What Happens Next

In case some of you were wondering, what do we do when we are not in Albania, here will be some news of what is done on a continual basis that is necessary for the work of Planters. One of the first things we really enjoy is putting all of our pictures in a useful format. That means to copy about 500 pictures on a DVD and have them ready to use for a future power point, newsletter, or any other media presentation. Besides, David needs to get his memory sticks cleaned off now that he is confident that his pictures are safely preserved.

Saying Goodbye

All of us have now packed our bags, made the journey over the blue sea of the Atlantic, and returned back to the schedule of normal life duties. We have so much to praise the Lord for all of his abundant blessings and answers to prayer. Although some of us have brought more back with us than we would have liked, namely coughs and running noses, our health was flawless and schedules were not interrupted. The planned events were more than successful with results exceeding our expectations. The time we spent with the workers, Mandi and Xhina, Genti and Shpresa, Arjan, Eldina, Klara, Mersin, Nori, and Lela was extremely rewarding. As usual, words can seldom express the feelings of leaving these dear ones behind to be on the front line of the dark battle. But now our role takes a course that stands invisible-- alongside. Through our prayers we join in with this dark battle supporting our commrades, lifting up their efforts. We must never forget the people whose souls depend on our prayers.

Florida Team Finishing Up

It is early Sunday morning and the last team members are now flying back to the west. The last two days were great getting to know the village lifestyle and connecting in special ways. Friday evening we hosted a reception for the village. Part of the activities was an exchange in traditional folk dances. In the picture, some of the team members were trying their foot work out in the Albanian folk dance. We Americans, also displayed one of our folk dances, "The Virginia Reel", to the Albanians. We felt like we had stepped back in time as we clapped and stomped our feet to the music of "Turkey in the Straw". The Albanians laughed and it must have been funny to see us "swinging our partners" left and right. One of the other activities was to do a community improvement project. Randy Reid, the county manager for the Gainsville, Fl, area, had two signs made with the village name to put up on the main village road. In the picture is Connie (Randy's wife) with the mayor of Vlashaj. I also wanted to add another picture of a home visit with the team.

Too Tired for Photos

We are now on day 5 of none stop activity and tonight we are too tired for photos. We did a bit of historical perspective on the country of Albania and saw the country's most popular historical site of Kruja. From there we went to the children's meeting at Kasalle. The children performed a drama for us which was very well done. It was extremely touching to witness their enthusiasm inspite of the living conditions. The children's desire to learn is so refreshing. Then this evening we really enjoyed having a dinner guest, Alfred Nurja, otherwise known to us as "Tall Freddie". He joined Planters Seed way back in the mid-nineties and went to the village visits with us. Now he has gone on to much larger pastures and currently is working as translator for the American ambassador. He entertained us with his stories and perspective from the "insider" view. We are now busy packing up things to take to the village where we will be until Saturday evening. The team will be leaving in the early evening. The next day and a half are packed with many events and we will get that info off to you upon returning back to the computer and internet. This is it until then.

At the Heart of it All

Probably the heart of it all is doing visits in the Albanian home. What a wonderful time we had going to three houses today in the village. Questions and answers were flying everywhere and delicious treats were the common bond that connected the hostess with her guests. Later in the afternoon we got to meet with the girls and Connie did a great cooking lesson on preparing cookies. Jenn also showed the girls how to make gospel braclets along with giving the message of the meaning for each bead that was used. Here are added some pictures that were taken yesterday that didn't get included because the day was too long and time ran out to get them on the blog. The pictures of the puppets were taken while practicing along the roadside.

Day on the mountain

It was a whirlwind of events for our day visiting the people in the village of Darshen. The following photos are of visiting the school, a home visit and children playing games for the weekly children's meeting. We had a beautiful day with a lunch and puppet practice along the mountain road.

Vlashi Visits

We began our day's visits to the village kindergarten. Diane, a teacher, brought her puppet, Ellie the Elephant to tell the Bible story to the children. Next the group made their first home visit. Photo books are always a hit for conversation and interest for all. We ended the afternoon with a tea reception with the girls that attend the vocational training classes. It was a time of introductions and questions with the girls and sharing ideas for their futures. Many new things were learned about village customs and living.

Florida Team Arrives

It was an airport day with the arrival of the team from Gainsville, Florida. They will be spending a short week with us visiting the villages and participating in the weekly activities that go on here. We will try to do our best to keep a daily entry for each day's events. It was about 4:00 before we made it back to the ministry center in Tirana. After getting acclimated to the set-up of where everyone would be staying and going over short details of the two day's journey, we then jumped in with a visit to our neighbor Vera's home. She is a wonderful way to get initiated into the genuine way of hospitality of the Albanian style and practice. She had many treats that were enjoyed by all. Most of all her history and life-story kept everyone enlightened in regards to the past situations that existed just a short 20 years ago. As Americans we couldn't help but say, "We had no idea what was going on." Her praise through her past is that it paved the way for her to believe in the only truth and hope for her eternal future.

Spring Cleaning

As a general rule Albanians clean every Sunday morning. The loud thuds from the rugs as they surrender their last weeks residue of dust and foot traffic give in to the persistent beat of a forceful housekeeper. There's no doubt that these homes are kept weekly.

Americans, on the other hand, tend to do their house cleanings seasonally and our spring cleaning at the ministry center in Vlashi has been thrown into full steam ahead. With piles of papers and bits of boards it was time to have a roaring good fire in the back yard. I had to play a bit of Mark Twain to get the boys to help with the cleaning process. "I bet you guys can't build a fire and make smoke." This challenge was a bit more than some of them could stand and before long I had columns of boys marching with armfuls of trash towards the selected spot. A few got wise to the adoptive process and heckled from the sidelines but for the most part as the picture shows, there still is a bit of pride in a young boy's life

March 8 - Women's Day Celebration

Today was the day for great celebrating for the women of Albania. This is one day of the year that the woman gets to leave the home and get out and kick up some heel! The saying is: "Ha,pi,hopa"! (eat, drink and dance) That is what is illustrated in today's photos. I was invited to attend the celebration of the women of Vlashi and nearby village of Maminas. In the village restaurant there must have been about 200 women. Did they ever have a good time! The dancing pictures are showing some of their traditional style of dancing. My main surprise was the wide range of ages that joined in the festivities. The photos can never tell you the volume of the music or show the real expressions of laughter and gaiety. It will be a day that I'll never forget.

Just Three of the Legs for Better Living

During Communism the only stable commodity besides depression was Albania's bread. It seems around every corner one can find a bread store. Not only adding stability to the menu of its people, sixteen years ago it added some of the basic nutrition that people needed. We have one down the street that sells a very decent European style of bread, muffins, and rolls. One thing lacking in its bread is the Albanian preservatives. So you have to buy little and often. I stepped into a transaction with a gentleman who has obviously eaten more bread than I.
Another aspect of Albanian advancing life, is of its health care. Sarah gets checked out by our village nurse, good friend Fatmira. Our supporters chipped in and enabled us to equip the village office, nuts to bolts, I should say needles to tongue depressors.
The third leg of the new Albanian standard of living is the influx of capital. It comes in many ways but the most personal to us are the dollars carried over and exchanged into Albanian "leke" for our purchasing needs. Yesterday we had Mandi help us in the counting of the money for the downpayment for the latest property purchase in Vlashi.

Made in China

Everybody in America is touched by the country of China. Indirectly, we come in contact with many goods the Chinese produce. A trip to Walmart can give the average American 29 products from China in his shopping cart. In fact, many of the essential facets of our daily life are satisfied by this country.
We have come in contact with a direct link to China through our visit last night to a restaurant in our neighborhood and met a waitress from, you guessed it, China. Grace Wang had some extra time and was able to sit down with us and share a bit of her history. She is an exchange student who is studying the Albanian language and wants to become a librarian. We were impressed how well she can speak Albanian and then she mentioned she studied Albanian in China for 2 years. This fact really surprised us not knowing of any country in the world that offers Albanian as a language choice for study. The photo also includes our friend Vera, who was joining us for dinner.

Remodeling in the Village

Our day began with a stop at the paint store to take to the village for our painter named Schpot(what a great name for a painter)! He will be "sprucing" up our meeting room in the ministry center in Vlashi. While Schpot was working in the main room, we also had the cabinet workers installing the kitchen in the classroom that will be used in the cooking and nutrition classes. It was a busy place to be today. I can't wait to get the water functioning and the supplies in place so that it will be ready for use next week when we have a guest demonstrator coming with the Florida team. I think we will be learning how to make Minestrone Soup, Moo Goo chicken, and Ranger Cookies. Be sure for plenty of pictures for this event.

Sunday's Scenes

Well, the travelers arrived safe and sound and were even a bit early. There was a big crowd at the airport and so our picture had to be taken on the run. It was one of those fortunate trips where all the bags arrived too!. The picture of the building is where we go to church when we are in Tirana. It has a bit of interesting history to it. This is where the former Communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, had his offices and claimed his country to be completely athestic. Now there is a computer and English school run at this facility as well as church offices and Sunday services. I was able to attend the early service before heading out to the airport. Today was a first for me...Mandi let me drive to the airport. It wasn't too bad. Mandi gave me pointers on how to weave and wiggle through 4 lanes of merging cars and buses to get through the roundabouts. Anyway, there were not scraps or scratches and I just got honked at once! Oh, and by the way, it was around 70 degrees here today. For those who left in the snow, it was quite a change.

All in a Day

Saturday is always a busy day in the village. I will tell the story mainly through the photos. It was hard to decide which ones to choose and narrow down. I'm afraid there will be many and so I will try to just give captions for them.

1. computer class with teacher Mersin


2. Grammar II English class


3. Grammar II English class (Anseida learning irregular verb endings)



4. one of the little children coloring during the meeting today


5. donkey traffic on main street in the village



6. drawing up the sketch for cabinets for the sewing supplies with Freddie and Mandi at the cabinet store


7. shoe store down the street

Relationships

This best part of being in Albania is the privilege to talk with people and to encourage them and to share what Christ has been doing in our lives. This morning Eldina, one of our team leaders, and I took the time to have"a coffee" (tea in this case). Eldina has been part of Planters for around 10 years now. God has blessed Planters with individuals that have been committed to the work and have remained faithful. We praise God for this so much. Later today I was in the village and saw the Center alive with activites. There were English classes in session. They were taking a test on antonyms and so I didn't interrupt the class with a picture. Volleyball games were playing in the front yard and a discipleship class was celebrating a birthday with some refreshments. I am including some pictures of the kids. What a wonderful feeling it is when we get to see the plan of God in action and His ministry being carried forth.

Kasalle Kid's Club

Thursday is the day for the team to have the children's meeting in Kasalle. The pictures should tell the story of several of the activites. For the younger children's meeting there must have been around 50 little ones all crammed body to body sitting on a wooden bench turned on its side. The room is just ruff cement and there are no closed in windows. They meet in an unfinished building every week. The older children (the group picture) had their Bible study in the book of Matthew, chapter 26, which tells the story of Jesus' betrayal and trial, and the younger ones learned about the cloud of fire over the tabernacle for the Israelites in the desert. The village where the children live(as you can see in the pictures) is sparse and rather primitive. God really warms my heart when I hear them singing, "Our God is an Awesome God" with smiles on their faces.