This week has been my team and I's first week in Albania as well as training / orientation for the rest of the trip. So far it has been an absolute blessing as we all get to know each other and our place together. I wanted to write at least one blog this week, but every time I thought I had something to write about I just couldn't contain my thoughts well enough to establish something. I felt like I had so many ideas, stories, and principles I could talk about but none of it formulated into anything.

Seth Barnes has been personally with us for the majority of this week. He has been alongside our leaders, walking us through each of our classes. He has been so so amazing in a sense of clarity. Seth has an amazing way of viewing ideas and creating places where we can explore them too their fullest.

One morning during our career development and self leadership class, Seth got up and started speaking on the idea of identity. How he explained this thought pretty much summed up what I had running through my head this whole week. I knew this is what I had to write my blog about.

Seth brought up an interesting point, when we are at home (wherever that may be to us) we are defined by the people around us. We are defined by the comforts, and memories made through ourselves, family, and friends. That's just who we are, that's who we've built ourselves around. If you truly want to seek and find out who you are and what your place is in this world, you need to leave what is comfortable. If you truly want to find out who you are and what your place is in this world you need to change your world. There, you will be forced to face yourself in ways that have not yet been revealed to you.

Jesus had to go through this same process. When Jesus began His ministry, He stepped away from the familiar, the comfortable. He left behind His carpentry in Nazareth, His family’s expectations, and the comfort of his home. In doing so, He entered into a world of uncertainty, rejection, and ultimately sacrifice. His word even says in Mark 6:4 that “a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown.”

Jesus also spent forty days in the wilderness (Matthew 4). There, without the comforts of home, He confronted hunger, temptation, and even satan himself. Stripped of everything familiar, His identity was tested, but also revealed. He responded to every lie with truth, showing He knew exactly WHO He was and WHOSE He was.

The most important part, was that even through everything Jesus went through. All the beatings, rejections, persecutions, and ultimately death. He never lost sight of the Father. His identity wasn't built on His comforts, the voices around Him, or temptations but on the Lord. His true identity.

We are called to a similar path in order to find our identity not in ourselves but in Christ who has amazing plans for our lives. It may not always be comfortable. It may not always be a smooth or familiar ride. But in the end, it is so so worth it. By leaving comfort behind and pursuing the Lord, we are able to minister to those in need more effectively. Strengthening our relationship with Him can open so many new doors so that we may join in sharing the Gospel. That is my hope for me and my team as we continue to push each other closer to Christ.

This has been the idea bouncing around my head this week as me and my team step into this calling for our lives. Uncomfortable, unfamiliar, yet still so beautiful and fulfilling. We all cannot wait to truly begin ministry in Albania and beyond. What a blessing it is to serve God and his creation so far from the familiar. All glory to Him!