Ripples

Not long after my parents' first few trips to Albania, they were bringing over others (many through the Fellowship of Christian Farmers) who they thought would be interested in the agriculture ministry in Albania.  One of those couples were the Dumms of Missouri.  Ever since their first trip in 1995, like my parents, the Dumms have 'adopted' a village and been returning to Albania every year and bringing groups of their own, many of them returning several times themselves!

Through Mom and Dad I've heard of the Dumms for years but never had the pleasure of meeting them.  This past Friday they brought a team of 16 from their home church to Albania and their first stop was Friday night church in Vlashaj!

I told Mr. Dumm that I liked his JD hat and needed a picture with it him.  You might say farmers sporting green and yellow make me a tad homesick.

The weather was lovely so we met outdoors.  The visiting team led worship.

And afterwards we served refreshments. Someday (maybe when we're finally living in Vlashaj?) we will do better than store-bought cookies, potato chips and popcorn.  In the mean time, it gave everyone an excuse to linger a little longer.

I can't resist beautiful people in gorgeous light. ;-)  Love sweet "A".

Or this irresistibly adorable fella, L.  No doubt he's been on the blog a time or two (or three or four before).  Sometimes I could just put him in my pocket.

Outdoor church was taking place in the midst of a construction mess.  We're in the process of reinforcing the top of the wall and installing a little bit of fencing (to protect some little boys from themselves).

One of these guys (E, below) has also been on the blog a lot, but just LOVES to have his photo taken -- and he's pretty photogenic too.

Mrs. Dumm and two ladies making their first visit here!

In the mean time, back in Tirana we are winding down to the end of school.  The kids finished up their school year early thanks to Abby and Anna, but last week was our last co-op meeting with other home-schooling families.  And now Nathan and I are entering the last few weeks of Shqip II.

We've also been tackling a big list of projects (not all of which are photo-worthy). I've been working on re-vamping our Volunteer Guide for visitors coming to help us here in ministry (it's about a 25-page document with photos -- probably so long it will never get read!).  We also have a homework list of documents we need to create for the mission like creating an emergency evacuation plan and other policy-related necessities when hosting volunteers and other visitors in official capacities.  It's kind of been put on the back burner until classes wrapped up.

Also, since Abby and Anna left, the downstairs apartment has been painted (as well as our bedroom).  Thankfully it's not too expensive to hire painters, and included in that they move all the furniture away from the walls, roll up the carpets and take down the curtains as well as spackle the holes and cracks.  While everything is in the middle of the room, we've repaired cabinets and furniture, replaced broken hardware, tossed out junk, and sent rugs out to be cleaned.  I don't think any of those things have been done down there (at least the painting) in over 10 years! With guests coming to stay in the space next month we have a deadline, which is good!  I'm sure Nathan will be glad when I cease to ask him to pick up the drill and hang another curtain rod or picture on the wall!  But seriously, I'm blessed to have such a handy husband and that a former team was generous enough to leave us some amazing power tools!  We use them ALL the time!

Finally, anticipating that we will be transitioning out to Vlashaj in July, we have started to slowly pack up a few things, mostly sealing up our winter clothing in moisture-proof bags, as well as passing off some of the clothes the children have outgrown.

For those of you still reading -- I'm hoping to get back into my regular pace of blogging another time or two per week soon!

Graduates

It's that time of year when things draw to a close.  My instagram feed has been flooded with photos of graduations from Pre School to University.  We don't have any graduates in our family, but we are losing five friends from the Hope Center as they finish up their high school studies in a few weeks.

We only spent two Saturday afternoons a month with them, but after about 7 months of visits, we'd come a long ways in knowing them better and I am sad we won't see them when the Center re-opens in the fall.  Pam asked me to take photos of the seniors so she could hang an enlargement in the corridor.  It was a beautiful day with lovely sun (after a week of rain!) so I took some headshots too!  Here are some of my favorites!

This guy is just a class or two short of graduating from autoshkolla (driving school).  As we were preparing to leave he jumped behind the wheel of our volkswagen van, and begged to take it for a drive on the highway.  You'd have thought it was a sports car.  Don't worry, he never got the keys! ;-)

When we arranged to begin visiting the Center, I inwardly wondered if we had it in us to add one more thing to our plate.  I would have missed such a blessing had we not gone!

Friends, bekime!

Somedays it's okay...

to splash in puddles...

The experiences I forget Reni doesn't get to enjoy as much...

...  present themselves as opportunites... so we all stop and watch.

Go Reni-boy.  Be a BOY and get those pants wet!

On our way to coffee with the Hope Center youth Saturday afternoon.

We all stopped and watched.

Beautiful Albania | Gjirokaster and the Vjosa River Valley

They're leaving Friday.  Eight months gone like that!  We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Anna and Abby for spending their first year after graduation preparing for and coming to Albania to serve us and the kiddos.  They turned down job offers in the States to live in an old "commy condo" with no luxuries like a microwave or central heat in the heart of the concrete jungle of Tirana -- and all for no salary.

We spent a few days between Christmas and New Year's to go to the North, but other than that trip to Shkodra, the girls' exposure to Albania has been somewhat limited to what we experience during the day-in and day-out of life in Tirana or the village.  Before they left, we wanted to take them on a 'thank you' trip to see more of this beautiful country, as well as have some time to rest after a busy winter and spring and make some fun memories before saying 'goodbye'.

Here are some photos from our favorite places along the way...

Even on cloudy days, the views are still breath taking (looking west, getting a glimpse of the sea, south of Vlora) as we climb over the first of many mountain passes.

Here is me by the same sign, 10 years ago:

Can you tell how windy and chilly it was at the top of the pass?  Can you see the clouds rolling in over the mountains behind us?

Nathan and I at the same spot, on a warmer, sunnier day in 2004... you can get a hint of the turquoise waters of the Ionian Sea (or as they call it here, Deti Jon).

As we drove south along the coast, we saw a lot fewer mosques and a lot more Orthodox churches...

Albania is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites and on this trip south we saw two of them!  Gjirokaster is famous as the birthplace of the infamous dictator, Enver Hoxha.  But it's also known for it's narrow, cobblestone streets and slate roofs.  We just might have stayed overnight at one of these restored antique homes (below).  A real treat and departure from the usual modern motel/hotel in this country.  It had hardwood floors and hand-crocheted lace curtains instead of the typical ceramic tile floors and slider drapes.  Oh!  And homemade donuts and fig jam next to a steaming teapot of mountain tea for breakfast! (All for about the price of what it cost to stay in a guestroom at the student center in Wilmore).

I was not prepared for the massive size of the castle at Gjirokaster.  Anyone who has ever visited the many castle ruins around central Albania (and there are MANY), you ain't seen nothin'.  This was used as a prison up through communist times.  And no, that's not Ellie, that's Anna (to show scale).

Shot this out the car window -- love the detail in the stone street pattern.  We definitely want to go back and spend a bit more time here someday!  

We were told about hot springs "somewhere around Permet".  We looked online to no avail.  Nothin' on Google maps showing the name of the village we had been given.   When all else fails?  Humble yourself and ask directions of someone on the street.  

Incidentally, Nathan inquired about buying a map in one place and apparently the shopkeeper didn't expect to hear Albanian because Nathan heard her tell her daughter, "I don't know what he just said, I think he's Italian."  At another place, someone else asked him if he was Greek, and the innkeeper at one hotel asked if I was French!  In each case we were speaking Albanian.  Thankfully, when we repeated ourselves, we were understood -- maybe the dialect was different enough?  I don't know.  Regardless, it was empowering to travel this time and have reasonable language skills to communicate our needs and understand a good deal of what was being said to us.  On days like today where our class literally had our teacher raising her voice in frustration with us, I have to remind myself, "I could not have done this 8 months ago, much less 4 months ago."

That being said, we asked directions and found the hot springs!  Thanks to a Swiss development project, the primary spring was dammed up, making a semi-warm pool for swimming.  It was accompanied by a sign declaring the water's curative effects.

Had I known the only way to access it was to cross this old Ottoman Bridge, I may have had second thoughts...

I'm not sure the photo does justice to the height of the bridge, nor how narrow it felt holding Ellie's hand while a stream of boys on bicycles passed us.   Did I mention how rapidly the water was flowing below?  Recipe for vertigo if I ever could devise one... that's right.  No guard rails.

We saw a lot of these.  As well as donkeys, goats, and cows.

Though the roads are pretty well-marked and we could have gotten by without GPS, I thought you should see just how curvy the roads are:

And we were reminded again how a country the size of Maryland can feel like it's the size of Texas.

But, we were rewarded with views like this (and I'm not talking about the two people in the middle).

I wish I could remember what Nathan said to Abby here...

It was really rejuvenating for the soul -- to get away from the dense-ness of Tirana, the barrage of billboards and advertisements (on anything that sits still long enough to be read), the accompanying noise, litter, construction and un-finished buildings... It gave us a fresh perspective and a different view of this place we now call home.

Tracing back to the beginning ...

As our family waits on the cusp of moving to the village in a few short months, we know there are a lot of people who have worked over the years to make this possible.  From the generous, faithful friends who support us every month to be here, to the folks who cover us in prayer, to our Albanian friends and colleagues who make sure we're legal on the road to drive there and help us communicate where our language skills are lacking...

It might be easy to forget that we wouldn't even be dreaming of moving to Vl*sh if it wasn't for a kind-hearted woman opening her home to Planters fifteen years ago this month.  You may not know that the thriving children's club that meets every Saturday originally started as a gathering by a spring.  As that little group grew, a larger space was needed and at personal risk Ms. B opened up her front yard, then eventually her home, to foreigners and 'their religion'.

Circumstances in her life turned out in ways that she probably never could have imagined and she had to leave the village with a portion of her family and made a new home in the big port city of Durres.  With no husband to protect or provide, life has been more than challenging.  But a few folks haven't forgotten Ms. B's generosity in literally opening her gates (and thus her village) to the Gospel message.

On Good Friday Mandi and I had the privilege of delivering some practical goods to Ms B, her daughter, and granddaughter.  We are thankful for some specific partners in America who have visited Albania on short-term teams, know these stories and needs, and faithfully sent a gift so we can show Ms B in a very small way that God has not forgotten them, He hears, and He cares.