City Life

It never ceases to amaze me how sharp the contrast is from rural Green Valley to life here in the big city of Tirana. Even though Tirana doesn't claim to be Singapore, New York City, or even Rome, nonetheless, living in an apartment building with people watching every move we make going here and there and just walking to buy milk and bread is a novelty for the old country girl. Today Vera and I made plans to go to the newest place of business in our neighborhood. I will have to say it was way over the top for Tirana, let alone for something like this to be in our quiet neighborhood. We now have a carry-out "restaurant" just at the end of our parking area that has prepared food entrees for customers to come and pick out for carry-out. I would compare it to a "Boston Market" type of food service. It is fantastic! The owners have been living in Italy for 15 years and have learned this kind of food service and are now bringing it to Albania. We have come a long way. We still are waiting for the first American fast food chain to come and when that happens we probably will say it is time to leave. Albania is no fun anymore.

The other photo is of one of our grocers in the neighborhood. We generally buy our milk, water, eggs and small things here.

Yesterday I mentioned that I would comment on a bit of my conversation with Genti and Shpresa. Just a quick highlight with the girls in the village... One of the girls just left for Italy this week rather suddenly. Bruna, had been engaged for 5 years and her fiance was in Italy for all of this time and never seemed to follow through with his desire to get the papers for her to join him. But this week he showed up and she was gone! Shpresa was so surprised. This is very common with many of these girls. They get engaged and then sit and wait at home for years. The classes are going well and the girls are asking for another session of English each week. It is not a problem for the teacher. Just to increase another class it takes over 50% of the monthly budget just for the English teacher. We will need to do some more figuring to see what our decision will be. Tonight was going to be another class for cooking and then when they are sampling the treat for the class, Shpresa focuses their discussion on matters of the heart. These discussions have been very nice for the girls to open up and to share their concerns and life issues. Praise God for these opportunities that are paving the way for open doors.

Hospitality and Housekeeping

It goes without saying, "Albania is the land of hospitality." So it would be fitting to start off the week's work with some good tea and cookies with our great sister in Christ and best neighbor of all, Vera. No one leaves Vera's apartment without having to eat something and so this picture of Vera is not an exception...it is the rule. Then, this afternoon another opportunity came to entertain Genti and Shpresa and heat up the tea pot and crank out a batch of brownies. Of course, this makes catching up on the latest news from the village an absolute pleasure. In tomorrow's blog I'll share with you some of this news.

In between tea and cookies, I managed to get in some housekeeping duties. We started a project on our first floor ministry center last November. We decided to make our office area more efficient and condense our 3 room office into a 2 room office. With the extra room that we now have available, we are making another guest suite for visitors to use. This area has a bedroom with a king bed, a bathroom, a sitting room with table and chairs, pull out sofa and a mini-sized kitchen for quickie meals. My job was to get the floors clean, things put away, hang the curtains, put the furniture in order and to put down the rugs. There is nothing better than the satisfaction of seeing chaos turn into an orderly living space.

It's My Turn Now (to go to Albania)

Right now, I've been up for 30 straight hours and so it is probably not recommended that I should being writing a blog entry. Nevertheless, I thought it would be a great way to let everyone know that I arrived safely, back here in Albania. David and Hannah will be joining me in a week. After packing the last couple of days all of the supplies that have been requested, watching the radar screens of all of the bad weather going on in Chicago, and wondering if we would make it without getting stuck somewhere between here and the airport, we decided to leave early Sunday morning and see what would happen. No we didn't end up in a snow bank on the side of the road but after watching them de-icing the plane I was greatly relieved when we pushed away from the jetway and made our way out to the runways and finally off the ground. We were a bit delayed but I made it just fine to Milan (mind you without any in-service entertainment features working) with 10 minutes to spare before boarding the next flight bound for Tirana. It was good to see all of the bags going around on the carousel, to get them loaded up and out the door, and to see Mandi waiting to take me on in to Tirana. At the moment my head is feeling like it is floating unattached to the rest of my body. If only I can make it just 2 more hours, maybe the jet lag will work itself out and tomorrow I can operate close to a regular scheduled day.

Mountain Angels

Driving on an Albanian highway is always treacherous. Asking for your prayers for our safety when we are on the highways has never been taken lightly. The reason for this was brought to light through the email we received a few days ago from our driver, Mandi. It was on his way home from the mountain village of Darshen where he, his wife, Xhina, and his daughter, Darla go every Wednesday to meet with the children for their weekly kid's Bible class,. Angels cared for them on their journey on the winding mountain road that hugs the side of the rocky cliffs. One of the jeep's tire blew out and the vehicle went out of control. The jeep could have gone either right or left but on this occasion, the vehicle went right-the side of the rocky mountain side and not left-off the side of the mountain road. The jeep was smashed in several places, the wheel got bent up, the back window glass broke out, but passengers received only bruises and a narrow escape. Praise God for his protection and guiding hand.

Returning Home

Valentine's Day was a traveling day for David. Departure time from our Tirana apartment was 4 in the morning (9:00 p.m. Illinois time) to start the journey to Milan and then off for Chicago. But since Illinois was getting hit with a blizzard, the plane which was bound for Milan, was unable to leave Chicago. That made getting another plane ready to go from Milan, 3 hours late, thereby causing David to miss the bus connection in Chicago, for the 3 0'clock pick-up time to make it back to Bloomington at the right time. It wasn't until 11:00 p.m.(now 26 hours later) that arriving at home was made possible. And so it goes, in the life of being a traveling missionary. Upon arriving at home, there were other hurdles to cross over, such as 3 foot snow drifts. The 4-wheel drive truck had to be parked out by the road and suitcases were carried over the drifts to get to the house.
The next day was spent digging and blowing out all the snow in the drive and around the house so we could get out the doors and also to get out the car which was hostage in the garage.
There will be 2 short weeks in Illinois to get all the final plans for spring planting season done before returning for the last winter stint in Albania. There are a few more seed corn contracts to get signed, chemicals to get ordered, bills to pay, and many other little items far too numerous to mention.

First Planting

Firsts are always fun but sometimes can be intimidating. This is one of those firsts. It feels like we are in uncharted waters and so please bear with us. Our desire that places this all in motion is to share God's passion that is in our hearts for the work that He has placed before us. The best part of this is to know that we are not alone in this work. God has given us great people to partner with us and for you we are so grateful. Our hope is not to bore you with too many details. Keeping things short and interesting is our motto. Photos will be our guiding force and focus. And so welcome and thanks for showing support with our first edition.