BY NOAH GRIFFITH
FOR THE OBSERVER
PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY SERVE TO LEAD
GLENWOOD —
Glenwood baseball coach Tim Fanning and his Serve to Lead team are no strangers to mission trips and serving through teaching baseball in foreign countries. But this trip was different from the others.
Fanning and his home team of six, including his wife and two daughters, and two of his former players, set off to join team members from California, eventually travelling to a country neighboring Macedonia, Austria and Great Britain — the southern European country of Albania. Albania is located on the southern entrance to the Adriatic Sea, and unlike other trips they’ve been on, Albanians have not been long accustomed to working with other nationalities — much less playing the game of baseball.
“Some of the kids, when you rolled them the ball they would kick it like a soccer ball,” Fanning said humorously and seriously at the same time. “It was something new. They were communist until 1989, and their borders were closed. Now, if you’re American, you can stay an entire year without getting a visa. That’s how much they want to embrace democracy and try to get Americans to come to Albania.
“The coolest thing for me to see was, we’ve never done a trip with that many nationalities involved, and to have one common purpose and for everybody to enjoy each other was pretty amazing.”
Despite the language barrier, the team was able to teach the basics of baseball, donate equipment and clothing and visit local churches, all while sharing their love for God and their life journeys. While only scheduled to work with one group on the trip, the Serve to Lead team was able to visit three different locations in Albania and Macedonia, developing relationships with the kids as well as coaches who could continue to build off of their work after the trip.
A language barrier is nothing new for Fanning and his team, but the coach said technology such as google translate, as well as having a translator with them, helps with communication. Although, the game of baseball can often times be demonstrated without words.
A game of whiffle ball each afternoon in the town square was all it took to see the joy the kids had playing the game and to engage the community. They didn’t even need a field. Maybe all it takes is a whiffle ball and a bat, and they’ll come, as they say.
“We met people from Syria, Kosovo and actually several Americans — a family from Arkansas, one from New Jersey, one from Boston — and people from Spain, so it was really a huge cultural experience for our team,” Fanning said.
While working hard to serve those in need, the Serve to Lead group, as Fanning explains in his book “Serve to Lead,” adapted to a new culture and took in the unique scenery around them. Also bordering Greece as well as the Adriatic Sea, Albania features unique scenery that the group soaked in.
“Everything started about 20 minutes late, but on these trips, you learn to adapt and make the best of it,” Fanning said. “It was a beautiful place. The country had mountains, but it’s only along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. So we went to visit a very historic castle one day, and another day we went to the beach. It was cool to see those two sides of it.”
Throughout the team’s work on the trip, Serve to Lead began to make connections and plan for a trip to revisit the country that was so enthused to welcome them in, according to Fanning. The trip to Albania that began in Tirana was the team’s second of two mission trips this summer, after first making a visit to the Dominican Republic in June.
Serve to Lead is a nonprofit organization and welcomes anyone who feels led to help support its mission. To donate or find out more about how to get involved, visit servetolead2.com or check out its work on social media (@servetoleadteam on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter).