BENN

Who is Benn? Benn is the acronym we came up with to remember 4 key ground rules for our team, and for many of us today may have really put us to the test. We spent our first day in Durres and our first afternoon of curriculum with kids for our Crusade Staff Conference here in Albania.
B….as in Be Flexible. We ended up with 18 children under the age of 5, and not a part of our initially planned curriculum. (this was in addition to the 48 older children). Though we came prepared with lots of activities and snacks for our littlest friends, we did not anticipate the logistical challenges of: checking them in, diaper bags, naptimes, and little ones who missed their mommies. Several of us held crying babies for 3-4 hours straight, and forget curriculum, it was all we could do to get through the afternoon!
E….as in Extend Grace. We are really seeking to be an example of Christ and live as a testimony of our faith. Today we had lots of opportunities to extend grace to each other when things were misplaced; to our children when they were antsy during our 2 hour – 5 course mealtimes; and to the Albanians who didn’t necessarily understand or agree with all we had planned.
N…. as in No Complaining. This was probably the hardest today, as the air-conditioning was not working in many of the rooms we were supposed to be using, and it was probably over 100 degrees outside plus a whole lot of humidity. We were under time pressure, low on sleep, high on anxiety over logistics and details, and sweating way more than any of us would like!
N…….as in No Gossiping. Has this been hard for some of us? I have no idea. Blake and I are so tired at night that we barely have time to debrief with each other let alone get caught up in opinions or gossip. I would assume the rest of the team feels the same….we have much bigger things to spend our energy and time on right now, and at the end of the day we all just want to fall into bed as fast as we can! Which is where I'm headed right now!