October '25 | A Campus Visit , Colleague Check-in, and new Collaborators!

October was a beautiful month in Albania! We started the month enjoying a surprise coffee with our friend, Alvi.  Surprise in that we went to Durres for an appointment, found out we had more than an hour to kill, and decided to look up Alvi who took his coffee break to hang out with us while we waited! <3

But with this season, comes the maturation of the grapes... which attract all the insects... which got tangled up in Ellie's hair while facilitating music class.  Poor girl got stung by a bee on her ear in the middle of teaching.  Our friend Ismail promptly broke off some fig leaves and used the milk to draw out the stinger.  You learn something new every day!

When your daughter decides she wants to join her parents on their weekly errand runs, you treat her to a sweet treat for choosing to spend time with you!

A highlight of October was making a campus visit to the Torchbearer's Crossroads campus in Erseke, Albania!  We got to drive a new highway that cut 20-25 minutes off the drive and provided us the opportunity to see some beautiful countryside.

We saved so much time, we stopped for coffee (plus, there are no rest stops on the highway)!

We had not been in this part of Albania since 2014 and had come from the opposite direction.  The new road was amazing too!  I couldn't resist snapping this photo through the dirty windshield.

We arrived to a campus late Sunday afternoon...

...just in time for the weekly student Sunday evening chapel service.

The campus had lots of ways to recreate...

Ellie was thrilled to see where she hopes to spend next year studying.
(Udhekryq = Crossroads)

Monday morning Ellie sat in on the morning lecture with the 51 students they are hosting this fall from 17 countries!

Back at home, Ellie records a final speech for her Principles of Communication class she is taking online from Asbury.

Over the summer we had the clay tiles on our roof re-set.  Unfortunately, it took some heavy autumn rains to reveal that a few of the tiles were cracked. 

I am glad to report the workers returned and the problem seems to be addressed!

Another Sunday afternoon we pulled out the pickleball net and rackets.

It's such a blessing to have this multi-functional court!

On Monday, October 21st we hosted a group from the Netherlands that performed free eye exams for our local friends.

They brought hundreds of eye glass frames from which to choose.  The finished glasses will be shipped within a few weeks!

Nathan supervises the front office at Jeta durnig football school.  Below, he helps one of the boys print a photo from his phone to gift his mother as a surprise.  They had so much fun watching the image materialize on the photo paper!

For several months we have anticipated the absence of varying teammembers while we take our turns on homeland ministry assignment.  We have asked our prayer partners to pray for volunteers to continue operating various programs.  How wonderful to see God's provision!

The first was Tony M, who returned for his fourth visit!  He stayed two months and helped Luli with amputee soccer and futbol school, but he also facilitated morning exercises at Valued Treasures and taught a seminar on restaurant service! What's lovely about Tony is that his faithful presence for a portion of each year means that he is known by the students he serves and our team.  And that familiarity is priceless.

The Blasco family relocated from Tirana to a nearby village and they come every week to provide arts and crafts! They have such kind, patient hearts.  The students love them. 

This summer we received an e-mail from a family who was moving to Albania and simply wanted a way to serve others in their spare time. Oh, and they both had extensive experience working in special education classrooms! Seriously? As soon as we got back to Albania, we worked to connect with them and see if they would be willing to help at Valued Treasures.

Fast forward to today and Timothy and Peyton now come two times per week to teach math and science courses at Valued Treasures.  Their lessons are practical, hands-on demonstrations of what they are teaching -- which appeals to our kinds of learners.  I get to translate their lessons and capture video for VT's Instagram so the student sponsors can see what the students are learning and doing each day!  We are super grateful to the Kona family (not pictured, but just as valuable!) who help babysit their young children so T&P can share their skills and training with the VT students.

Continue praying for God's provision of the right folks to help fill the gaps.  The folks he has sent this fall have been SUCH a blessing.  They LOVE the Lord, the students, and they are so qualified at what they do.  They come prepared and shine as good witnesses for the Lord in their professionalism.

Luli and Hannah leave for the USA and will be gone February through July!  So don't stop praying!

Above, Nathan facilitates the morning exercises at Valued Treasures.  Below, Ellie teaches bells.

When we returned to Albania this fall, we brought brackets to hold Ellie's growing instrument collection.  See her new wall additions below... She continues to work on creating new musical compositions in her free time, which I absolutely love!

The last week of October, our regional director, Joy, arrived for a visit.  We took a road trip overnight up to Kosova to visit two families on our greater team in the region.  Below, Bryan gives us a tour of Prishtina High School where he works.

As Area Team Leaders, our responsibilities include monthly check-ins with our co-workers for accountability and compliance. We approve newsletters, budget adjustments, strategic goals, ministry commitments, etc. for purposes of fiscal and spiritual accountability. God has blessed Nathan with a lot of wisdom and discernment to make him a good fit in this role. So if a someone feels like they need to move to a different home, buy a car, ask permission to travel to his home country for a family emergency, attend a training, require legal assistance for residency, or raise money for a special project (for example), Nathan is the first person in the chain of approval for those decisions.

We try to make trips to Kosova at least once per year. Thankfully, it's only two hours to the border, and another hour beyond to the capital city -- so travel is affordable and not difficult. Seeing where our colleagues live and work certainly helps us understand their context more fully. And the time over meals and in homes provides deeper discussion than a 1-hour Zoom call.

The next day we visited other colleagues in Prizren.

Posing with Joy on the river walk that cuts through the center of Prizren.

Near the end of the October, we received the Artonis' two bulldogs.  They are going to stay in our ground-floor store room and backyard until their return in the new year.  Ellie and Reni take turns feeding and loving on them each day.

 

September 2025 | Settling Back Into the Swing of Things

September 3 found us boarding a flight back to Albania!  Not without a little drama.  Just a few hours before the photo above was snapped, we got a frantic phone call from a guest staying in the guesthouse below our apartment that water was pouring down the stairs and coming through the ceiling... the plumber had been called to make sure everything was working for our arrival, but the power was out -- which meant the pump was not running -- and he accidentally left the tap open and unconnected under our kitchen sink.  Super grateful for colleagues who went above and beyond to fix everything after hours of soccer school and no dinner in their stomachs yet!

Flying out of the Peoria Airport means that our faithful farewell crew was able to help us ferry luggage and see us off at security!

But this time half of them came with us!

Below, the welcome crew received us!

Dinner after church with the team!

And much-needed haircuts!!

The reason Mom and Hannah joined us was to deal with emptying Mom and Dad's old apartment in Tirana.  It was a lot of work, especially given it was on the 4th floor (with no elevator)!

It was also emotionally heavy, given all of the memories that transpired there.  Below, Mom locks the door for the last time. So grateful for the use of this place for so many years!  So many memories -- from bringing Ellie home from the orphanage to team meetings and games around the circular kitchen table.

We spent MANY hours at the notary - dealing with the apartment sale as well as other legal documents related to Planters (this has been on our "to do" list for years), providing me authority to sign for business matters, given that I am in the country virtually full time, compared to Mom.

At one point in the packing, up the apartment, we heard Mom shriek.  I thought for sure she had stuck her hand in the back of cabinet and found a dead rat or something (don't ask me why -- we've never had rodents in the apartment before -- but that was the level of her shriek).  We discovered my dad's last prank just waiting to be discovered:

...About a dozen large rocks hidden in the back of a cabinet.  We saved a handful of the stones and placed them in our grape arbor.

After more than a week of packing, moving, cleaning, and business meetings, we enjoyed a quick overnight to Prizren, Kosova -- a 2 hour and 10 minute drive away.  

The trip had been on the calendar since March as an opportunity for Reni to connect with one of his best friends who now lives in Skopje, Macedonia.  We were able to coordinate it with a quick coffee visit with our colleagues, D & B, who moved to Prizren from Tirana in July.  As the WGM Balkan team leaders, we will go back with our regional director for a longer visit to see their home and meet their local partners later in October.

A super fun turn of events was a suprise addition of another family we know (also living in Kosova) that came and joined us!  They have served Ellie and Reni at a few conferences and Reni's summer '24 MK camp experience.  The number of things to do in Prizren seemed a bit limited, at least to us all given that we have not spent extensive time in this city.  But the kids found a place to do go-karting and Ellie and Reni showed off their driving skills acquired from the riding lawn mower and Gator. :-)

Old town Prizren is really charming, and photos don't do it justice!

Just a day or so after returning from Kosova, it was time for Mom and Hannah to return to America.  We took them for their 4 AM airport drop off, came back home for a couple of hours of additional sleep, then got back on the road for a big grocery shopping trip to restock our pantry and fridge.  

But first, a real cappuccino.  I'm sorry, but they're just not the same in the USA.

Our 2009 VW Caddy van has been a fantastic vehicle since we bought it in 2013, 12 years ago.  But with the need to lend it to Jeta to haul kids for soccer school, we were finding it increasingly difficult to "share" it 3 days per week.  

We had been saving up funds to buy a newer vehicle, and wanted to get another that would accommodate 6-7 passengers as we host visitors so regularly. Buying a vehicle in Albania can be sort of complicated -- with more limited options, and needing to consider so many factors (like the ability to locate replacement parts, for one).  It is not unusual for many folks to locate a vehicle elsewhere in Europe and pay someone to drive to Albania on their behalf, or personally travel there to acquire it himself (this was on the table for us).

A few weeks after we returned, we learned of a guy who needed to sell his 2024 van fast, and had steeply discounted the price to ensure a quick sale.  It was still more than what we had wanted to spend, but within 24 hours, we received two unexpected, unsolicited special gifts that totalled the difference between the price and our savings. The fact that the car was still under warranty and available in Tirana tipped the decision in favor of buying it. We now have a 2024 Opel Combi!  The fact that we can connect our phones to the speaker system via Bluetooth is a feature we've never enjoyed before, ha ha! We expect this will serve us well for many years to come.

With our colleagues, Luis and Laura, in Argentina for the fall, we are at Valued Treasures every day.  Below, we play chair volleyball as a movement break before class!

Ellie continues to teach music every Thursday.  The visiting team in April brought and left these color-coded bells!  She has taught them "Jesus Loves Me" and "Nothing But the Blood" -- songs that can be performed within one octave!

On September 22 we welcomed back Steve, Caleb, Jordan, and Joe for repeat visits, and Brent and Chris for their first visit!  Ellie is always clever in her personalization of the welcome sign in the guesthouse. :-)

First morning in the village found them greeting the students at Valued Treasures!

They were great at helping with crafts, games, and exercises!

Brent and Chris were in Albania to shoot a video, so Nathan took them to Durres to visit the amphitheater...

... the rooftop terrace made a great interview location.

Every day the village kids would come for a pick up game of volleyball with the team.

Below, Nathan's brother, Pastor Stephen, greets the village church.

Brent had an acquaintance who came down to visit from Kosova where he serves with Youth for Christ.  It was a pleasure to meet him, his wife, and daughter and hear about the challenges of ministry in his home country.

Saturday evening, set up the projector in our living room and watched Illinois and Ohio State play football in back-to-back games.

We try to take guests to Tirana once while they visit. It just so happened they had amputee soccer practice in the city the same day, so we picked them up from practice and went to see a few sites.

The SkyTower afforded some special views for the video crew. 

Chris needed to find a few gifts to take home.  I thought these mugs were lovely and unique.  Proud of myself that I remembered my full kitchen cabinets resisted the urge.

We hit the Futbol Federation's outfitter shop full of the gear and merch of every team that plays in Albania, as well as the national team, of course.  It's Reni's happy place, as you can tell.

We got home in time to see our "niece" Jaz get baptized at her home church in Argentina!

Another activity we enjoy with groups is serving a flight of sample drinks typical of or unique to Albania. 

From left to right: Dhalle (buttermilk), pomegranate juice, thane (cornelian berry) juice, Aranxhata (a softdrink from the communist period that was recently reintroduced to market as a nostalgic beverage, lemon soda, and "American" cola, just for the fun of it! 

Try as I might, I had to take a turn in the seat in front of the camera.

(below) Ellie is now giving music lessons in guitar, piano and ukele lessons.  Chris got some video of Ellie "doing her thing." :-)

Before we knew it, it was the last night with our guests!  We enjoyed a final time of devotions and debriefing.