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!