April flew by in a flash with lots of wonderful memories!
Below, Ellie is living out her dream of teaching music by providing lessons for our friend, Z. Thank you, Thompson piano books that haven't changed in over 40 years! They still work!
The highlight of April is Easter and we were so pleased to share it with dear friends for the 5th time in 6 Easters! After a special church service, we had lunch in our home.
We colored eggs, of course...
We played Ticket to Ride (the European version, of course).
We ate very well and ended the day with Argentine empanadas! Yum!
Vlashaj was blessed this month with STREET LIGHTS! What a difference they make!
Soccer school also resumed! We added transportation service and we are busting at the seams with lots of students!
We were super proud of Luli for completing his first level of certification throught Futbol Federation of Albania and EUFA (the European federation). He is now a certified assistant coach for youth!
Below, in case you were wondering what "American Cookies" look like...spotted at our local supermarket.
We were pleased to bring a small group from the village to a public Easter program in the central square in Tirana.
Thanks to the generosity of our partners, we were able to purchase and install outdoor lights for the volleyball/basketball court. This space is used a lot, but especially on Wednesday nights for community volleyball!
On April 21 we were so pleased to welcome the McCues! They are long time farm friends from Michigan.
They brought their 13-year-old grandson, Genesis, with them. He and Reni seemed to get along quite well. Though they have been to Albania many times before, it was special to introduce them to a few new places!
Above, Reni and Genesis climb on a modern art sculpture in Tirana called "The Cloud." Below, Ellie poses in the tunnel of the Roman-era amphitheater in Durres.
We try to have an element of personal response at the conclusion of each church service. This helps bring the evening's message to a practical point. This particular evening's message was about how we please God. One of the ways we learned was through giving God thanks and praise for what he has done for us. We each took turns writing our thanks to God on paper lanterns which we later released from the rooftop of the church!
One day we received a message from Mandi that the muncipality wanted to gift our center with some trees, while also holding a forum for the community to voice their thoughts and concerns.
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| Nathan and Luli pose next to this campaign sign -- "Never behind, only forward!" it claims. |
The used our basketball court for their program which was complete with boisterous music and young women distributing pens and cigarette lighters with the majority party's campaign slogan on it.
Our neighbor and friend, Arjana, invited the McCues over for coffee. We had a lovely time visiting together and enjoying her hospitality!
We showed Genesis that his name in the Albanian Bible is actually "Zanafilla" -- which Reni would occasionally call him for fun. :-)
Reni has become an AVID chess player and bought himself this olive wood chess board during our visit to Kruje. Unfortunately, most folks don't enjoy playing him because the games conclude so quickly. :-)
Alas, our five days with the McCues flew by quickly and we were back at the airport to send them off!
While Reni got a chess board, in Kruja I bought a new rug for the guesthouse to maintain an Albanian vibe. :-)
Just a week or so later, we would be welcoming our next set of guests! Check back in a few weeks for a report on all we learned and did in May, including fantastic training in oral Bible story telling techniques!
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