Busy, busy, busy

Today was a scurry of activity all up and down the main street in Vlashi. Joe had tons of fun in the tractor leveling out the new gravel for the street. He did a great job and no one can recognize it as the old street in front of the ministry center. I captured a picture or two of other little busy helpers doing their special contribution for today's work. I am also including some pictures of Hannah. She had a big birthday yesterday and also she has had fun handing out special treats to the children. Tomorrow will be our last day since we are leaving early on Sunday morning. I am so amazed how fast time flies over here.

Visiting

Hands down, home visits are the favorite activity of our guests. It has been our privilege to go on many home visits during the past several days. Today we were in Darshen and it was a bit chilly but yet a beautiful sunny day for a January visit. The pictures taken were a mix of activities with a rare scene of one set of sisters making the raki (Albanian moonshine) for their family. We checked on the local livestock (David standing alongside the cow shed) and also I included a picture of today's children meeting time with Xhina telling the story of Abraham and Isaac. The last picture is of Genti and Shpresa modeling a traditional wedding costume. One of the ladies in Vlashi is starting a business of selling the traditonal costumes to brides of today that wish to celebrate their hertiage with a newly handmade wedding dress. (By the way, just the wedding dress sells for 350 Euros) It takes the seamstress about 2 weeks to make just the dress. If anyone is interested in buying one she is taking orders!

It's great to be back and visiting the work here in Albania. Since arriving on Thursday afternoon, we have been making arrangements to get some work projects in order. Hopefully, Monday we will begin work in Vlashi to reconstruct a drainage ditch to re-route the rain water that comes down from the hills behind the village. Joe and Judy Bachman from Roanoke, Illinois are visiting with us and Joe will oversee the construct that will take place. Today, Joe and Judy visited the English and computer classes. The weather has been great with the sun shining and temperatures in the mid 60's. Let's hope this continues still the project is completed.

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.)