Last Post from Tirana

This will be my last post from Tirana for awhile. I will be going home in order to celebrate Christmas with family. Lindsey and I will leave on the early morning flights and so will probably not go to bed tonight.
It has been a great time these past days that have been filled full of many activities. We have been so blessed to have the workers that we do and at this time of year we are so grateful for this wonderful blessing from God to know that things are going well and that the ministry goes forth on a daily and weekly basis from village to village. Please keep these devoted workers in your prayers. They face a spiritual battle continually.
Bye for now.

A Little Bit of Everything

I was not able to get anything posted yesterday because the internet server was acting up and it was not available. So I am going to include some photos of last night's service in the village and also a picture of a home visit that we made to one of the girls from the training center who is getting married tomorrow. Some of our guests that were here last March may remember Viktoria, the young lady who had 24 hours to make a decision whether or not to marry the guy that her parents had picked out for her. After saying yes, he has been in Italy for several years and at our visit, last March with her, she was having grave doubts about their relationship and future. Well, yesterday I heard she indeed was marrying this weekend and would now have the wedding ceremony and then he would be off again to Italy and she will be now living with her new in-laws. What does one say to all of this? In the picture she is showing us her gifts to her new family. I really enjoy learning all about such different customs when it comes to marriage.

This morning was the annual Christmas program with the children. It was vintage with the drama, puppet show, special music and reception time. I included a picture of the team. Some of you will notice some new faces. One girl in the middle is Arjan's wife and she is a professional musician and was helping out today and the girl on the right is new and is taking the place of Klara for several months while she is taking some time off.

Kasalle visit

We had a great time in Kasalle this afternoon. The children were very excited knowing that Christmas celebrating was in the air. We had a drama illustrating the story of the "Three Trees" and a recitation by three little ones. There also were refreshments and gifts! The last picture is of one of the latest constructed homes in the village.

Mountain Events

"Off to the mountain we will go...." was our motto for the day. It included spending time with a special visitor, Marinela who is in town comg back from her new home in South Africa, doing the children's meeting in the village and having a great home visit with some special ladies. As planned, we also, passed out the gifts bags to the children. The children enjoyed making a treat by decorating a graham cracker and loading it with candies. I didn't know that Marinela was going to come to the village with us and so when she joined us, we spent all the trip up the mountain catching up on her latest events including her new status as "Mommy to be". She worked with us for several years and now is teaching flute to students and also playing professional flute for symphony performances. Lindsey had quite a day seeing all the sights and experiencing village life in the mountains. She told me that she took 104 pictures today. (I apologize for these thoughts sounding so random.)

It's the time of giving

This is the last week of children's meetings and so we spent well over 4 hours packaging bags of goodies to give the children. Lindsey, our guest from Tennessee, brought 3 suitcases of gifts to give to the village children. Tomorrow we are going to the mountain village of Darshen and are looking forward to having a great Christmas party.

I think we counted around 120 bags.

Conversation and Crafts

We were in the village from Sunday to last evening. It was about as close to camping without sleeping outdoors. We were without water, lights for six hours and limited gas for cooking. We made it but was glad to see Tirana again and to get cleaned up and fed. These inconvienences are minor compared to the great time we had visiting with the women and young ladies in the village. We went to five homes to visit and we had a "craft party" with the girls. It was so much fun learning more about the village ways and having the opportunity to share the love of Christ that we have in our hearts for these people. Tomorrow is the mountain village day and I hope to have many pictures for you.

Can You Believe It....Snow in Tirana???

Can you believe it was snowing tonight in Tirana. We went to Saturday night church and stopped to eat a bowl of soup and coming out of the restaurant....there as big as you please, the snowflakes were falling. It was another case of never go out the door without your camera. I was so glad I had my camera. Vera said that it has been 10 years since there has been snow in Tirana. I know it is suppose to be snowing today in Illinois and this is nothing in comparison to six inches, but it was extra special to be walking down the street with the snowflakes falling all around. It made home seem not so far away.

Friday evening in the village

Yes, the baton was handed off and so now David is on the farm in Illinois and I am here in Albania. I arrived yesterday and thought I had landed in another world. I had left an ice storm and came here to nearly 50 degree weather and sunshine. This is going to be a real quick time in order to get back to join the family for Christmas. There is a host of activities to accomplish before then and so I will try to track all of it and share with you the latest events of the ministry. At noon today Mandi and I went back to the airport to pick up our visitor, Lindsey from Tennesee. This is her first trip to Albania and so it is fun to hear her comments and perspective of this unique country. Then latter we went to Vlashi to check out the Friday classes and activities. The ministry was busy with many English students. We were so grateful to have the electricity come on just as the sun was setting and didn't have to hold classes by candle light.