It's a Wrap!

The last of the sheets are flapping on the clothes line.  Our refrigerator and pantry significantly more empty.  The path through the balcony to the door virtually clear again... Signs that company has been and gone.

Their last days were packed to the gills -- so full I didn't have the energy to process photos much less blog .. til today.  Here's a re-cap of Steve and the nephews' last few days with us in Albania...
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Friday we traveled to Elbasan where we visited a couple of places.  First up was Reni's orphanage.  I am sorry I don't have photos!  I hopped out of the van to make sure the "pestilence" had passed (the week prior they had 11 kids on IV fluids from a terrible stomach bug that afflicted all but three children) and left my camera behind while I checked to make sure it was still okay to visit that morning.  It was!  We had a delightful hour playing with children and chatting with the caregivers and Sisters.

From there we joined our missionary friend, Julie, and visited two homes in the Roma community.  This was my first visit into a Roma home and found my heart tremendously encouraged after meeting these two sisters in Christ, part of the core of a church planted by YWAM missionaries in their neighborhood.

For lunch we ate inside the fortress walls at a popular local restaurant because, really, how many opportunities do you have to eat inside an old Ottoman fortress?

Then we took a little walk on the Rruga Ignatia (part of the ancient Roman road that connected Istanbul to Rome that winds through Greece and Albania).

We broke up the ride home to have coffee at Kalaja Petrela... a castle that dates back to the 1400s and was part of the string of signal castles that were used to communicate the approach of invaders from the south and east.

Gazuar!

Sadly (insert sad face), it was a yukky, drizzly day so our guests didn't get to see the amazingly beautiful views you can typically see from this high perch.

We returned home in time for church and Bible study.  The next morning we had Kids Club where we had a review of the past several months' worth of lessons, Bible-quiz style.

Mersin was kind to translate so the 'Merican boys could participate!

Then said goodbye to our friends, the G's.  They've been coming to the village every weekend for the past 5 months so it's going to be so empty feeling not having them here! But we are happy for the work God has for them up north!  I foresee the Waggoners visiting Kosovo to se them sometime next fall!

After they departed, we had our monthly Wii party for perfect kids club attendance.  Sorry -- no photos as I was busy planning for the next event -- a photo scavenger hunt at the Hope Center.  Here's some of the photos, chosen because they included some kids with the same last name as us...photographed with something straight, something round, something green, a beautiful rock, among other things!

The next day we took them over to the national park at the Cape!

We had fun with the local habitat... to Ellie's disappointment, we did not bring this turtle home with us.

Steve and Caleb had an encounter with a snake as they scaled this hillside to explore some communist-era bunkers...

Then we returned to host a screening of the Albania/Armenia game...

The energy was way more intense than any of the World Cup games we watched here last summer.  With only 15 minutes left in the game, Albania was down 0-1.  The announcer beseech-ed the viewers to "pray to your God!"... Albania went on to score 2 more points and win.

The building rocked with chants of "Shqiperi -Shqiperi - Shqiperi!"

And with that we stacked up the stools, swept the floors, and said our goodbyes.  The crew had a 4:55AM flight (an hour at which my camera does not function ) so everyone headed to bed early, saying goodbye with the knowledge that we'll be seeing each other again, Lord willing, at the end of next month!

Walking where thousands have walked...

When some folks hear the word "history", they yawn and let their minds drift to other matters.  

If that's you, no offense will be taken if you click on over to something more current.

But if you're like me, a part of your imagination enjoys little daydreams that wander back through time, entertaining ideas of what life was like in earlier days.  I grew up reading historical fiction, visiting museums, and touring old homes.  But having grown up in America, the oldest historical site I remember visiting was Dickson Mounds, a native American burial site not far from my central Illinois home.

Living in Albania, we are surrounded by significantly older history.  There are castle ruins less than an hour's drive from us that have been built on foundations which pre-date the life of Christ.  As we have spent more and more time here, we continue to add to our knowledge base of the history of the region.  You can imagine my excitement when we learned that the Roman road that connected Istanbul to Rome itself meandered through Greece, via Thessaloniki, up into Albania, through Elbasan and eventually ending at the shores of the Adriatic in the port city of Durres where sojourners would have caught a boat to the shores of Italy.

We live 15 kilometers from Durres.  

Given the likelihood that folks we've read about in the New Testament have traversed this road (in Albania it is called the Rruga Ignatia), we cannot NOT take visitors to see some of these places that are just minutes from our village home.

When devising the itinerary for Steve and the boys, we set aside some time on the schedule today to take them to one of the premier sites of historical significance in this region:  the Durres Amphitheater (the largest in the Balkans).  I actually stayed home with Ellie and Reni to work on laundry and cooking, but the bonus was that it freed up space to take along one of Steven's new friends from the men's retreat, Sherif!  The following photos are from Steve's camera...

Covered by sea silt after an earthquake generated a tsunami several hundred years ago, it was rediscovered in the 1960s (hence modern buildings still standing over a portion of the elipse).

Nathan explains how this portion was used as a church after the fall of the Roman Empire...

Historians believe the seats of the theater were lined with gleaming white marble, which was stripped from the site after it was no longer in use for entertainment purposes.

 A series of tunnels under the seats resembles many a modern day American baseball park or stadium ...

Everyone returned home for lunch, then after a few rounds of volleyball the village boys took everyone on a hike up into the hills above the village.

Testing rock climbing/sliding/balancing/agility skills.

Off tomorrow to visit Elbasan and see the kids and staff at Reni's former orphanage, then off to visit some missionaries and see their work in the Roma (gypsy) community there before returning for evening church!

I wasn't ignoring you...

It's come to my attention that a few of my friends (at least three that I know of, so probably more!) who 'subscribe to our blog by e-mail' hit "reply" to those e-mails to leave a friendly or helpful comment.

It is important for you to know that the e-mail you receive with our blog content is automatically generated by a service called Feedburner.  If you reply to those e-mails, we do not see those replies. : (

Please note for the future that blog posts by e-mail is a one-sided form of communication.  We were not trying to be "impersonal" when we added that feature to our blog but rather make a way for interested friends and family to keep up with our activities without having to go to the effort to surf over to our blog for updates, because, really, who has time for that?

HOWEVER, if you receive our ministry e-newsletters (generated by Mailchimp), you may reply to those and they will go to my personal gmail account (as you will see in the "To:" field).

All that to say, I wasn't ignoring you! ;-)

Over the mountain and back again

Today we traversed Mt Dajti to visit Darshen!

After visiting the school, we hiked to the lower part of the village to visit Xh... the photos don't do justice to the incline nor the slippery-ness of the muddy path!  In spite of the drizzly day, the blossoming trees added the hope of the beauty of spring!

After chatting with her family, I took her outside to capture some photos around her home for her photo book that she will take with her to America when she goes for back surgery. The following are a few of my favorites...

I think she thought I might have had a screw loose when I asked her to pick up her brother's axe...

Her younger brother was in school and sadly missed out on being in the family photo...

Marking the wall with her pre-surgery height:

Her embassy appointment is April 1!  Pray for favor for her and her guardian!

After her family gave their farewells and we walked away, I turned around to snap this last photo.  I wish you could hear how absolutely quiet and tranquil it was.

We stopped for coffee on the way back down the mountain.  Caleb declared Albanian hot chocolate will be the food he misses most when he returns to America!

On our way back through Tirana, we stopped to show the boys a few landmarks in the city -- like a communist-era bunker...

Looking sad at the salt mine forms (where political enemies were sent for forced labor)

And finally, a portion of the Berlin wall!

Then we crossed the street to scale 'the pyramid'-- a decaying relic from the 80s, originally constructed to honor the former dictator, Enver Hoxha.  David and Ephraim joined us to cross off a 'Tirana bucket list' item before they move up north next week...

Nathan and Steve attended the men's Bible study and were pleased to see a new face as well as hear some positive feedback from the father/son retreat!

All in all a good day!