in the news...

Our thoughts and prayers are in Albania today.  Yesterday 3 buses of university students left Elbasan (the city where Reni's former orphanage is located) to go an excursion to Saranda, a beautiful seaside town in southern Albania.  Before reaching it's destination one of the buses plunged off the mountain road, killing at least a dozen and critically injuring a couple of dozen more.

Dorina and Kerri

One of those who died, Dorina, was a youth from Kerri's small church, and another from her church is in the hospital in Vlore (you may remember Kerri as our S African missionary friend whom we met shortly after arriving in Elbasan in 2010 and then who served as an invaluable translator in February when we had our reunion with Reni's caregiver, Duzi).

Having driven that same road a couple of times and seeing the images online, we can't imagine how anyone in that bus survived.  Please pray for Kerri as she ministers to those in her church who are hurting.

In Europe's second most mountainous country -- a place where the infrastructure still has a long ways to go in connecting cities with safer, wider multi-lane highways, prayer requests by those who live and travel there for safety on the road are requests made with all sincerity. Sadly, during two of my last three visits to Albania, similar accidents involving buses on mountain roads took place.

Click here to read more about the accident.