The Place of the Nest

I heard a myth recently that hit me somewhere in the region of my heart. If the myth is fact or fantasy, I do not know. A very little research on my part suggested....well, enough ne-sayers and ye-sayers to make it mysterious. But I guess that would be the point. If I were an eagle, I would want it that way, too.

The myth goes something like this......when eagles reach middle age, they face a major decision. Over time, their beaks have grown and bent awkwardly, their claws have become too long, making catching prey very difficult, and their feathers so long, thick, and matted that flight is an increasingly growing effort. Thus, they reach a point where they must, each of them, choose life or death. If they let themselves remain as they are, they will eventually die. If, however, they choose life, their path will get much harder and lonelier for a time.

The eagle, to save his life, must retreat to the remotest of nests, in the highest of places, and there, completely alone, begin his 'transformation.' At first he knocks his beak against a rock until it breaks. Then he waits, until it grows back, to continue on. For with his new beak, he will destroy his claws, and pluck out his feathers, one by one. And then, he will wait, again. Wait for each feather and each claw to re-grow, fresh and new.

The eagle is by nature a creature of relational intimacy, having one mate for life. If this myth is true, this time of waiting must truly be one of the greatest challenges of his life. He is stripped of that which gives him joy; his flight, his strength, his identity, his community, for the sake of its renewal, in the end. That hope must be the one thing that carries him through, minute for minute, sacrifice for sacrifice.

For at the conclusion of his season of solitude, he is then able to return to the skies, leaving his nest for the first time in months, lighter, stronger, freer...with the assurance of life. For 'those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strenth; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isa 40:31).

Again, I do not know if this story is true, and do not want to assert fact from fiction. However, myths are also there, for a reason. Lessons are taught, and we can...relate. For with the Lord, there are times of seclusion, where He takes us aside to strip us of the lies that bind us, the weights that burden us, the world that would seek to poison us. And all of this is for the sake of LIFE, if we would but believe.

History shares of disciples who found themselves at some time or another in their own remote nests, hidden, in process. And our lives share the same story here and there, as we follow our Shepard where He would lead.

We follow Him, we submit, and we wait. And then, there begins the creeping ache....we smell the wind and see the empty skies, so very empty, and we know we must fill them once again. Our wings reach up to stretch again and again testing to see if we are at last, ready. Signs of life return, and the pain of the ache reminds us of that which we were created for.....and anticipation feeds our soul til' the moment we can take to the skies and once again, soar.

Our Father in Heaven takes us from Glory to Glory...the valley is often only the nest that takes us there, if we will believe.

Albania Mission Trip August 2009

On August 17th, U-NITE Nürnberg went on its first official mission trip to Pogradec, Albania! This trip was certainly a watershed experience for us, not only as a group, but also in terms of serving another nation, as well as sowing into the future. I believe that we will reap a harvest from this trip for years to come.

But what was it like?.....Well, 'adventure' is probably too tame of a word as the pictures below reveal. Our team of 16 was challenged in some fascinating ways indeed...serving to bring out the best in each person, and the group as a whole. I have to say, I was really really proud of how the team responded to the situations we found ourselves in. God proved to be big in each person, and big in Albania :-)

So, I think the best way to share with you what we did exactly is to explain using the pictures below. Before that, I will say that we traveled to Pogradec to work with a ministry there called Nehemiah, Albania. This organization serves in enormous ways to meet social needs, as well as spiritual needs, in this country. It was an honor to serve with them during our time there...

So, here we go...our trip :-) .....

Being sent out from church the Sunday we left for our trip
(originally we hoped it would take us 24 hours to drive there....)

View from our church rooms as we were packing up and getting ready to leave....

Me taking care of all of our passports...

Our Team
(Plus one of our vans...the one, we discovered later,..with the not so perfect paperwork for the Eastern European Borders.... )

This was Volker's van, the car that didn't seem to want to try, as we came to found out....

After having already stopped a couple times in Austria and at the Hungarian border due to problems with Volker's van..it just, well, the power repeatedly went out on the highway, we ended up buying a rope in case we had to tow it (since it was Sunday and no mechanic shops were open),

we were all just happy that somehow we were able to keep driving....

And we found a nice little spot on the side of the highway where we could eat dinner, have our daily Bible study, and pray together...

And then, a couple of hours before dawn, after having been stopped at several borders already because the papers to our blue van were not exactly what they wanted (meaning we had to pay extra), we were again paying for the unfortunate papers at the Serbian border when we saw it....the very unhappy tire...

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But then something very amazing happened (according to us girls anyway)...the men became very suddenly very excited.....at 5 am in the morning, tired faces came to life because there was a problem to be solved.......after our suggesting things like, get to the next gas station, we girls realized this was a man thing and so we just stood back watched, amazed at their sudden change :-)

So, the tire was fixed and we drove on...stopping off in Serbia to check Volker's car and repair our very sad tire, then driving on into the mountains of Macedonia....where Volker's car became unsure, once again, if it really wanted to try....but thankfully it decided that it did, and so we drove to the Albania border....

but they did not want our money for our pesky papers, instead they didn't want to let us in at all......

Thankfully, though, Pogradec was just a few miles away, so Arnold Geiger, the very well-known head of Nehemia in Albania, who had once been a policeman in Munich, came to our rescue...

And so after 32 hours (instead of the 24 we had hoped for) after 10pm Monday at night..

We arrived in Pogradec...

And ate dinner :-) and then fell into our beds...

.......
We slept in the school..girls on the top floor, guys on the 2nd floor...toilets in the floor (ie. holes in the floor...a detail which became more, um, meaningful, later..)

And so, on Tuesday, we unloaded the vans and organized...

..toured the Nehemia grounds (church, school, guest house, office buildings...)

Ate the amazing lunch they had for us each day....

And then the actual mission began...

We met with the youth leaders of Nehemiah and prayed an worshipped together..ending up praying for the leaders there, which became a very powerful time of encouragement for them....

Later on we toured a hospital in town...trash was everywhere outside, and inside there were trash baskets in the rooms with bloody clothes just lying in them, and an unbuilt x-ray machine hanging out in one of the halls...you could tell they are having to do the best with what they have and with what they don't have..

The view from the roof of the hospital building over Pogradec was lovely...

Irida, one of the youth leaders with Nehemiah...

On the next day we went to a village on the sea called Lin....

As all 16 of us walked through the village, with guitars, etc., we drew a lot of attention, which is what we wanted :-)

We were certainly not their everyday experience....

And the boys in the area liked us especially....following us to...wherever we were going...

We ended up finding a good open space near the water where we could gather people

Someone played worship and we danced and played with the kids..

And they showed us a thing or two ... :-)

Later we moved to a different part of the village where Bärbel, our pastor, was able to minister to an elderly woman...


And we played more music and shared the Gospel with the children....



And that is when we met Edre...the little guy with the bandage on his eye. Before we had even left for Albania, during a prayer meeting Lenny felt that we would meet a kid with a bandage on his eye. And then, in that day, there he was..except he was the shyest of all the kids, and actually ran away when we tried to talk with him......but then Lenny found Edre's mother working in a little grocery store and asked if he could pray for him...she, although a Muslim, said yes...so Lenny prayed, but then Edre ran away again. Somehow, though, eventually he found his way to me and became my 'protector' for the rest of the afternoon...he stayed near me even held my camera away from the other boys who wanted to play with it, so I could worship with the music.....

And, later on, as we walked to their little 'beach,' he showed us delightedly how his other friends were such great swimmers...

making sure we clapped for each one as they did crazy jumps off the pier...

And he kept showing me with his hands that he was also a good swimmer...until he had had enough...he stood up, took the bandaid off of his eye (for which I had a little bit of fear, wondering what I was about to see...but it looked okay), stuck it in his pocket, took his shirt off, and jumped into the water... making sure we saw what cool things he could do. Later on, when he was finished swimming, he came back over to me, handed me the band-aid, and had me put it back on his eye for him :-) I was officially in love, my first 'mommy crush'

And, I have to say, he was my personal highlight of the trip. I am trusting God that Edre will remember the day we were there, remember God being there, and choose to serve Him with his whole life...

In the evening we learned a little bit of Albanien dancing in town as we searched for a place to have U-NITE...

Then we had the privilege of visiting the Amora Tan School headed by Nemehiah ...

....this school was created so that children who come from very poor families and are in danger of being sold into prostitution or for body parts can go to school in safety, with a security guard that watches over them the entire day, and where they can learn about Jesus...

The director of the school showed us the classrooms..even how they teach Creation rather than Evolution through the numbers on the wall (with with the creation stories painted in each letter..)

And we were able to pray for God to bless the school ...

This is the cafeteria, and on the wall it is written, 'Thank you, God' in Albanien

On another day we were able to go back to the school and play with the children...

We talked with them...

Played games..
Sang songs and danced..

And prayed with them...the really amazed us with the strength of their prayers...this school is really a treasure chest hidden in the midst of corruption and poverty...we were truly amazed..

In the evening the guys played on the soccer/basketball court....

And I learned how to make dreads for Rachel, one of our team members :-)

Then, the big day came where we were split up into groups to help with various social projects that Nehemiah needed to have done...

One team went to help move a Bibleschool to a new location,

One team stayed at Nehemia to help with some needed physical labor (moving wood blocks, etc.)

And the other team (myself included), went to Misto...

This is Misto...an 80 something year old man who was found living on the streets and well, after they found a place for him to live, they discovered that he is a collecter of....stuff...

So we went into his house to clean and disinfect it..

This is the lime we used to paint the walls...apparently this is good for disinfecting things,

but it is not so good for swimming in the eye...

which I unfortunately came to find out while painting the ceiling, so the doctor literally came to pick me up and take me to the Nehemiah clinic so he could wash my eye out..

...and then someone else got lime in the eye...

..And then two other people started getting sick...

So our entire team assigned to finish Misto's house was suddenly out of commission, causing the other two teams to rise up...the team that helped move the Bible school finished their task in order to come help at Misto's...but then they got sick (from the heat), too....so then the third team, at Nehemiah, finished their task to come help as well....

Until finally Misto got his newly disinfected home back--complete.

That evening (Thursday) we then went to the beach to look for locations where we could gather people for our U-NITE outreach meeting on Friday...

On this night, the atmosphere and the people were very closed. We realized that it was spiritual warfare, so after trying to reach out, we ended up just having a worship time at a place often used for outdoor concerts, trusting God that it would make a way for the next night.

One the following day, we drove to a remote village...

Encountering a little 'traffic,' along the way...

We then toured the village and invited them to a meeting where we led worship and spoke an encouraging word...

At that time we were all fit and having fun...

Having a great time there in that village...

Until...

We returned to the Nehemia grounds and several of us, after coffee and cake, sat in our rooms telling each other how we very suddenly felt strange...we didn't want to imagine that it was teh same sickness we'd heard the family at Nehemiah had had the week before...diarrhea and vomitting....

Indded, we had U-NITE that night...

But that didn't seem to stop what came next...

Two of us ended up in the bathroom and when we came out, there were mattesses laying on the landing right next to the bathrooms for us (bathrooms with holes in the floor...), then a third person found herself in the bathroom, and then on a mattress on the landing....

...and yes, we were sick, very sick...

In this pic, the landing, our mattresses, door to one of the bathrooms (on the left) us, and Josefa, the one who became our very unexpected and very amazing trip nurse :-)

Meanwhile, the members of our team who were, at this time, still healthy, proceeded on to Pogradec to have U-NITE..

And this evening was a major success!
Worshipping and interceding the night before, plus the spiritual warfare obvious in many of us getting sick was well worh it! The children came...

The crowds gathered..and our team shared the Gospel...one of the youth leaders there said she had never done outreach like that before and was absolutely encouraged and excited...God can move in Albania!!

So, after an amazing evening, the rest of the team arrived back to Nehemia. And that is when we began to hear the, by then, very familiar sounds again...running, door slamming, and yes, throwing up....at least two more of us were down for the count, on into the night...

In the morning, it all looked somehow like a war zone...some of the 'wounded' had recovered enough to leave their beds and at least move about for the day, others of us were not so lucky...and so the doctor came...

And the school turned into a make-shift hospital...

That is Lisa with her I.V. and the doctor putting in my I.V. with Rachel there for moral support

Claudia the worshipper, who even praised God while throwing-up

Thankfully, though, we were for the most part, much better by evening, enough to join the rest of the team and Nehemiah for a little going away party on our last evening there. And fit enough to go to church the next morning...

Claudi feeling and looking much revived

Our team after church...getting ready to get in the vans once more, and drive home...

Our trip home was very thankfully, 'uneventful,' and therefore shorter (27 hours), and we made it back to Germany all in one piece..well, that is to say, physically. I think spiritually we all left a piece of ourselves back in Albania...

And, imaginations were stirred not only for the next mission trip that U-NITE Nürnberg will undertake, but also in the hearts of those who are feeling an eventual call into the mission field....the future was impacted and we will never be the same...

Thank you for making this possible! You are the best!!!