June, part 2 | Ellie's Birthday week

Ellie celebrated a milestone birthday that I think every parent agrees arrives in a blink.  One minute your child is 13 and the next, she is talking about leaving the nest!  

We were thankful to have the presence of WGM friends, who chose to extend their stay in Albania for one week to wait upon the arrival of their luggage, stuck on a luggage cart for over a week at O'Hare Airport.  They're luggage eventually caught up with them, just a few days before they left us to continue their journey to PNG!  In the meantime, they got a glimpse of our life in the village, got to site see in Tirana, and celebrate some big events like Ellie's birthday (below) and later, Luli and Hannah's village wedding celebration!

We chose to visit a special indoor fun center in Tirana.  We thought it would appeal to the range of ages in our group from Reni and Henry (at ages 13 and 14) to our young adult interns!

Ellie's favorite activity at Latitude is to tackle the climbing walls.  It's something she can do at her own pace, and she loves the sense of personal accomplishment when she reaches the top!  In addition to confidence, it builds problem solving skills and works upper and lower body muscles!

Her special request was no surprise -- a visit to her favorite dessert shop in Tirana for bananas and Nutella on a waffle!

Later that night we enjoyed s'mores over the firepit and a special homemade birthday cake made and decorated by Erica -- what a special gift!  Ellie was thrilled!

Earlier that day she had been surprised by waking up to a home specially decorated by Melissa and Chloe, complete with balloons, streamers, and these life-size "Ellie heads!"

After seeing the numerous Facebook posts of her American friends posting prom photos this spring, Ellie asked for a special dress she could wear to the Luli and Hannah's wedding event and her summer piano recital.  She found a dress she liked online and we took the image to the local dressmaker, Roza, in Marikaj.  Roza is incredibly talented, and we think the dress turned out prettier than the photo we supplied!

At her fitting, Ellie was able to indicate exactly the sleeve size, belt design, and back she wanted for her dress.  The entire experience (including shooting a video for Roza's Instagram account) brought so many smiles to our girl.

The day after Ellie's birthday, we all dressed up and drove into Tirana for her Thursday evening recital!

Ellie's performance took place at the Liceu music school in Tirana, across the street from the US Embassy.  We were proud of her and her performance!

We were also pleased to bring a supportive audience.  The photo below was taken at a local Greek fast-food restaurant where we picked up something to eat beforehand!

Ellie's birthday celebration was capped off with a special surprise after church on Friday, when everyone sang to her and Laura (whose birthday falls the day after Ellie's)!

Ellie -- we are so proud of the beautiful young woman you are growing up to be.  Your creativity sparkles, and you love people so generously. You are kind, eager to help and a loyal friend.  These are just some of the qualities that I see in you. We don't know what the future holds, but we trust God to reveal your next steps as we trust his plan for you! Your life is a gift that blesses us each and every day. Keep loving God and others, and remember :
“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 31:8). 

Love,

Mom

Ellie's 18th year re-cap
https://youtube.com/shorts/OHu0-0VnHJM?feature=share

June, part 1 | Impact Conference

1:30AM airport pick up on June 1 -- officially the first photo of the month!

In my previous post, I shared that we were asked to host WGM's first leadership conference to take place outside of the USA. It would be the first in-person meeting of this conference for country/field leaders in 4 years!

We spent many days preparing the grounds for visitors, but the bulk of events were hosted at a hotel just south of Durres.  As a member of the planning committee, I volunteered to coordinate airport transportation to and from the conference site. 

The first guests to arrive came in at 1:30 AM on June 1, hence the less-than-perfect appearance above. I napped a few hours in my clothes and rolled out of bed to drive with Nathan to the airport.  We enjoyed a late-night coffee to perk us up while we waited for the Coppedge family to return to Albania after providing orality training in another part of the continent. They left many things at our guesthouse from their visit in May, so we brought them back to the village for a few hours of sleep, breakfast (burritos made by Nathan and John, below), before driving on to the hotel and checking in.

We proceeded to transport more than 90 folks on over a dozen different arriving flights to Golem that day, thanks to lots of help.  Below, Shpat poses next to his stellar luggage packing job.

These two guys greeted guests as they arrived and connected them to their designated drivers in the various airport pick up zones.  They were at the airport from about 10AM until 2AM the next morning, with only a short trip back to the village to play futbol in an evening break between arriving flights.

The conference began on June 2 and included times of corporate worship, Bible teaching, presentations, and strategic discussions in break-out groups.

We often divided by region and spread out throughout the hotel to discuss ideas generated by the various speakers.

photo credit, B Bennett

Other times we paused mid-presentation to discuss with those at our tables.

photo credit: B Bennett

The kids thoroughly loved making new friends with the children of our colleagues who had gathered from around the world.  We barely saw Reni the entire week. :-)

Ellie found a kindred spirit in Mrs. A (below) who helped her transcribe one of Ellie's original compositions.  Many an evening they could be found on the hotel lobby piano playing together and perfecting Ellie's work.

On Sunday, we bused the group to Jeta for a Sunday worship service.  There, Nathan introduced our beautifully diverse team!

Thankfully it wasn't too warm to open the accordion doors so we could spill out onto the sidewalk!

Afterward, Luli took a portion of the group on a hike up to the olive groves above the village (below)

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photo credit, B Bennett

Other weekend activities included showing our friends the ancient ruins of Apollonia, where Caesar Augustus attended university. What a joy it was to share a glimpse of our adopted home with our colleagues!

Ellie enjoyed taking photos on our tour, something she doesn't normally do.  I honestly have no idea where Reni was... no doubt hanging out in the pack of middle-school-aged boys in attendance.

This was followed by lunch with entertainment from a family folk band. Ellie was in heaven!

All in all, the conference was an incredible time of reconnecting with old friends, receiving encouragement through sound teaching and conversation, meeting some extraordinary folks whose paths we would never otherwise cross, and feeling stimulated by learning new concepts and ideas for possible ministry tools in the future. 

May 2023 | It's All About the Story

This may have been one of the busiest spring and summer seasons we have yet braved in our Albanian career. It has been so full of wonderful times with old friends and making new ones, hosting events and activities, and tackling projects... yet, we are still human with the same number of hours in each day and I feel woefully overwhelmed at catching up on responsibilities and preparing for a trip to the USA next month.

Yesterday (July 20) we wrapped our last "special event" of the summer and said goodbye to our second-to-last set of visitors.  Today we relished our first morning with no appointments.  Can you guess what I did? I started dumping photos to my computer! :-) Then I checked the blog... what? No post since April's re-cap? Before selecting photos from this post, I had to consult my daily planner to remember what happened in May!

According to my trusty book, on May 1 we did home school, met with staff, posted announcements to Jeta's Instagram account, created an online registration form for camp, and made a trip to the market to prepare for the Coppedge family arriving the next day!

May 2: The Coppedge family arrives. How to introduce these dear friends? We have known Billy and Jo since they were sophomores at Asbury in 1999. Now they have a beautiful family and lots of education and experience teaching people how to read and understand the Bible.

When you homeschool, site-seeing counts as history class!  We enjoyed showing them the amphitheater in person -- they had previously "toured" it as part of a virtual trip we offered during the Pandemic, but it's obviously not the same as seeing it in person.

This family teaches a technique called "Simply the Story" and we were pleased when 7-year-old Blake demonstrated this by sharing a Bible story at kids club!

While with us, they provided two trainings in their oral Bible teaching method.  We practiced a lot in small groups and we loved that their girls served as small group facilitators, coaching us through the various steps in telling, re-telling, and digging treasures from the story.

We were pleased that a pastor and missionaries from other cities and organizations accepted our invitation to take part in this training.  The first group is featured in the photo above.

Everyone was amazed at the entire family's involvement in training.  They know God's word and love sharing it with others!

The bonus from the Coppedges offering the training twice was that we felt we learned it so much better than if had we only received the training once.  Having seen it in action, we are BIG proponents of this teaching method, especially in our local context which seems adept at memorizing details. But we love even more that the follow-up questions lead the participants into processing and analyzing the greater truths of the story and its personal applications.

We celebrated the end of two successful training sessions with dessert at the local patisseri in Maminas!

Introducing them to the lovely city of Kruje!

(Above)  This was not an uncommon sight -- Ellie loves playing 'teacher' and Blake enjoyed being read to!  A great combo!

During their visit, I was invited to celebrate the birthday of a sweet new friend who attends gym classes at Jeta.  She invited all the ladies who have taken part 

After the Coppedges left, Nathan presented a story in Albanian for church on Friday night!  He did fantastically -- though we both realized that story-ing relies a lot on speaking in past tense. :-)

We received a special gift to our ministry account which helped us finish some projects at the center.  One such project was to finish installing the netting over the volleyball/basketball court.  I admit in my thriftiness I didn't think it was all that essential BUT we play a LOT of volleyball and this prevents a lot of kids from chasing errant balls into the street.  We also installed a few lights to extend play into the cooler, evening hours.  We are so glad that Jeta can provide a place for the community to gather in safety and grow in relationship with each other!

We also were able to install a few more security cameras, including one in the soccer field. We can't say enough how important it has been to have these cameras on the property -- from loss prevention to reviewing situations where emotions have run high -- we have had the ability to review the situations in question for the protection of all involved.

It was a special treat to host some new friends -- our boys met in online school -- when their travels brought them to Albania!

On May 25 we welcomed John (He spent 2018 with us) and a new friend, Chloe! They would be staying for 9 and 7 weeks, respectively.

We spent much time in late May preparing for a large WGM conference we would be hosting in early June.  You know it's serious when the power washer comes out!

Below, we're finally hauling out some of the last of the construction debris we had saved "just in case."

I was gifted a rose bush and we found the perfect place to plant it!

Below, John and Demir terrace the ground along the side of the kalceto. The property was looking as nice as it has ever looked in anticipation of our upcoming visitors!

The futbol training program really exploded in May  AND we got our new KF Jeta uniforms!  We feel like a real program, now!

We also said goodbye to long-time friends, the Wiersmas.  After 14 years in Albania, they felt it was time for their family to transition back to the USA. We are so grateful for their friendship while we have been here!

We concluded our year at the Hope Center with a special frame/name craft.

Earlier in the month I had photographed each of the students at the Hope Center.

Later, I printed my favorite portraits of each student, researched the meaning of their names, and found Bible verses for each student related to the meaning of their names.

They combined all of the elements I research and printed and added their own personal touches to a photo frame.
I think they liked it!

We celebrated Nathan's birthday over lunch in Tirana with our summer volunteers

But this was all the closer Nathan got to getting a birthday cake! If that doesn't tell you about the state of our lives this spring/summer... More to come in June's review!