November is one of those months of the year one can't ignore the change of seasons. Our days are marked by limited daylight (and long nights), time changes, overcast or rainy skies, power cuts, and colder temps. Moss grows in our northeastern-facing courtyard and we celebrate the sun when we see it, relishing the possibility of using our clothesline to hang wet laundry.
November is not a month I usually associate with hosting guests in Albania, but this year was different, and we were grateful. Guests helped us navigate what could have been wet, grey days with anticipation and replaced gloomy skies with warm memories around a candlelit dinner table.
November is not a month I usually associate with hosting guests in Albania, but this year was different, and we were grateful. Guests helped us navigate what could have been wet, grey days with anticipation and replaced gloomy skies with warm memories around a candlelit dinner table.
The first of the month I shared a testimony in church! If you know me, I'm not usually the one up front speaking, but the time was right and the Lord helped.
We received some surprise goodies from our friend Becky Brown via our guest, Diana, from Lexington. Ellie was THRILLED to have a UK shirt so she could match her childhood besties, the Kinnell twins, in Wilmore.
Tiffany returned for ten days! Tiffany, Nathan, Laura, and Sue spent many days working on updating documents for VT Albania, granting POAs, transferring authorizations, and all those pesky details that are a necessary part of running official work. Nathan made many trips to the bank, notaries, and attorney's office! (sorry, no photos, ha ha).
Diana brought a couple dozen t-shirts for the village kids. Nathan designed a logo and printed iron-ons via the Cricut and voila!
It was fun to gift everyone their shirts at kids club!
Not pictured -- the crew had so much fun making t-shirts, Tiffany went out and bought more shirts for the VT Albania students and staff. With Nathan's help on the Cricut, they made personalized shirts for everyone! One student received hers with tears. It hadn't struck me to then how something as simple as a t-shirt could give someone a sense of belonging! Lord, may these shirts remind our dear friends that they are welcome and belong at Jeta!
Ellie's second dual enrollment class kicked in and we all learned a lot about the various periods of art history with her! We love that she loves learning! Many days she can be found just like this working on her laptop!
I collaborated with Merita to design this new Christmas garland for the Handmade in Albania shop. I love all the colors!
One Saturday we visited the Hope Center for a game night.
They love the Diary of a Wimpy Kid board game. It's not so much about the book but consists of rolling a dice and drawing various physical and mental challenges that must be completed to progress around the game board (say the alphabet backwords to "L" before the timer runs out). Nathan was the official facilitator for this big group game.
Then we split up for various board games. They really enjoyed this picture form of Code Names. If you work in a non-English context, this game is great for speakers of any language!
We put Diana and Tiffany on the plane November 11 and on November 12 we welcomed Pastor Tyrone from Lexington! As such, we had to snap his photo in front of this mural in the airport KFC.
His visit was super short -- 2 nights and 1 day -- but we were so glad he made the effort to come!
This photo is not necessarily special except for its normality. Just a typical end of the day when Nathan starts to doomscroll silly Reels on Instagram, the family gathers around while I finish making supper, and we collectively laugh (or groan)...
Nathan and Reni were unexpectedly invited to attend the Ukraine/Albania match one Tuesday evening. Thankfully a hose burst on the hot water tank in the bathroom 2 hours before they were to leave, giving them just enough time to get the water swept out of the house so Ellie and I weren't dealing with the crisis alone. We were so thankful for Luli and Luis coming over to give us a hand!
The weekend before Thanksgiving we hosted a retreat for WGM-ers in the Balkans. The Coppedge family came from Scotland to lead three devotional sessions and provide child care for our mini-retreat.
We had lovely times of fellowship over the weekend. It's rare that we're "off" at the same time to do social things together.
We are so grateful for the team of co-laborers that God has granted us!
And as a special love gift from God, we were blessed with abundant sunshine over the weekend! We enjoyed soaking up the sun below atop Rozafa Castle in Shkodra while eating a picnic lunch.
My dad would be thrilled with all the sunshine in these images :-)
We've known these two since they were sophomores at Asbury (and not yet an item)!
Family time includes games around the table, yes?
And story time with the younger ones...
We even had a family football match!
Then everyone left... and Ellie did something she rarely does... she came down with a cold!
Thanksgiving came and we did nothing. Like we ate leftovers out of the fridge, talked with family on the phone, and watched a movie kind of nothing. I don't remember the last time we just skipped Thanksgiving, but the rest was lovely and no one complained that they missed turkey.
Friday we decorated Jeta for Christmas! It looks lovely and I was so grateful for all the help we had hanging decorations. It's a really big job!
The last day of November started well, with lots of anticipation for the Big Game against the team up north...
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| We wrangled Lndi into this image when he showed up to kids club in scarlet and grey... |
After a Saturday afternoon of futbol school, we snuggled up on couches with nachos to watch what was supposed to be a blowout by Nathan's favorite college football team... the evening didn't end as happily as they looked in the image above. Maybe it's because Luis wore the wrong color, ha ha. Sigh. Thankfully, it's just sports :-)
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