Kingdom-Style Recycling

(by Nathan)


For the first year our family is in Albania, we will be living in Planter's Seed Foundation's second floor guest apartment in Tirana. It is a familiar space for us as we stayed there during the adoptions of both Elisona and Reni, as well as pretty much every other visit since 2003. While the apartment has been great for short stays, last February as we walked through it again thinking about being there as a family for our first year of language study, we began to consider ways it might need outfitted for longer-term family living. We have already shared about the installation of the interior stairwell (that will be huge blessing with Reni), but the other need was adapting the kitchen for a family's needs, as well as teams and guests that will also use the space after we move to the village. 

It was indeed a kitchen made for a bachelor (the previous owner) and not for a family that anticipates a lot of hosting and entertaining for ministry. The cabinets were sufficient to hold the basics, but not the tableware,  cookware, and pantry items for feeding groups. The only food prep space was a lone 18 inches of counter top, already fully occupied by a microwave (about the only part of the kitchen regularly used). With a plan that had been percolating for nearly ten years in (mom) Sarah's head, this fall the guest apartment kitchen got an update. What a blessing it will be to enjoy the fruits of her design and space-planning skills as we extend hospitality to all of those the Lord brings across our path!

new cooktop in the guest apartment

Some of our long-time blog readers will remember our Tirana neighbor, Vera. She is a sweet Believer who lives in the adjacent building. This fall Vera lost her brother and last living immediate relative. Her family was persecuted under Communism, and she limps from a hip injury she sustained as a young woman, but she has the love and JOY of the Lord in her life! More than once, she has literally given the coat off her back to someone who was in need. It wasn't a hard decision to pass along the 'old' kitchen to her when the time came.

Vera with her 'new' stove

In November a church team from Vermont arrived to assist with the stairs and kitchen projects. After removing the compact kitchen unit from our apartment, they modified the pieces to fit in Vera's existing space and performed some long-needed home repairs for her. The result is a kitchen with a full stove instead of a glorified toaster oven. Electric and gas burners now give Vera the ability to cook when the electricity is on or off, and a small hot water heater gives her hot water in her kitchen sink for the first time! Leave it to God to use the leftovers from one blessing to bless someone else!

K and M with their Mother

On the other side of the city, a widow with two teenage girls and an adult son have recently moved from the village of Darshen seeking a better life in the city.  On the last Sunday of our visit, my father-in-law David and I had the privilege of going with our colleague, Mondi, to visit this special family .  It was the first time we had seen them since our visit to the mountains last February, and it was good to see that overall they were  happy with their decision to move. Life isn't easy though. The girls work at a factory making Italian-label suits for $6 a day. They walk the 3 miles, one way, to work six days a week,  rain or shine. They found a nice remodeled two bedroom apartment that they all share. It is clean and dry compared to their mountain village home, but the electric heater "isn't quite as warm" as their old wood stove. The mother misses the quiet and her daughters the sheep, but they are thankful to have a job that covers the rent.  

Dad and Mandi unloading Vera's former stove which will be given to K, M and their mother...

Their kitchen has a cutout for a stove but it is empty. A single burner hotplate sits on the floor where the stove was meant to sit. Cooking for four on that hotplate has been another adjustment. Mondi noticed this on an earlier home visit, so instead of retiring Vera's toaster oven/3-burner hotplate, he thought it could have a new life with a deserving family!  Yet another ripple in God's chain of blessing!

that's Vera's former combination toaster oven/hot plate on the right.

I wonder where the single burner will end up?