. This August I am bringing 25 folks 19 years of age or older to do manual labor in the building of this camp. Specifically people who have experience with ropes courses, Frisbee Golf, camps, landscaping, and basically just want to work hard and serve. And who knows, maybe we will get Young Life started here in Albania someday.

Mark and I talked about this quote a lot on property today "Who started the idea that Christians ought to have the seat of their pants in patches, or that we ought to have camps in tents? We talk about the King of Kings; lets act like He's the one in charge! We're going to get the classiest camps in the country. -Jim Rayburn, Young Life founder.

Loving this adventure!




       

Albania

 Here is an e-mail I just sent to family:

Hi guys! I am in Albania, it is 7:53 in the evening and we just
finished a wonderful first dinner together. I am running on 3 hours of
sleep and 3 cups of coffee today or as its spelled over here in Europe
Kaffee. I spent 11 hours in the Munich airport yesterday (Saturday)
because my plane in DC had a wing flap malfunction and delayed takeoff
for 2 hours, so I missed my flight in Munich and the only other flight
that day was at 9:20 PM. I arrived in Tirana at 11:00 pm and then had
a 5 hour drive south to Erseke and arrived here at 5:00 am today
(Sunday) and had church at 10. Today has been a great day of meeting
everyone, sharing meals, and walking around town.

Tomorrow at 6:15 am I am headed out to the camp property with some
other guys to check it out, and I think a tractor is supposed to meet
us there so we might get some work done. Mark has given me the blue
prints and architectural drawings to look over tonight. We are already
talking ropes course and praying and dreaming big. I will probably
throw this e-mail up on the blog as well. i have been writing more
extensively in my journal and tomorrow night if I am not so tired I
will try and make those into blog entries as well. No promises on
pictures at this point but I will see how the computer situation
develops.

All for now guys, I am learning a lot, this is ALREADY an amazing
trip...can't wait to see what else God has in store. Language barriers
are fascinating, church today was great today because its different
languages yet we are all speaking the same language to the same God,
super legit stuff! More to come.