Just thinking... | Technology, Relationships and Assimilating Into a New Place

This morning Nathan cited an article he read online about how technology has enabled people to renew and/or maintain relationships from times bygone.  I know, I know. Nothing new there.  Just look at the number of Baby Boomers taking over Facebook.

What got me thinking was what the article said next: the ability to maintain old relationships is inhibiting individuals in new communities from developing new, viable, meaningful friendships.  

In other words, after a move, individuals nowadays are taking longer to create new relationships in their new location because technology has allowed them to stay in contact with old friends, thus filling what would have been a relationship void.

Of course everything we read we try to view through the lens of our circumstances as expatriates, as missionaries serving cross culturally.  Nathan and I had to ask ourselves, have we let technology diminish our ability to cultivate meaningful relationships with those whom we've come to love and serve? I think in our position its easy to use the excuse that our yet-developing language skills prevent us from exchanging heart-to-heart conversations with our new friends and instead double-click on Skype or open up Voxer to share that concern with a friend or family member across the ocean instead.

Then Nathan went on to point out the effect of technology on our media consumption.  When he was a child living in Africa, he remembered his aunt and uncle sending him audio cassette recordings of episodes of the tv show Dukes of Hazzard.  Just a few years ago expats would re-watch favorite movies from a limited personal collection of English-speaking films and swap with other missionary friends.  Now, in an era of high-speed internet and VPNs there is no limit to what we want to view. We could easily create our little American bubble in our home where we exclusively listen live to our home radio stations (thank you, I Heart Radio), stream American music (love you, Pandora!), or watch Hulu and Netflix (oh my goodness they now carry HGTV shows!). And if we are still missing something from those services we can always purchase and download a movie or episode from Amazon or iTunes and even watch live television thanks to Slingbox.  

All of it points to more and more challenges to living a life with two feet firmly planted in Albania.  To be sure, it's not inherently bad, but where does the balance in the tension lie?  I have no answers.  Just thinking as I go off to teach English...

15th Anniversary party!

Last Friday night we celebrated 15 years of service in our village!  It was a really special night with lots of special guests, including some folks we haven't seen in a really, really long time!

The house was packed, and I don't know that we could have squeezed another person in there! It was a special evening to publicly thank God for all he has done in this place and in this village and I was so glad my parents got to experience the evening before they left.  They won't be back in Albania again for several months.

Preparations for the celebration started earlier in the day with food prep.  Arjan also arranged to have some risers brought in to maximize the space for seating and optimal viewing.

I knew it was going to be standing-room-only when I snapped this photo 5 minutes before starting time and all of the seats were occupied!

Mom was surprised with flowers...

I snuck out to prepare plates of refreshments.  We made 90 and they were all taken, plus none of our family nor any of the staff got any so we know we had more than 100 in attendance! (We thought maybe 60-70 would come)...

In case you're wondering what you serve at events like this... we served deli turkey and cheese roll-ups, Doritos, cheese and stuffed olives on toothpicks, and a piece of cake.

So thankful for a kitchen space to prepare everything!

After the program (which included messages from Genti, Nathan, my Mom and Dad), we served the food and ran a slideshow of over 150 photos from the past 15 years.

We were able to have a little receiving line where Dad and Mom could thank everyone for coming, including former staff we haven't seen in years!

A reflection of how nostalgic the evening felt was how long folks lingered afterwards to visit.
Eda told me, "The old gang is here tonight!"

snapping a photo of a photo of himself...taken 12 years ago!

In between the messages, we shared this brief 2 minute video of images chronicling the early days of Planters work in Vlash, starting off with child evangelism on the hillside by the village spring.  It was fun to hear the laughs as friends recognized younger versions of themselves in the photos!

Gigi and Gjyshe's February visit

After many days of counting down and a 1-day delay due to mechanical problems they were finally here!

I don't know what it is, but we rarely have any down time around my family, and this visit was no exception! We spent the first night in Tirana so Dad could get some clothes and paperwork out of storage.  Reni loved the Lincoln Logs Gjyshe brought to expand his starter set.  (I have memories of playing with my Dad's set at my Grandma Van's house!)

Ellie was thrilled to enjoy some new Adventures in Odyssey dvds that Gigi brought over.

 We gave them about 24 hours to adjust to the time difference, then it was off to the races!

Catching up with the women after Friday night church...

We visited with lots of friends, including our colleague Arjan who had a new daughter since my dad's last visit!

Mom and Dad had their share of meetings and we had lots of conversations about the future, but those aren't so interesting to photograph...

We set aside the better part of one day to go do something just the 6 of us.

There are not many places we have been to that my parents haven't been to first.  We were happy to introduce them this winter to the national park at the Cape of Rodon (we took Mom in December and she was eager for Dad to see it too). It was a bit of a trek for dad as he recuperates from a tough last year of illness, but he agreed it was worth it!

Ellie was hopeful that she might find some critters to catch, but alas, no... still too cold!

A rare historic church that survived the destructive years of atheism...

Of course, the best part is visiting our neighbors in the village.  This is just a sampling...

Bardhi (above), who sells us our bread

(below) The couple who sold their house to Planters nearly 15 years ago and thus gave us a permanent presence in the village.  Strange to think we're living now in their old home! ;-)  They built a new home on some family ground not too far away...

The highlight of their visit with an anniversary 'thanksgiving' service the night before they left -- but that will get its own post.

Before we knew it, it was back to the airport again!

Rruge te mbarr!

Hard Questions

Anyone who is or has been a parent to young ones know they can ask a lot of questions.

Those questions can run the gamut from 'what are we doing today?' to 'what does heaven look like?' Some questions are easier to answer than others.

Saturday's question that nearly put me over the edge was: "When will the electricity come on?"

last Wednesday's women's Bible study during a 'regular' power outage that lasted about 30 minutes

It's been a stormy week in Albania.  We've had a lot of rain and a lot of wind. (I never thought I'd feel such winds anywhere but the prairie!)

Of course when there is a lot of wind, there are lots of opportunities for power outages and we experienced a doozy last week. Four mornings out of 5 we woke up with no power (and thus no way to take showers), the shortest lasting about 4 hours, the longest stint lasting more than 30 hours without power.

Thankfully we have been blessed with a generator so the power outage didn't affect our ability to have church and other regularly scheduled programs, but we were limited in what we could plug in simultaneously so the deep freezer and fridge got priority.

Nevertheless, as I dreamed about getting a hot shower, I couldn't get too upset when I was asked one more time about when we'd get power again, after all, I was asking myself the same question...

Today's tough question will be "When will Gigi and Gjysh get here?"

Yes!  While my mom was just here in December, this will be my dad's first visit in more than a year.  His health has prevented him from any international travel, but he recently got the 'all clear' from his doctor, so we've been counting down the days.

Last night as we were putting the kids to bed we got a Voxer message from mom that a mechanical problem with their plane in Chicago has caused a domino effect of missed flights. So in the mean time we wait to hear word of their arrival... like we did for the power to come on, Will it be later today or tomorrow?

We have a LOT of business to cover and important ministry decisions to make that really require their presence here.  While we look forward to our time together, would you pray for making the most of these few days and for discernment?

As for other activities in our lives the past few days...

Monday I shared our testimony in a chapel service at the international Christian high school in Tirana. It was a privilege to be invited, of course, but stretching for me as I'm much more comfortable with University-aged students!  I survived in once piece with no major awkward pauses (always my greatest fear in public speaking)!

The other unusual event last week was submitting an article which will be published as the cover story of a mother's day edition of a Christian women's magazine here in Albania.  I was really honored to be asked to write for this publication.  It is a fantastic evangelistic piece in a country that has limited resources in the Christian publishing world specifically for women. As you read this, would you pray for those who might read it? It was one of my more difficult challenges as I weighed how much of our story to share in this kind of format.  I pray that it is received in the right spirit and that it might be used to touch hearts to understand God's great, pursuing love for them!  We are also planning to buy several copies to share with Albanian friends and individuals who played a role in helping us with both children's adoptions.

I'm especially grateful to our friend and colleague, Genti Proseku, for so carefully translating it for me!  I'll be sure to take some screen shots of the story once it's published.

I'll conclude with a photo of a very happy Reni.  Friday night after church the G brothers stayed for a sleepover. Youngest boy "C" had just had his 5th birthday and his birthday request was to come to Ellie and Reni's house, so we were happy to oblige.  It was the first time we've seen them since Christmas as they spent January up in Kosovo... I think the blackout only added to the fun!