This little piggy went to Vlashaj... this little piggy played soccer...

We had a bunch of girls from the University of Arkansas (Razorbacks!) stay last week with us out in the village!  They are spending a total of six weeks in Albania and chose to spend one of those weeks in Vlashaj to get a broader picture of the country and the face of missions here!

The team was hosted by our friends, the Shackelfords in Elbasan.  The team leaders (upper left, above) Arsid and Lindsey (married) were great.  Arsid is Albanian and this was his first time back in Albania since coming to the States 14 months ago.  We were with them Tuesday, then returned to Vlashaj on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.  While in Vlashaj they visited homes, played lots of soccer and volleyball with the kids, and sat in on the various programs that go on in the center throughout the week.  Two of the students are studying nursing and shadowed the village nurse for part of a day!

The team came prepared for ministry and willingly shared testimonies, creative dramas, and played in the middle of the heat with our youth.

I think I'm always surprised how much of my heart leaves when volunteers depart, but our lives feel much richer for having met these young women.  They encouraged our hearts and filled us up by loving our friends and neighbors. 

They all shared how refreshing and peaceful they found their first village experience (how can you not when the traffic occasionally looks like this):

Come back anytime, girls!

Ellie's Birthday Highlights in Photos

Last fall we saw this hotel shaped like an airplane.  Ellie couldn't get it out of her head.  She desperately wanted to go inside and stay the night there.  We told her maybe for her birthday...

Thankfully hotels aren't very expensive here.  And we believe that 'experiences' trump gifts just for the sake of gifts (Ellie's not really into 'toys' and it's always a struggle to shop for her), so we decided to make a night at the airplane hotel part of her birthday celebration here for a unique way to remember this birthday.

It didn't disappoint!  We had a comfortable room and had a little bit of time in the morning to enjoy the pool before going to kids' club.

We got our breakfast poolside!  Yes, we were those crazy Americans who were in the pool at 7:30AM.  Crazy thing was, it was hot enough at that early hour for the water to feel really good!

While we waited for our food, Ellie declared that the plane flew around the world while we slept and landed again.  Reni couldn't believe she actually thought that (he's still trying to understand her imagination).

We had omelettes the size of dinner plates but Reni was most excited about the chocolate brioche.

I snapped this pic below to remind me how sweet it was to watch her lifting and helping her brother access all of the parts of the playground he wanted to enjoy.  Her compassionate heart is one of my favorite things about her!

We pulled up to the ministry center at 9:58 and enjoyed a fantastic program brought by a visiting team from Arkansas (more about them later).  That's our crazy friend Ken (a missionary in Elbasan) acting as Zacheus.  He walked in on his knees and Reni said, "He looks like ME!"

Nathan had the great idea to bring cake pops for Ellie's birthday treats.  Then he researched them on the internet for instructions and halved meat skewers to work as sticks.

In the process, we discovered that 'cake pops' have not made it to Albania yet.  We got a lot of confused looks from our Albanian-English speaking friends, even when we described them.  I think they were a hit.  I wish I could remember why Luli was so tickled below.

Ambra brought Ellie the most beautiful bouquet of flowers (see my instagram feed at the top of the blog).

Yeah, we were going for purple and it turned out more 'gray'.  Ah well.

Thank goodness for sprinkles at Conad (a grocery chain)! We paid a small fortune for them, but they really completed the look.

One of our birthday traditions for the last several birthdays has been to launch a paper lantern.  I had a few left when we were packing up in the States and threw them in the bottom of a suitcase. Ellie was totally surprised and really pleased to show her village friends how these work.

The heat of the day made it take a while for the heat to rise substantially enough in the lantern, but once it was off, up and away it flew!

We brought home Ken's youngest daughter, J, who is just a month older than Ellie, for a sleepover.  I think they all had a blast,

I brought over the #9 candle last year, but it turns out you can get them here too!  Oh well. ;-) The little cake is the leftovers from the cake pops and was going to be iced to resemble a bird cage, but we ran out of time. ;-(

Happy Birthday, sweet Els!  We hope you know how much you are loved!

Gezuar Ditelindjen, Zemra! (Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!)

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the new teeth.  Maybe it's that this is her last birthday in single digits.  Maybe it's being here in Albania... All I know is that I feel my chest tightening a bit more with this birthday.

She's had a fabulous day and I can't wait to post it... but for now, I'm going to just sit and look at the transformation here.  It has a way of making the years really feel like they have flown!

Our weekend: plants, posts, ping pong, people, Pentecost!

Anyone reading this blog for the past 9 months knows our weekly routine pretty well, by now.  As the seasons change though, so does the nature of our times in the village!  This past weekend we spent three nights in Vlashaj due to some special events on Sunday evening that we were helping with.  I'll just let the photos tell the story...

Below: In March the Asbury team planted an olive tree in our tiny backyard garden.  We're pretty excited about our first-ever olive tree.  They're one of my most favorite things here in Albania.  I never get tired of admiring them!  We're hoping this one makes it, though Nathan thinks there's some kind of fungus growing on the leaves.  Any of you know an arborist?

We have a little community garden in the back.  And by "community" I mean the produce is shared between the staff members.  Arjan is weeding and staking the tomato plants here.

This spring has found us working to make the property a bit safer for everyone who uses it.  Mandi had the bright idea to wrap fencing around the pavilion to keep stray balls from flying into the backyard (or neighbor's yard). Incidentally, it also keeps curious little boys out of the backyard too, and in the front yard where supervisors can see that they're not up to funny business! ;-)

Our grape arbor is filling in more each week!  It's the only shade we have in the front, and so it's a popular place for folks to congregate. Just in time for the summer heat which descended this weekend with a vengeance! (And it's only early June!!!  I'm starting to worry about July and August...)

Thanks SO much to Planters supporters who give faithfully.  This spring we knocked a hole in the front wall and added a gate which permits us to park our vehicle (as well as up to two more) inside the walls overnight (a very important theft deterrent).  We added the wrought-iron fencing around the top of the wall too as kids were jumping over and regularly walking around the top of it.  We weren't worried about theft as much as injury and keeping peace with our neighbors.  I know it's not glamorous, but it gives us peace of mind that someone won't be hurt falling off of it, whether we are around or not.

Below, the children are pictured with Miss Eta.  Eta joined the team last year and teaches the Bible lesson at kids club.  She has a wonderful heart for children and we are so blessed to have her help!  She's getting married in two and a half weeks to a young man from her church in Tirana and we couldn't be happier for her!

An official school field trip day on Saturday depleted our numbers significantly at Kids Club, but that didn't keep us from having fun!  Arjan pulled out the ping pong table in the coolness of the indoors.

I had grand plans for hospitality this past year with a whole list of folks I wanted to have over for lunch or coffee, but life here just takes a bit longer to accomplish the same things back home. We were told at our pre-field training to expect working at 60% of our usual competency and productivity levels, even after completing transition and adjustment to Albania -- so I'm trying to give myself a little bit of grace that I haven't met all my goals for this first year.

Our summer calendar is rapidly filling (oh yeah, we added 'summer school' to our schedule last week) so even though we wouldn't be at our 'Tirana home' this weekend, I was pleased when our friends, the K family from Germany, agreed to come for lunch out to the village!

Ellie loved playing with their 18-month-old daughter, "A".

  

Reni?  "Babies stink, slobber and chew on my toys." 

I assure you, Miss A did none of those things, but Reni could not be dissuaded to change his opinion.

A's dad, Johannes, is in our Shqip class.  We've met his wife Kim in passing here and there but never for more than a few minutes.  We had been anxious to have a more extended time to visit with them and hear about their journey to Albania as well as their ministry plans for the future (they came to Albania in September 2013 like us).

In class, we immediately connected with Johannes as he is a fellow missionary.  But we also appreciated his heart and interest in using his social work profession in working with individuals with disabilities.  As only God could orchestrate it, it's through Johannes that we learned of a German orthopedic team in Pogradec, Albania (on the border of Macedonia).  This team has a prosthetist and prosthetics department which we are hoping to meet in July!!!  Previously we had assumed that Reni's orthopedic care could only take place outside of Albania's borders so you can imagine what a blessing it would be to have something within a couple hours' drive!  In spite of being in Albania these nine months and vastly expanding our network within the missionary and expatriate community, no one else has told us about this team in Pogradec!  We would appreciate your prayers that this might work out to be a viable resource for Reni's needs and we will be sure to keep you posted.

Finally, Sunday evening Nathan drove a van full of folks from Vlashaj into Tirana for a joint Pentecost service (altogether 20 folks from the village came).  There were churches from all over Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo represented!  Our village friends were so excited to see that they were part of a bigger body of believers in this part of the world.  We are thankful to Genti and his leadership.  He was part of a small team of pastors who had a vision to create this event that transcended denominational lines.

each of the torches represents a different congregation of believers

Lots more to post, but we have a birthday coming in our family in a few days!  Nathan's been slaving away in the kitchen watching 'cake pop' tutorials on You Tube and running the stand mixer on high-speed. The least I can do is help in the clean up! ;-)

"Visitors"

In our May e-newsletter, we put out an invitation to anyone who might want to 'visit' us virtually through Skype or Facetime.  We had several folks take us up on the invitation!  Unfortunately I didn't think to take out my camera for some of the earlier conversations, but here are a few of the awesome people we visited with Memorial Day weekend: supporters, family members, prayer partners, former students from Asbury...

We were told at MTI (pre-Albania training) to be especially intentional about maintaining our relationships 'back home'.  I know that seems pretty common sense, but something about the advice got lodged in my mind and I haven't forgotten it. I can't expect others to take that responsibility -- I have to own it.

My preferred method of communication has always been e-mail.  I almost take pride in not being a 'phone-talker.'  I think with e-mail, I can do the talking, share what I think is important, and write when it's convenient for me.

The thing about Skyping is we usually have to make appointments in advance (especially given the time difference between here and the States).  I can't Skype in my jammies.  And we have to find activities to keep the children occupied if we wanted to limit the interruptions. ;-)

But it struck me that in the course of a Skype chat that we learned more about what was going on in our friends' lives than I would have learned in a whole series of e-mails. 

And at the conclusion of our conversations we felt encouraged, rejuvenated, and reconnected with back home.

Nathan, with his parents on his birthday

I've got a number of other folks in mind that I want to Skype with next -- but don't wait for us!  Send us an invite (username: Nathan.Waggoner) and we'll make it happen!  After all, short of coming here yourself, how else will you get to talk to Squanto, our Albanian-speaking cockatiel?

Walking into...

It's Friday afternoon.

This morning Nathan and I had a final exam in Shqip II.  Sorry Dad, Nathan didn't get his test back  yet so we don't know who scored better. ;-)

As always, I try to look at the exams as a means of seeing what I need to study harder.  Apparently I could use some work this summer on my verb endings, 3rd person singular, simple past and future tenses specifically.

We are headed out the door soon for three nights in Vlashaj.  Soon it will be for much longer! I'm getting excited about that transition coming!

But I'm also leaving for the village today knowing we will be walking into lives full of struggle that I can't 'fix'.

Last weekend after church I had a couple of good conversations with ladies completely on my own (i.e. sans translator).  Of course I'm sure my grammar was ugly, but I understood them and they understood me.  But more important than my ability to speak words and understand theirs was the content of what was shared.  And what was shared was heavy.  A simple question on my part led into a story of heart ache and uncertainty.

Getting a glimpse into another's struggles is wearying.  And the needs here seem overwhelming.

In the meantime, we share Hope and that is why we have come. Hope that He can work all things for good for those who love Him. Hope that He can redeem pain and restore relationships. Hope that we are not alone in the burdens we carry, but that we can give those burdens to Him.

{posted 24 hours later}

The calendar may not yet declare it's summer, but the temps have officially crossed the 30-degree centigrade mark so now it's the season for cold refreshments!  Mirupafshim coffee 'til fall!  What do you think of my hospitality team?  Engrossed in some game, obviously.  It's just as well or we'd run out of cookies before the sermon finished!

Finals Week

Friday marks our last day of Shqip 2, then we break for the summer.  I look at this photo and smile at each of the faces I see. We really have been so blessed with a wonderful group of folks with whom we have been learning this language.  From what we hear from our zysha, this has been a good class (whatever that means -- maybe she says that to everyone, ha ha).  All I know is that God knew we needed the accountability of other classmates to keep us from slacking and boy, did he put us with a sharp group!  But they're not so serious that we don't have a good sense of humor about what we're learning.  In fact, we laugh quite a lot, which is probably why we seem to enjoy each other's company so much and we're all a little sad that our time is coming to an end.

So to those of you who have been praying for our time of language study, thank you!  But don't stop -- this will be a long process -- but we wanted to pause and thank Him for His provision thus far!

So how's it been?

This is usually the first question we hear from friends these days.  How's it been since Anna and Abby left?

outside the girls' apartment as we headed off to the airport two weeks ago last Friday

It's a legitimate question.  Pretty much since our first days here, we were like a family of six. Though the girls lived in a separate apartment (albeit only one floor below us), we were together daily.

I have to say I was concerned about how Ellie and Reni would take their departure.  The past 24 months have been marked by HUGE transition for them since we left Kentucky.  First, they left the only home they ever knew (August 15, 2012).  Then they called the family farmhouse in Illinois their 'temporary' home in between extended trips all over the eastern United States visiting many different people for the next 13 months.  Then, in September 2013 we said goodbye to the most permanent people in their lives: their grandparents and cousins and other special family members and move to a new country with a strange (to them) language.  

We spend eight months in Albania.  That may seem like a blink of the eye to most of you, but for us Waggoners, eight months marks the longest we have remained in the same place since we moved out of our student center apartment in June 2012 to start transitioning that ministry over to the new directors. During these past eight months in Albania the kids met a whole new batch of people, but the only ones they could communicate with understandably on a consistent basis were Nathan and I and Abby and Anna.

You can see why we might be a tad concerned.

So what did we do?  We didn't ignore the fact that a 'goodbye' was coming.  We told them from the beginning that it was just for this school year.  Then, a couple of months out, it was discussed with more regularity.

We gave permission for the kids to feel and express normal emotions associated with grief and transition.  I think a lot of parents in our position fear their children developing calloused hearts as a means of protecting themselves from pain.

To be sure, knowing that Anna will be returning in August to teach at GDQ (a private Christian school in Tirana) made it a tad easier that this farewell was really more like a 'see you later!'

But I think it was Providential that from before our feet landed on Albanian soil, we had planned a thank-you trip/vacation just prior to the girls' departure.  It was the perfect way to end our time together, making fun memories apart from the rigors of school and ministry demands and appointments.

And lest you think the kids weren't attached to their teachers, Reni still speaks adoringly of his Miss Abby.  As we were reading his writing journal this weekend, we noticed that several of his entries ended with "I love you."  I'm pretty sure the message was not written to himself, but for the teacher who was giving his daily writing prompt and checking his spelling. ;-)  And we still hear the occasional story about "Miss Frizzle" (Anna) and the time machine in which they traveled through history.

Yeah -- if you send us a care package, throw in a box of that pre-cooked bacon and Reni will love you forever.

To be sure, it's not just the kids who miss the girls!  No one else knows as much as 'A and A' about what these first eight months in Albania have been like for us.  I find myself shooting off a random little e-mail here or snapping a photo of something on my phone and sending it off to them there.  It's also a little strange to not consider them in our decisions anymore, for everything from planning meals to staying longer in the village.

So while they are missed, I feel just as much gratitude.  Gratitude not just for their service to our children and family, but gratitude for them and their experience.  They embraced Albania wholeheartedly and talk about when they'll return (Anna sooner than Abby, of course, but I'm confident that Albania is a part of Abby now for the rest of her life, regardless of if/when she returns).  They made an impact on so many while they were here too -- the girls of Vlashaj are now pros at receiving a true American bear hug, thanks to Abby and many a village home is no doubt decorated with some original craft conceived by Anna's ever-creative brain for kid's club.  There is no doubt in my mind that their presence drew some in who had been drifting out on the perimeter of involvement back into regular participation in programs.  I also don't think it's a coincidence that attendance at kids club has also been at steady levels with the return of creative contributions in fun craft projects and also the addition of a beautiful space.

They were fantastic pioneers for what I hope might be a regular part of what we do here -- hosting volunteers here who want to exercise their spiritual gifts in a cross-cultural setting, aiding in God's Kingdom growth in this little corner of the Balkans (maybe you know someone who might want to do something like Anna and Abby this past year, either here or somewhere else in the world -- click here).

But being a pioneer isn't easy.  Pioneers didn't settle the West knowing the life they would find at their destination, traveling in comfortable vehicles on interstate highways with detailed signage, guided by a GPS.  Abby and Anna knew next to nothing about Albania, the language, the climate, the culture.  They knew they would teach our children, but that was about all. No doubt thanks to Abby's and Anna's experience, future volunteers will have a better idea of what their future ministries might resemble.  Their expectations will be a little more clear, their preparation (by us) a little more organized, and their living space a little more comfortable (did I post here that the girls didn't have hot water for washing dishes for 2 weeks because we didn't know to turn on their kitchen hot water heater before they arrived?),   We have learned from our mistakes, grown in our understanding, and of course gained more experience.

Thank you, A&A.  We will always, always appreciate what you gave us this year. Blessings on what God has for you next!  May you see His abundant provision just as you served as His abundant provision for us!

Click below to see a brief video of pictures from Anna and Abby's time here!


Anna & Abby