Winter, Spring, and Summer have swept by, more eventful than most years—and that’s saying something! Not very long after I wrote my previous update letter in January, Ana returned to Tirana from her work among refugees in northern Albania in order to prepare for our wedding. Following a flurry of activity, logistical, relational, and Spiritual, we wed in the middle of March (pictures below)! Ana and I are grateful for your prayers as we proceed into this first year of marriage—the type of marriage in which the friendship has room to grow by leaps and bounds after a romance spent mostly in separate places.
Meanwhile, the classes in the spring term progressed reasonably well—though a number of staff felt the burn-out experience more acutely than most years, myself included. Additionally, it soon became apparent that, for various individual reasons, a large number of staff were planning to exit GDQ and Albania. Ironically, even a couple of our veteran Albanian staff had reasons to go—one for incoming maternity leave in the fall, and another one to move to the States and marry! Even my cousins, longtime missionaries to Albania since the 90’s have graduated their youngest at GDQ and are moving on to something new! Among other veteran and not-so-veteran GDQer’s who have become my friends and source of fellowship over here, I will be losing my close buddy and administrator, Andy, who ended up being one of my groomsmen and earned his stripes well as a life-long friend. He and his family will be seriously missed by the TeachBeyond group and many others as they move their family to another country with a much lighter cross-cultural burden. Indeed, this new school year I return to Albania with a newlywed wife but also major holes in my sense of community here.
And these are strange times in general. The specter of World War III seemed to dissipate quickly in early Spring, but the economic impact of the war in Ukraine has put a real squeeze on the typical Albanian wallet. And the post-Covid tourism surge from other European countries to Albanian shores seems to have dramatically impacted prices in some areas as well. Meanwhile, the Albanian “brain drain” continues, with many professionals and educated people leaving to find a better life in Germany and elsewhere. All this contributes to a widespread, general feeling of unease, all while I’m getting to know Ana’s family better here in Tirana, my Albanian family.
Interesting times, to say the least. I must continue reminding myself that this season of heightened unease or concern is also one of those special opportunities for our believing community to trust God, looking to him expectantly like the children that we are. May God show up in powerful, restorative, and creative ways that we remember for a long time! To aide clarity, I’ll list some key prayer requests here in bulleted form.
Please pray for:
- Ana’s and my first year of marriage and sense of belonging, both relational and vocational. As I gear up for another school year, Ana is looking urgently for a job in the humanitarian field. It’s slim pickings here in Tirana, and likely more so due to the high level of nepotism that stifles new employment here. Please pray for God to open an employment door for Ana that satisfies the vocational drive that He has given her.
- GDQ’s many staffing needs. We probably need to overhaul our method of recruitment/retention and augment administrative support, but for now we just need teachers! Below is the short list—we are bending over backwards to satisfy these needs without dedicated staff to meet them. We are open to short-term rotations this year if any of my dear readers fancy a stint in Albania! (Just email me at ncook@teachbeyond.org to inquire!) Currently our head of high school is slated to teach our English classes in addition to everything else.
- Grade 2 Classroom
- Grade 5 Classroom
- Middles School Literacy
- High School Social Studies (part-time)
- High School English (part-time)
- K-Grade 8 Art
- Guidance Counselor
- The GDQ High School adapting to a new building. In June our new landlords for the HS reneged on their assurance that we could remain in our old building for a couple more years. God dramatically provided a space for us to relocate to, still in the same neighborhood as our K-Grade 8 building. But now we and the students get to adapt to that entirely new space.
- Funding adjustments for Ana and me. It remains to be seen whether Ana can augment our income or if God has other plans with volunteer work or something else. In any case, my level of funding through gifts to my TeachBeyond account, virtually unchanged since 2016, will not provide a sufficient budget for a married couple in 2022 even in Tirana, Albania. For now, I’ve opted to hold off a real fundraising effort, but I feel at liberty to say that we would welcome any additional financial contributions to our TeachBeyond account, even if only for the short term. Here’s a link if you’re interested: https://give.teachbeyond.org/support/nathan-cook/. We know God will provide what is needed for his work, and this may be a fun opportunity for you to consider your partnership in our ministry <smiley face>.
This update letter comes very late, after multiple mini-seasons of major-change this spring and a full summer visiting friends and family in the States. Ana and I deeply appreciate all your involvement, encouragement, and generosity in our lives. You all are participants in what we do here in Tirana. Enjoy the pictures and captions below, which flesh out the past seven months even more so. Take care, and God bless!
-Nate & Ana
Our wedding! Surrounded by friends and family, but mostly friends, our wedding was a smash hit for all involved. It’s remarkable what Ana was able to pull off given the limited time to plan and prepare. Meaningfully, we felt the support of dear friends at key moments in the process. And we were glad to celebrate! Ana stole the show, but I didn’t let her stay out there dancing alone for long! These fantastic images were taken by the talented Jaron Johns whom we were proud to have as our wedding photographer. 
We were able to swing an off-season honeymoon on Capri Island. God blessed us with wonderful weather and a very good time walking around enjoying beautiful scenery and nature. It really did feel like coming out of winter into spring, on many levels. 
It took some work, but we now share an apartment. Weird to not be in a bachelor pad anymore. Here’s us documenting wedding cards from some aspiring artists. Truly, we have been blown away by the abundant love and generosity we’ve received from friends and family celebrating our marriage. Thank you! 
The apartment now feels much more…decorated. 
The show must go on! Classes resume whether or not you’re planning and executing a wedding/honeymoon. My students remained flexible and earnest as I juggled many different tasks this past Spring term in general. 
Moving to a new high school building actually has some real advantages but losing all this green space is definitely a downside. We will miss the little field and trees. 
Here Andy is doing some dynamic Bible teaching in an outdoor chapel, taking advantage of the pleasant orchard while we can. 
I virtually disappeared from Facebook these past couple years, but I posted this image towards the end of the 2021-22 school year to note the education ministry’s finally removing the Covid facemask mandate. It had been…so…long. 
Stormy weather on Mt. Dajti. 
We teach high schoolers, rain or shine, of course. 
Here we have Ana’s Pastor Landi giving a sermon in her church, celebrating 30 years since their founding. We have been attending here somewhat regularly. I still do not know the Albanian language due to my saturation in GDQ’s English-speaking bubble these past six years, so it remains a challenge for us to settle into a church home. Prayers appreciated. 
The school administration decided that all the staff and their families could use some fresh air and financed a little weekend field trip to a nearby ancient ruin, Apollonia. Spring was beautiful this year! 
I took a quick inventory of our Seniors’ predominant feelings as they approached graduation—a cool little lesson I do as a prelude to discussing Buddhism in our Worldviews class. I’ll let you examine how they were feeling… 
Here Miranda makes her traditional pizza lunch for the seniors using her amazing portable pizza stone of Italian make. She is thankfully returning this year to teach chemistry, one of the rare examples of a part-time teacher that continues working at GDQ after her children have graduated. 
The staff at GDQ high school participated in a fundraising campaign for a student’s very important surgery. Here we’re making care packages for sale for the Spring term exam study season to be given as gifts between the students. In these pictures, only Elizabeth (lower left) and I are returning for the new school year. 
Here Andy wraps up Chapel, reading from a very meaningful children’s book for the last time–his personal touch at the end of the school year. 
The pandemic has prevented GDQ high school from having its annual retreat since 2019, but with the restrictions removed we decided to have one at the end of the year in June. It was a catharsis machine. As I write, we are in the process of planning for another retreat next week to resume its normal place at the beginning of the academic year. 
Graduation is much more relaxing when you’re not giving the main speech. This is hopefully the last of three classes to have been significantly affected by the pandemic. 
Back to work, here we have major renovations to the newly acquired high school building on move-in day. Can you feel the upheaval and disorder? It now looks much, much better at the other end of summer. But feel free to tap into that uneasy emotion as you pray for us! 
This quick snapshot gives a taste of the scale of construction and change happening throughout the city of Tirana. This is an older, formerly dilapidated hotel now surrounded by new construction, including huge underground structure building. I don’t know where the money comes from for such projects, or how these facilities will make money going forward, honestly. But the construction surge hasn’t slowed since the Pandemic started. 
Back home in the States for the summer, Ana finally got to meet my sister and her husband. We had round two of our marriage celebration with a fun “BBQ-reception” in my parents’ neighborhood, surrounded by old family friends. 
We proceeded to enjoy a trip south to see my alma mater and some good friends in other states… 
…And then a trip north to see my old Philly home and community of friends in that region. 
More bonding at home. No fan of dogs in general, Ana gave well-mannered, sensitive Tucker a surprising amount of attention while we visited. 
Unfortunately, Emily had a battle with a bacterial infection that required hospitalization due to her chronic POTS for almost two weeks. She even had to have her port removed, setting her back with a painful and exhausting hassle. We’re grateful that the health crisis wasn’t worse, but it was very hard to have her suffer so much. For her part she was really bummed to miss that much hang-out time with us. Please pray for her continued healing from this fiasco, and for her chronic condition in general to greatly decrease. 
Conflict…with a touch of basal cell carcinoma. Thankful for good doctors. 
I have learned much this year, including the importance of good outlet stores selling brand names at significantly reduced prices! 
And Ana has learned much about American history. We enjoy “Hamilton” even more now! 
Politics that affect the world stage. 
Finally some real “veg time” near the end. We accomplished a lot this summer, except maybe that part about getting much rest. 
Flying back to Albania. It’s good to travel with a partner. 
Teacher Orientation week has already begun. Here a staff member and GDQ parent, Hollie, gives a much-needed lesson on self-care. The first day of school with students is this coming Tuesday, August 30. Thank you for your prayers as we jump into a fresh year with a lot of unknowns! I trust God will provide.
Set Your Hope Fully on Christ 