January Wrap-Up

The winter days keep passing, and we are relishing life at a normal pace again.  Here's some highlights from the past few weeks courtesy of my cell phone...

Our little apartment has a small attic space we use as a family room.  The ceiling is low and the light fixture was partially broken from one-too-many heads hitting it.  Over our Christmas break travels we picked up some recessed can lights to replace the broken fixture and spread the light throughout the room.  It's always interesting tackling a home improvement project on this side of the ocean, but thankfully we only ran into a few minor issues that we were able to work around and complete the install in one afternoon!  Now the clean-up... that took a bit longer.  Styrofoam insulation bits are a bear to eradicate...

A few weeks ago we had a Wii party as a reward for those who put in their after-school study all hours.  Archery was a HUGE hit and worked regardless of age!  It's so good to have fun!

The cold weather broke and we have had many days of sunshine.  Here the kids got out their bikes to ride around the court yard one day at recess.  In case you haven't seen it before, Reni has a special hand-powered tryke from Ambucs.  It's challenging for us to find activities around our house for him to do outside since we don't have play equipment or soft surface area/grass.  That makes his tryke all the more valuable to get him out in the fresh air.

This year Pastor Genti is working through the names of God in scripture.  When we got to the name "Jehovah Jireh" we decided it was a good time to also begin collecting an offering during church.  It's one thing to teach about God's provision in times of need while living in the Land of Plenty (America) where social safety nets abound, but in this country -- it requires a larger amount of faith.  Just a few days ago in the same small group we were discussing the health of a child in our church who is at risk of never walking again from such poor nutrition (we've given food, but other relatives have stolen it).  It was followed by a prayer request from another woman whose adult daughter was suffering the effects of poor nutrition earlier in her life.  They had been unaware of her deficiencies when she was a child, but now as an adult, the lack is manifesting itself in many health problems.  As someone who has never been without food, it's heart breaking.

After hearing the account of Jesus' first miracle at the wedding of Cana, Nathan surprised the kids with a pitcher of grape Kool-Aid from 'only' a bottle of water.  They were astounded and amazed (powder drinks are not very common here, and he had dumped some in the pitcher before beginning the demonstration).  And they loved the Kool-Aid too. :-)  

Our boy is probably not too different from most kids in that he is reserved in large groups and slow to warm up to people -- but once you're in, you're in with him.  I don't know when it happened, but he has decided Luli is his buddy and constantly wants him to come and play.  :-)

The kids are humming along in home school.  I popped in the classroom one day to see them working on an art project.  I can't say it enough -- we are so grateful for Pam's help!

Ellie received this "knitting" loom a while back and never showed interest in it until last week.  We haven't finished anything yet, but I was encouraged that she stuck with it as long as she did!  I suggested that she could now make gifts for all of her friends to which she responded... "But Mom, they'd all be... hats."

We're getting a lot of 'mileage' out of this puzzle we bought for the youth.  In spite of an extraordinarily long break due to the cold and flu, it's just now close to finished.

I had no idea puzzles would be so well liked -- next time we have someone coming from the States I'll be requesting a few more!  It's such a nice way to spend time with our friends (like below, after church). We put on some worship music and set out chips and salsa and voila!  a relaxing evening and good fellowship!

Finally, this last weekend in Met@lle we implemented a new strategy.  Prior to the meeting, I divvied up the roster into three new teams, printed attendance and verse charts, and distributed those sheets to three "captains."  Then, after a joint time of singing and story time, we rotated through crafts, games, and snack/verse recitation time. The numbers of kids felt so much more manageable split up (about 10 per team) and it worked ideally in the space we have in the little village house.

  Below, Xhesi's team is working on their coloring page (which also lists next week's memory verse).

Nathan was in charge of the game station.  I just can't take in enough of the view from the back yard.  Photos don't do it justice.

Happy soon-to-be February!

Week in Review | Old Friends and New, More Snow, Gloves, Doves, and other Randomness

The days keep marching on! We are past the midway point of January already!

Thanks for your prayers regarding the cold.  The worst of it is hopefully past, though it's still quite chilly at night.  Our home is about 15 degrees warmer in the mornings than it was a week ago, which is a big improvement!

Last week we were able to reconnect with some old friends in the Albanian adoption community!  My friend Katie brought her daughter back to Albania from Michigan, along with Katie's mom, for a homeland/heritage visit.  Her daughter's school has a period of time between semesters to pursue elective classes or educational travel. Coming last week meant not missing any school, but the timing also meant they were in Albania during an historic cold snap!

We met up with them one afternoon, down the road in Durres and showed them the amphitheater (one of our favorite places to take guests and share about church history that transpired here), then brought them back to the village for some homemade baklava and byrek.  And no, not made by me! ha ha. They were treated to the authentic dishes delivered by the hands of some talented neighbor friends who generously blessed us! :-)

After our tasty Albanian treats they attended women's Bible study where Katie shared her testimony.

 As I think of all the various visitors who have told a bit of their faith journeys with our local friends, I marvel at what a bigger picture my neighbors get to see about what it means to trust in and follow after Jesus -- and that God uses us in so many different ways!

On a side note, I take for granted all of the wonderful biographies of Christian heroes sit on my shelves.  I recently read that in spiritual formation, after the Bible, biographies play the biggest role in a Believer's development.  I grieve that my Albanian sisters lack such wonderful resources. But thanks to short-term missions, they get a glimpse of the "biography" of real people, albeit from another culture and part of the world. And many times I wish I knew the thoughts that were running through their heads!  They must think that Americans have really large families because most of my friends who have visited in the last few years seem to have three (or more like 4+) children! :-)

Following Bible study we returned them to Tirana where they were staying and we got to experience a SECOND snow!  This time, it didn't just show up in the morning but fell in big fat flakes for about half an hour.  It was delightful and our family relished experiencing our first live snowfall since our last winter in the States four years ago.

We stay overnight in Tirana at the Planters apartment most Wednesday evenings so we have a place to park (seriously impossible after 8AM to find a free parking place) and time to run errands before Ellie's weekly piano lesson on Thursdays.  Those errands might include haircuts, picking up mail, attending home school co-op, or just visiting my favorite butcher to buy a good piece of meat (I am a wimp and have yet to try the local local ones near us).

This last week we used some of our "Tirana time" to reconnect briefly with a young girl who used to be a house-mate of Reni's before he was in our family.  I remember her from the very first ten minutes of our first visit to meet Reni back in 2010.  She and Ellie are the same age, and when she saw Ellie that day, she made a beeline for her and gave her a huge hug -- excited to meet a playmate her age in a house full of babies.  It touched us to learn recently that she had clear memories of both Ellie and Reni from that summer so many years ago and was happy to meet us again.  I know, though, that I never forgot her! We were so pleased to hear that she now has a family of her own and will be going home soon!  We took her and her parents up to the SkyTower to see a lovely view of Tirana.  

Friday the weather started to bump up and things began to thaw, but low and behold, one of our pumps decided to give out.  In came a delivery of water to get us through the day.

Friday night at church Genti challenged our little church body to participate in the 40 Days of Love -- to show love to our neighbors through prayer, service and witness.  It will culminate on February 14.  This is a continuation on our theme of evangelism this year.

We had a prize winner at Kids club on Saturday!  Ami was able to recite all of her verses from from the beginning of the fall and received the purse/bag below.  Luli won a soccer ball.

Last summer, one of our interns, Hannah, brought a couple dozen pairs of gloves.  Given the season (and need), we distributed them Saturday in Metalle.

The lesson was the baptism of Jesus so we made paper doves as our craft!  I do NOT know what missionaries did before the advent of the internet. :-)  Thanks to Google Images for helping locate this bird template. And thanks to everyone who has contributed to our pinter/toner/paper fund.  We keep it humming making copies!

Because of the cold (and the lower numbers as school had not resumed yet, we assume that most of the kids thought we were on break too) we did games indoors.  Nathan brought this table game called "Bounce Off" that Mom brought over from the States in November.  It's been a big hit everywhere we play it!  (By the way, we love any game that doesn't require a working knowledge of English).  The point of the game is for two individuals (or teams) to replicate a pattern from a designated card by bouncing ping pong balls into a grid to form that pattern.

This week we brought a propane heater to Metalle and it made such a difference!  No more "ice block" feet!

Last night we had Girls Night, but sadly, I did not take any photos of that.  I'm just encouraged that we have a very faithful core group who attends each week.  It's one of my highlights of the week!

A Change in Greetings

If you have ever visited Albania before, you will have been educated in the etiquette of the proper greeting.

And I don't mean the first time you meet someone or even when they make a formal visit to your home.

It's a little unwritten checklist of questions you ask and physical gestures you perform to show respect to the other person.  I appreciate the tradition and follow the custom even though at moments, the "American" in me wants to get right to the point and be efficient with my time, when the formalities seem unnecessary to repeat with someone I just saw a few days ago.

"Greetings/Welcome/Come in"
"Good morning/day/evening."
"How are you?"
"How is your family/wife/children?"
"How is your work?"
"Are you tired?"

This is repeated by both parties and it includes standing up when someone enters a room, shaking hands, embracing, and kissing, depending upon the closeness of the relationship, and so on.  And depending upon how long it has been since you have seen the person, the questions will continue to cover additional areas of life.

Yesterday we were in Tirana for Ellie's piano lesson, then later, our monthly homeschool co-op meeting.

During our parental conversation time, the weather and everyone's coping mechanisms for dealing with the cold and frozen pipes and general lack of water dominated the discussion.

At one point one of the fellow missionaries (who has lived in Albania since 1995) noted that funnily enough, a new question has popped to the top of the greeting checklist in the last week  -- as if the gravity of the weather conditions has gotten so severe as to supersede centuries'-old traditions.  I'm also pretty sure it's motivated by an even deeper human need to know if someone is suffering more or less than you.  Now, everyone is getting straight to the point and asking.

"DO YOU HAVE WATER?"

There is a reason that Jesus called himself The Living Water to the woman at the well.  It's the basic building block of life.  We can't wash our hands, brush our teeth, take a shower, cook, or even flush a toilet (much less drink!) without it.  We, along with most of our friends in Albania, are getting a stark reminder of this reality for our physical needs this week.  [And to continue the analogy, sadly, we tend to forget the necessity to regularly access the Living Water for our spiritual needs.]

____________________

Last night we picked up Pam (our dear friend and the kids' primary teacher) at the airport after her two-month visit to the States.  As we pulled into her village to drop her at her home, had it not been 10:00PM and nearly pitch black, I would have had Nathan stop so I could grab a picture.

In front of the large pallati (apartment) complex in the center of her small town, in the place where automobiles are normally parked, were a line of several trailers holding large water tanks.  It was a sight I have never seen before -- and an indication of the severity of the problem and the length of time that has transpired,

Today marks eight days since the deep freeze began. For a while the forecast predicted a warming trend this weekend, starting today (Friday), but then returning to cold again on Monday.  At a certain level, I think everyone around us has been gutting it out, knowing an end (or at least a break) was in sight.

Added to that confidence,  Nathan had found some work-arounds with our water set-up so we almost always at least had water in our bathroom, if the pipes to the kitchen were frozen or if the city hadn't delivered water to our tank.  We went to bed last night, sleeping better knowing that we were soon going to get a reprieve from the daily stress we had been experiencing, and maybe get in a 'normal day's work', without spending so much time problem-solving and creating alternate methods for getting menial tasks accomplished.

You can imagine our feeling when we woke up this morning to no.water.at.all. It looks like BOTH of our pumps are kaput.  We are going to wait a few hours and see if warmer temps help, hoping that maybe a piece of ice was jammed up inside and that they haven't died completely.

Thank goodness we have access to the Living Water any time, no matter the temperatures, no matter if there is electricity, or operational equipment.

Do you have water?

Well...

They say you experience a lot of personal growth and learn a lot on the mission field. I doubt Nathan expected to learn so much about plumbing by moving to Albania. That's what happens when you are living through an historic freeze, not seen in more than 30 years.

This is just a slice of the work he has been doing since Friday to keep water flowing in our home. We're so happy! It appears we don't have to continue our water rationing so we can do laundry and take showers (if we can work up the courage to touch the floor with our bare feet)!  The bathroom is usually in the mid-30s Fahrenheit each morning.

And bonus -- it got up to 36 this afternoon the pipes to the kitchen sink have thawed so I can do dishes without boiling water in the kettle! (Previously we could only get water from our bathroom sink -- and we've only had that water because Nathan has been running a low heater at night by the tanks to keep the pump and tanks from completely freezing solid). 

Here's a video to the solution he came up with this afternoon to replenish our dwindling water supply...


#winterfreeze #frozenpipes #itaintprettybutitworks

Keep praying -- not just for us, but this entire region.  We will get a brief reprieve this weekend, but the night time temps will be well below freezing for at least another week.

Something New | A Party for our Students

Once a month we get together with our Albanian colleagues for business.  I wish it wasn't just business because we enjoy our company with them so much, but alas, finding time in our schedules is tricky so we have to cram a lot into the window of time we have on Thursdays between regularly scheduled programs at the center for which one or more of us is responsible...

At one such meeting this fall Genti revisited the idea of hosting a reception for the parents of our English students.  Christmas was the perfect 'excuse' for such a gathering.  On Friday afternoon, the 23rd, we waited expectantly -- not sure if anyone would come!  It seemed at first that only the students were coming (55 in total) and not their parents, but eventually they did and we had a full house!

Nathan shared a Christmas message, the essence of which was: we celebrate Christmas because it is when God sent his son to earth.  And because of Christmas, Planters came to Vlashaj to share the message that Christ has come to save mankind.  And because his coming was to serve, we want to emulate him and serve you in all we do.

Sorry for the graininess -- these were shot from my camera phone because I had gotten so wrapped up in preparing the refreshments that I didn't get my good camera upstairs!

Mostly store bought, we did include one home made Christmas cookie and cookie bar on each plate.  These are a novelty for the most part. And sugar sprinkles are not available to buy at all, so that makes them extra curious!  Special thanks to everyone who gifts us with baking items!  It's a fun way to bless our neighbors!  They LOVE sweets!

We gave shoe boxes to all students under age 14.

They were asked to wait until they reached home to open their box, but one just couldn't resist and I happened to catch this moment...

WINTER has come

(Also known as Cydil's annual chilly January post)

I know there are certain places in the world described as paradise --places where the temperatures vary little year round, where there is no humidity, and the rains come at predictable intervals.

Personally, that sounds boring to me.  I love the seasons.  I love those days in spring where the green is so vibrant it's almost fluorescent.  I love the days in summer when the day light hours extend into the evening hours and it just feels like you have extra time to enjoy the outdoors and be with friends.  I love the days in the fall where the foliage changes into vibrant colors and the air turns cooler.  And I love winter for the time to snuggle indoors, enjoy holidays and traditions like Christmas and feel like it's acceptable to be the homebody I naturally am because after dark, almost everyone is indoors!

Living in Albania we still get to enjoy all the seasons, albeit a bit differently than where I've lived in Illinois and Kentucky.

The greens are still quite vibrant in the spring time.  The summers are the same 'hot and humid', though we lack the comfort of air conditioning to the same degree.  And in the fall, we don't have all the beautiful vibrant colors, but Albania still has the crisp, cool days and autumn rains... But winter.  Winter thankfully is not as long as in America but it sure seems more intense.

The view Friday morning from our dining room window.  The snow lasted three days on most rooves.

I get it.  It's cold in the Midwest.  But I'd trade your 1 degree Fahrenheit in Indianapolis for 24 degrees in the village any day.

I think when they build houses in this part of the world, they looked at a calendar and thought, "It's hot way more days than it's cold.  Let's build these structures to stay cool in the summer."

In case you're wondering, it only snows here about once a decade...

So they put in high ceilings, concrete or tile floors, and built with the most economical and available materials -- which until recently did not include insulation or thermal pane windows. They run their plumbing on the outside of buildings to make repairs easier and store water in tanks because 24/7 water does not exist here yet. You put in windows and doors to allow for cross breezes and prevent the growth of mold.  There is no such thing as central heat or air so no fussing with ductwork or sealing up the structure to keep that 'bought air' contained inside.

Now imagine living in such a place when the temps fall into the 40s and 50s.  Brrr!  But that's okay -- you have a wood stove for cooking and which you feed with sticks (because there are no more big healthy trees to cut for logs).  It'll take the chill out of the air. But then the temps fall even lower.  It gets to freezing.  Now it's REALLY cold.  Let's keep that coat on inside because it's not that much warmer inside than out.  If you are still not picturing it, imagine if you had to move into your garage in November or early December.  And you didn't have electricity for periods of time, or running water.

This week it's well below freezing, and not warming above the freezing point for several consecutive days.  Thankfully, the cold here generally is only really rough for about two weeks.  But oh those two weeks.  They test your character.  They test your strength to bite your tongue and keep those complaints in check. (I think I'm failing now).  You spend hours you didn't plan on pouring precious drinking water water over pipes, blowing things with hairdryers or portable heaters -- ANYTHING -- to get enough water to fill the toilet tank, much less wash hands or dishes.

We are learning to cope with it better.  We have a wardrobe that keeps us comfortable in spite of variations of temperature we experience throughout the day.  We make our beds with the thickest of flannels and puffiest of down comforters and heaviest of wool blankets. We adjust our expectations about how much electricity we will have (though that seems to be poor, regardless of the time of year). We realize that we might just smell like a bonfire on days when it's windy and the smoke blows back into our living room.  We gird ourselves up each morning before we roll out of bed and try to jump into our clothes as quickly as possible. And we make sure each afternoon our bottles of water are topped off so we have water in the morning for hands and dishes.

This boy has spent five of his eight winters in Albania.  He has virtually no memory of snow.  I can't blame him for wanting to make a snow angel. :-)

Oh how lucky we are to live in 21st century.  It has made us soft.  I'm a spoiled American, used to being able to slip out of bed in the winter in bare feet onto carpeted floors, to run around the house in a t-shirt and yoga pants year-round.  I don't know how people did it years ago. Or how folks even do it here -- in our village or up in the mountains where the snow is a meter deep.  They certainly didn't sit on their computer and blog about the weather.  They just got to the business of living.

Alright.  Time to layer up!  I smell the fire!

Christmas Traditions | Telling It On The Mountain

[Editor's Note:  This was written before Christmas, but interruptions prevented it from getting published in a timely manner.]

It was a cold but sunny winter day yesterday when the four Waggoners piled in the Planters van with Mandi and his wife, Xhina, for our annual Christmas trek up and over Mt. Dajti.  Of course, we visit more than just once a year, and the Zhukas are there at least twice per month, but this visit is a highlight each year for me personally.  

We start each visit in this village with a kids club meeting during their break time from school.  Gina reviewed the account of Jesus' birth.  I appreciated that she went on to explain the symbols of Christmas that are used for decoration at this time of year and corrected the record that they are indeed for Christmas and not New Years, as many would like them to believe.

Afterwards I led the kids in a brief craft activity making paper angels as angels were the first messengers of the Good News of Jesus birth.  We, too, can be messengers of His coming to those who haven't heard!

Thanks to a generous donor in Austria, these Bible story books have been translated into Albanian and published by our friends, Lee and Kathy Church and their wonderful printing ministry in Tirana.  It's so nice to have quality resources like these available to put in the hands of kids who have so little to read at home but can own a book with the best message!  There are follow-up review and discussion questions at the end of each story.

While we can't be in Darshen full time, we can at least leave resources in their homes which can proclaim Truth each time they are accessed.

Nathan marked the location of the account of Jesus' birth so they could read it again on their own.

I was blessed to see the boys look for the marker on the page and start to read it while they waited for the distribution of the boxes!

While most American friends are familiar with Sam@ritan's Purse as the agent for Christmas shoeboxes, there are actually a variety of different organizations throughout Europe that have their own Christmas shoe box program.  In Albania, all boxes are held at a central warehouse in Durres (the port) and churches or groups (like us) submit a list of requests such as number for each age group and gender for which we need boxes.  After we pay a small fee to underwrite the cost of the storage space, we are given boxes from the group which has been assigned the particular district where the boxes will go.  This year, the boxes above came from Scotland!

Of all the groups to whom we have given boxes, this group is always the most quiet and respectful.  We ask that they not open the boxes until they get home and they are good to do so!

Ellie and Reni love climbing the trails around the meeting space, digging in the dirt, collecting rocks and such.  Though you can't see it in this photo, he built up an impressive amount of dirt under his fingernails in a short amount of time.

Mandi taking roll to make sure every family is represented... 

I love that each time I visit I'm recognizing more and more faces.  I regret that we don't know more of the adults in this community!  However when we do see each other we can comment on how the kids have grown and how the weather has been.

Check out the ingenious way this fellow is carrying his box (below).  They are quite heavy, by the way.

Our hearts desire to see Truth flourish in this community.  Would you pray with us for transformation?  Our hearts are in multiple communities in this country, but alas, we can only live in one at a time...