REPORT OF ALBANIA TRIP - Pete Hodge

History
Having spent eight years working with the church in Albania I had maintained in close contact with many of the brethren there, helping to encourage them and to raise interest in the United Kingdom in the work in Albania and primarily with the church in Elbasan.

The city of Elbasan dates back to the time of the Roman Emperor, Diocletian, when it was a fortress on the Via Egnatia, the Roman road that went from the Adriatic Sea to the East. Later, under the Byzantines it grew in stature. Its connection, as a fortress town protecting the Via, ensured its importance. In the 15th Century, under the control of the Ottomans, the castle that was the main part of the city was rebuilt and the town renamed 'Ilj,basan' meaning ''Strong Place'. For many years it was considered to be the capital of Albania, but was replaced by Tirana a couple of centuries ago. Elbasan, because of its situation on 'Corridor 8,' the main road across Albania, should grow in affluence and importance in ensuing years.

I often state that my reason for liking Elbasan so much is due to the fact that 'nothing happens fast there.' There is a pleasant casualness about life. Everywhere there are café's, where people will meet to talk, plan, make agreements and drink coffee. Or, just drink coffee. One of the problems with having a lot of friends in the city and being back after eighteen months away was that they all wanted to 'drink coffee!' For four weeks my caffeine intake probably quadrupled.

The Purpose
Early in 2006 I had decided that I would like to make a trip back to help the church and to visit some of the families we had been working with in the villages. I wrote to the church about this, and they kindly invited me to do just that. A lot of members had stopped coming since Dulcie and I left. So the original idea was to try and bring them back 'into the fold.'

It was whilst discussing my plans with the elders of the church in Skelmersdale, that they felt that perhaps I could extend the purpose of the trip to include looking into the possibility of helping these families to become self-sufficient. Those in the villages had land which they grow food on, what was really needed was a plan to help make this land more productive and provide help to improve the quality of the soil. Once I began to speak with the families and look into the possibilities with them the project began to look realistic. I also talked with World Vision International, who we had worked closely with since the Kosova war of 1999. They had a lot of experience of doing the very same things we were looking at undertaking. The first meeting I had with them would turn out to be far more useful than I had hoped.

During the time I was there, my good friend and brother in Christ, Gerry Cowan came for ten days. Gerry had made a number of visits to Elbasan over the years Dulcie and I had worked there and since, and the brethren had really taken to him as much as Gerry had to them. In the past Gerry had raised a considerable sum of money in the USA for various projects. His insight and encouragement certainly made my job considerable easier.

What follows is a report on my observations and discussions with the families. Also, some suggestions and thoughts on how we could possibly help. With the elders at Skelmersdale, we will use this information to formulate a plan of action, which we will then share with the church around the country and beyond.

The Families
Asslan and Alma Hoxha. I first met this family in 2005. We had been told of this family in the village of Sergeant, about 8 kms from Elbasan. Everyone we spoke to would add, "They are very poor" The family is; father, Asslan, mother, Alma and children, Melika (11) Julieta (9), Grisela (7), Shejua (3).

Their home is a three room brick and concrete structure, consisting of two rooms approx 3 mts sq. Another room slightly smaller, which is currently used as a store room. There are no bathroom facilities near the house, their 'toilet' being a wooden hut overhanging a bank about 1 mt high with a hole in the floor. The waste falls through the hole, down the bank. There was washing facilities except for an outside water tap. This the sole source of water for the family. (I'll explain my use of the past tense in a moment). When I made my first trip to see them, they had been without water for three days. Not an uncommon situation in the villages. Even when they do have a water supply, it is only for a couple of hours, three times a day.

They do have a good piece of land in the front of the house measuring approx 500 sq meters. They currently grow two crops on this, tobacco in the summer – this is a common crop in the area as there is a Cigarette factory in Elbasan. For this they get about £90 ($180) a year. After this crop, they grow animal feed. They have a small greenhouse in which they grow tomatoes and cucumbers. Two smaller plots of land are available, but are not used to their potential.

Whilst I was there, and thanks to the generosity of the Marion and Jackson Churches in Illinois, we were able to commission and see a well built. The total cost of the well came out at about £320 ($630). This means the family now has a supply of fresh water 24 hours a day.

There is also the need for a bathroom for some very obvious reasons. Originally the thinking was for the small store room to be used, but Asslan had the idea of turning that into a bedroom for himself and Alma and building a new bathroom. Funds are available from individual brethren in the UK to buy most of the basic bathroom fittings when they are needed. We still need some funding for other items, such as a shower and water heater. I am waiting to hear if additional funding will be needed for the building itself.

Last year Asslan bought a cow and Alma says that she gets about 7 litres of milk a day from it. With this she makes some cheese, yoghurt and butter, which she sells to her family and a few friends. There is the prospect of her being able to do more in this respect. We are looking into the possibility of building them a second, larger greenhouse. The estimated cost would be £250 ($450). Also, the purchase of some fruit trees would be useful. Oranges, plums, apples and lemons would be easily obtained for about £4 ($8)each.

This family is well on their way to being self-sufficient. I estimate that they could achieve this within two years.

The next family is the Biqaku family. I have been involved with Haxhi and Bajama and their five children for several years. They live in a small mountain village called Lleshan. It is about ten miles out of Elbasan, up a narrow road. I use the term 'road' loosely, as it is little more than a track in places. Apparently contracts have been signed for it to be upgraded, though I suspect that owing to many places where the road is falling away down the side of the mountain, a new road will have to be built. As with so many things emanating from the Government, no one is holding their breath regarding when the road will be done. Also, as there are local elections pending, rumours of spending on roads are abounding.

World Vision International (WVI) asked us to take a look at their situation and we found a family in severe difficulties, economically and health wise. We were able to help them over the years, building them a new house, helping to bring a measure of good health to the children in particular, as well as ensuring they were fed and clothed.

Being near the top of a mountain, water had always been a problem, but thanks to a new supply laid on in the area by WVI, that situation has now improved dramatically. The quality of the soil is poor, with the heavy rains constantly washing the soil away leaving some very stony ground. Also, in the past the lack of water meant the growing of plants had been a very hard task resulting in very poor harvests.

Haxhi grows corn, some wheat and in a small greenhouse he grows tomatoes and cucumbers. On my visit there this trip I was pleasantly surprised to see how things had improved. The good water supply was evident in the cleanliness of the clothing they were wearing – they did not know I was going to visit them the day I did. Also, the plant growth was the best I had ever seen. The corn was much better, as it was everywhere I went, trees and shrubs had grown considerably in the eighteen months since my last visit. Haxhi told me the greenhouse had produced a good crop this year, again, mainly because he is now able to keep the plants well watered. Also, he had managed to harvest 40 kilos of beans.

This has made a huge difference to their diet and general well being. Again, a second greenhouse (18 X 4 metres) is being considered. This would also cost about £250 ($450), though transport costs might take this slightly higher. Some extra fruit trees might be a help, though, because of the altitude they will have to look at the best types of fruit to grow. At the moment they have a large walnut tree on their grounds, plus some fig trees. Walnuts are a good selling crop in Albania, though I don't recall Haxhi selling them in the past.

Again, here is a family that with a little help could easily become self-sufficient. Though we need to recognise that they are educationally, a little behind, especially Bajama.

Whilst I was there Haxhi had an ECG and the print out caused us some concerns and we urged him to see his doctor as soon as he could. He also has some big problems with rheumatism in his back. Here was a situation where I really missed my brother in Christ and great friend, Agron Asslanaj, who died of cancer in January.

The third village family I saw was the Biba family, again in the village of Shirgjan. The family consists of parents, Niko and Flutera, with the children Mimoza (20), Ilda (18), Sylvana (16) and Klinton (11). The three girls are all members of the church. Ilda is currently living with her uncle in another village and because of some problems in the family, he is refusing to let her return home, a situation which we all agreed with. I have known this family for many years and have always considered them to be the 'better off' of all those we worked with. Sadly, whilst things were looking positive with the two other families, with the Biba family, things were every negative.

A few weeks before my visit they had sold their cow in order to pay an electricity bill, which meant they now have no milk. Niko, the father, has shown a strong reluctance for work, though to be fair, he had a serious fall 15 years ago and suffered a head injury. This is thought to be a factor in his situation. One idea we had was for him to have an MRI scan to see what brain damage there might be, if any. This would cost about £80 ($160). Our only concern is what would we do if they found there was a problem.

Mimoza has a fixation about going to university, though how she is going to do that we don't know, as the family have no income at all and are doing nothing as far as we can see to get an income. In most village families all the family get involved in the necessary work, but Mimoza and Sylvana refuse to do so. In discussions about how we could help, the only thing they wanted was a 'cow,' A greenhouse would mean work, and no one would do that.

I thought we had made a breakthrough on my last day there, when Flutera, away form the rest of the family agreed that a greenhouse would be a good idea. But I have since been informed that we are back to the 'cow.' At this stage I have difficulty in recommending helping until there is a possibility of them helping themselves. I just don't see this at the moment.

The last family I visited live in the city. The family is the Milo family. They live in an apartment block and have no land. Dad is in a small business doing car repairs and welding. They have very little income. The three child are all at school. The two eldest daughters, Denisa and Mansjela are members of the church. Denisa has ambitions of becoming a doctor and recently came top in a Biology competition organised by an Oxbridge organisation.

I suggested that maybe we could supply a sewing machine, as mum is home all day. This way she could make clothes and do repair work. Albanian's are very sociable people, so everyone knows everyone and living in a neighbourhood, she could earn some income from doing this kind of work. She was agreeable to this idea.

A sewing machine is relatively inexpensive there, a manual one costing about £40 ($80)and an electric £60 ($120). At the moment the church in Elbasan is helping with some food for them. Not on a regular basis, but as and when they can.

Apart from undertaking this work, I was involved in teaching some classes of young people English, using the World English Institute materials. I also had a couple of individual students. I made a good number of visits whilst there and on the last Sunday we had 52 at worship, which included about five who had not attended worship for some years.

Over the next few weeks the elders of the church here in Skelmersdale and myself will discuss our options regarding the direction to take with our the programme. Already I have an offer of the funding for one greenhouse, which is a good start. Once we have arrived at our decision regarding direction, we will have a better idea of the funds we need to raise.

My personal plans are to prepare a team to go to Elbasan next summer to conduct a campaign using the English lessons of WEI. This uses the Bible as the text book. The campaign will take place over a five or six week period in July and August 2007. People do not need to be trained teachers, or to be very knowledgeable in English grammar. The books effectively teach themselves. Age is also no barrier, so teens to whatever age you are welcome.

I can promise you it will be hot. But it will be fun. You will also get a sense of what is like on the mission field. If you are interested please get in touch with me on hodge.pete@Gmail.com or telephone 0717402794. This also applies to any questions you may have about the work I was involved in which is reported above.

Though I have used the personal pronoun 'I' a lot in this report. I need to point out that I was accompanied by Gerry Cowan for some of the time, Vera Kura, who works with the church as a liaison with the families and is supported from the USA and Darina Vorfi, when she was free from her teaching job, and who has been my regular translator for several years.

Being able to return to Elbasan and to these families has been a time of real blessing for me, and I want to thank the brethren in Longshoot (Wigan) Cleeveleys, Skelmersdale and Marion, Illinois, as well as a number of individuals in the UK and elsewhere who caught the vision and supported me financially and making the trip possible. Thank you my brothers and sisters. Also, I want to thank Dulcie, for 'allowing' me to go. Though she did say she 'enjoyed' not having me around to keep telling her not to do things.

Should any of you have questions about anything in this report, please get in touch with me at the email address above. A fuller illustrated report will be available soon and if anyone would like a copy please let me know.

Pete Hodge
 

Ladies' Day 07 in Elbasan

Having chosen the best spot available in Elbasan and one of the best in Albania, the castle of Elbasan proved to be an enjoyable place to host the day. As I mentioned in the last newsletter the topic was “Female’s Challenges.” The sister had chosen three speakers to address three specific areas of challenge. Rumira Xhaferaj of Tirana spoke on “Challenges in the World.” Ruth Byrne, missionary in Fier, spoke on “Challenges in the Family.” Ellen Walker, missionary in Tirana, closed the speeches by speaking on “Challenges in the Ministry.”

Ladies' Day Leaders

Preaching and Teaching
The ministry of the Word continues to be the most important part of our ministry in Elbasan. My sermons have focused on the discipleship. I have tried to encourage the congregation to be transformed into the image of Christ. This focus on discipleship has been a preparation for my next series of sermons on evangelism. I am working on preparing several ready to use materials for evangelism. I strongly believe in the evangelism done by members, therefore I want them to have several things handy. I have some materials that I have developed myself, and some others that I have collected through the years. One member is translating some materials, and I intend to give some more to others.

Children’s Ministry
The children’s ministry continues to be a blessing. The number continues to be steady, and more resources are becoming available to us. Several of the mothers of the kids were present at the Ladies Day. They approached Bona and expressed their appreciation about the work with the kids. Seeing some rays of light in this new information, we are looking to build bridges to reach into the families. We see light in the end of the tunnel, and we ask you to join us in prayer to get to the other side of the tunnel.

Valbona Teaching

Visit
On April 23 we were visited by two couples. Jack & Brenda Birckholtz and Steve & Deborah Stamatis came to worship with us. Jack ministers to the Oxford Hills Church of Christ, at S. Paris, Maine. He spent one month in Tirana teaching at IBIA. Jack taught Ephesians/Colossians and Old Testament Preaching. I asked Jack to share with us the Word at Elbasan. Brother Jack encouraged us not to divorce congregational worship from everyday life. Steve, who serves as the academic dean of IBIA, is searching for new students for the 2008 class. IBIA focuses on students coming from the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

We enjoy hearing about you! We look forward to hear from you!

Until then,
Kept under His wings and bathed by His love,
Bledar and Valbona Valca.

 

Dear brethren,

Greetings in our Lord's name. if thee seems to be a few more errors than usual, it is due to me using a keyboard with half the letters missing.

I am writing this at the end of the second week in Elbasan. So far my time has been marked by one major difference from the UK, the heat. Temperatures have varied between the high 30's to mid 40's every day. It is just not possible to get used to them. Indeed, nights have
usually been around the low 20's. (C). I have on occasions gone and slept on a lounger by the swimming pool.

But the heat has not stopped the work progressing. I have visited two of the village works for an initial look. These are progressing, and I will give a fuller report next time. I have also been teaching some English classes using the World English Institute materials.

Today, Sunday 29th we rejoiced at the immersion of Ortensa the fiance of our brother Dashi. It was a wonderful occasion. This weekend also saw the wedding of our sister Darina. For my two co-workers, Elisabeth Winstanley and Gerry Cowan, their first Albanian wedding came as a bit of a shock, even though I had warned them. We also rejoiced at the news of Sokol Huka's engagement on the 28th. So, it has been an interesting weekend. Please pray for those I have mentioned.

This coming week I Will be continuing with my students, gaining at least four new ones. I will also be heading back to the village of Shirgjan, and the family of Alma Hoxha. Alma has been doing a fantastic job, and is almost self-supporting now. She has though, got a little behind in watering her crops. So we are planning a day on her land helping her to catch up. Of course, in the usual run of things, we will do this on Wednesday, and on Thursday there will be rain!

Please keep us in your prayers as we labour for the Lord in all our activities.

Your brother in Christ

Pete Hodge

Notes: Post campaign

• The church decided to relocate back to their old building, which is much more suited for their future activities, being on the ground level and one large room. The first Sunday there saw 27 attend, many for the first time. It was a wonderful feeling being back where there were so many good memories. One lady, the mother of two of the churches faithful youngsters, was heard to comment after just how great the atmosphere was compared to the past.
• Monday the 20th saw Armando Kura immersed into Christ. Armando is the youngest son of Ilir and Vera Kura. (He was baptized) in the swimming pool at my home.  Armando stood by the side of the pool and from the outside I just had to push him down under the water. This means that the church has enjoyed two baptisms this summer, for which we are all rejoicing.
• This is just a taste which is to come as these brethren work at serving God as never before. Please keep the Elbasan church in your prayers.

From: Vera Kura in Elbasan

NEW FROM ELBASAN

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

The past few months have been very blessing ones and at the same time very challenging. A lot of efforts have been shown by all of the members of our congregation and of course without leaving aside the help of our brothers from other places who have been here to help us with our work. The presence of God in our lives and hearts has been a real encouragement in the fulfilling of all the tasks that were set in the past. Despite the hot weather and all the heat that has been present during these two months we have managed to do our best and be ministers of the Gospel and our Lord.

During the month of July our brethren Greg & LaDonn Weston helped us with the work here. They shared all of their lessons and helped us with the sharing of the gospel during their stay here. As usual they were a real help and blessing to all of the members here. They did some teachings with individual students and at the same time Greg lead us in the Bible class and his wife LaDon shared her lesson with the ladies on Friday evening at the Ladies' class. She talked about one of the characters in the Bible who is Esther and she handed out some cards in which she had represented the beauty of a woman as a recipe. A beautiful woman who has kindness, love, shares and obeys and all of these lead you to honor. She also helped with the children on Sunday school. We had some very good classes with them and look forward to having them back here if it is God's will very soon. All of the members feel comfortable with them.

Ilir has been preaching also during the month of July as our brother Mondi had to go off to Italy and camp for two weeks. So he prepared two sermons for the church and they asked a lot of effort for him but were successfully covered by him. He spoke about relationships in a congregation and the purity of this relationship in this unclean world. They were really good sermons and very encouraging at the same time. This shows the commitment and the growth that Ilir is having in preaching. It is good to see that the school he is attending is being of a great help to him and it will continue to do so even in the past. This is of course thanks to the encouragement that you have given to him.

As you are already aware of, one of our future tasks was the work in Kryezjarr, one of the villages here in Elbasan. We are finally glad to say that the work has begun by doing individual work and group work. The groups are composed of different ages and Remzi, Mereme, Ilir and Vera are involved in this work. We are very happy as we have had some very good numbers and a great interest has been shown by the people there. At the same time we have closely worked with World Vision by giving us the possibility to get to know with people there better as they cover that area. We are looking on getting some material help from them with the building in order to make it easier for us to work there. World Vision has helped us with some shoes in order to deliver them to the community and we have already been part of some of the training they have organized especially for the children as we work with them during our Sunday school and the VBS during their vacations. We are looking forward to have some more material aid from them for the next months. The training was very helpful to us and Erinda, Irena and Vera attended it. It was very helpful especially for the VBS.
On the 27th up to 31st of this month we had the VBS. Vera, Mereme and Erinda worked hard to make it work out properly and it was a successful job. 35 children have been attending the VBS and they enjoyed themselves a lot. The puppets were made possible from the church of Tirana as we don't have any of ours. We prepared some sandwiches for the children when they were there. Everything was covered by the church funds.

On the 21st of July a group from Fier came around to share the Bible class with us. They came a little bit earlier as they wanted to visit one of the old bridges here in Elbasan which used to be via Egnatia once and that apostle Paul might have passed by and shared his word. The people were from the sponsoring church of Christ in Kennett, Mo to our brother Steve Byrne. Their son was present too. Spencer Furby (preacher) shared his lesson with us that time. He talked about faith. We read from the book of Hebrews.

Our brother Dashi became a father during the month of July. He was blessed with a pretty little girl. It was tough for him as he is unemployed and at the same time even his wife and the whole family have economic problems. The baby was delivered by going through an operation and they could not afford to pay for the operation. Thanks to the church of Skamersdale this operation was made possible. They were a real blessing to this new family and the new born child. They are thankful to all of the people who helped them go through this hard time.

Another generous contribution that has been given to us is that from the churches of Harrisburg and Marion, along with some personal contributions that made possible for us to have the car. This car has made our life easier and has helped us go to different places safely without being at risk anymore. You are a very precious help to us and the church here.

Due to the current economic situation in Albania we are having some problems with this fact which is affecting us a lot. The dollar's continued decline has affected the exchange rate between dollar and lek seriously. Currently it is down to 80 lek per dollar. This is roughly 20% down on the beginning of the year. Alongside this fall in our income the world increase in food prices has seen massive increases. Gas has reached 157 lek per litre, diesel even higher and also the electricity is 30% higher this year. We have had to drop our internet connection as we were not in the position to continue to afford it. The power price has also increased a lot and this is making our life very difficult as we had to cut a lot on our expenses. Ilir and I ask brethren to keep this situation in their prayers and try to do something to ease this situation.

Hoping that everything is going to go well and praying that the word of God can be spread and accepted by the whole world. Let us pray to keep up with the good work and continue to serve our Lord. May God bless you all richly.

In Him

Ilir and Vera
 

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

It is our continuous prayer that this report will be of an inspiration to us all and that will guide us over the next challenging and exciting month. At the same time we hope it provides further information, which you may find helpful and encouraging to dip into or refer to during the process of our work. As we all know we are now to the point of only a month ahead to the end of this year which is packed full of activities performed by all of us and blessings from our Lord. We have tried to provide an in-depth description of each month of our work. We have come to a point of finding it overwhelming to see the work and all of the challenges met during all of this passing year. Even though there is still one more month to go to fully end this year we feel proud of our work and mission here in this part of the world. Of course all of this has happened because it has been God's plan from the very beginning. As usual following we will list all of the activities performed during the month of November.

As every other month even the month of November has been one full of activities and challenges. On the 9-th of this month we had the guest speaker from Italy our brother Pino. He was here for a week and took part in the Bible class on Tuesday and shared his lesson with us on Sunday. He spoke about the role of a member in the church and how we should consider the work and ourselves in the church and our impact in the work within the congregation. The next Sunday we had another guest speaker from America. He is our brother Virgil together with his wife Jackie. They came on Saturday and stayed over night with us. It was such a great pleasure to have them here and host them in our house. He brought his lesson based on the story of Martha and Maria. We need to choose who to be and the way to act in the church and within the congregation. As usual they were of a great encouragement to us and we had a great time together. On the 15-th we also had the leaders' meeting. Mondi, Iliri, Vera also took part in this meeting. We discussed about our responsibility as leaders to keep the 'finger on the pulse' of the church by picking up the general mood of the church and their readiness for doing things. We need to put some emphasis on the real enthusiasm and commitment in order to move on and allow people to recharge and put into work their batteries.

In addition we have continued with the work in Kryezjarr, which is going very well, and requiring some more involvement from all of us. The children's class is led by our sister Mereme, who is performing a very outstanding work, and the children are always being supportive, enthusiastic and eager to learn more and be a very active part in the classes. The number of the attendance is growing time after time. At the same time we have the ladies' class and our sister Vera is dealing with this class. The ladies are very happy and they learn a lot from this classes. They ask questions and they want to learn more and more about different subjects on the Bible.

On the other hand as we have continued up with the work with the children and the ladies we have had several requests to open up a new class especially for the youngsters. So we didn't hesitate to open this class, and didn't want to put on hold these classes and decided to work with the teens of this village. They have had some insights and ideas about the classes held there form the children and the ladies and that is why they wanted to be part of this classes themselves. We felt very proud to this success of us and above all to face some more responsibilities and challenges for us. We pray and hope to keep up the good work and be of a great help to these teenagers and make them feel part of this mission of ours. This class is held on Saturday so we are going there twice a week now and not only once a week. Let us hope to have results and get this work moving properly.

The usual classes held in Elbasan Church of Christ on regular basis are the Bible class, the Ladies' class, the Youth class on Saturday and the Worship Service on Sunday. As you are well informed our brother Steve Byrne, who has helped us during this year with the Bible class on Tuesday, is in America and at the moment our brother Mondi is leading this class. We are studying the book of Ephesians and we hope to finish it by the time our brother Steve comes back here. The classes are of a great encouragement to all of the members. The ladies as well have some very good time with each other. They alternate this class with experiences form their everyday life. The classes are led mainly by our sisters Merem, Rezarta, Vera, Valbona, Denisa, etc.

On Saturday the youth class is being of a great encouragement to all of the youngsters of the congregation. They talk about different subjects on the Bible and they share their own experiences of the everyday life and their input in the society as young Christians. Of course they are supervised by our brothers Remzi, Ilir and Mondi. They are very enthusiastic about the class and they come up with very good ideas and show a great responsibility toward the work. The worship service on Sunday is led by our brother Mondi and he is helped by our brothers Ilir, Remzi and Dashi. They alternate their work and help each other out in order to have a very warm environment in this congregation. We are very enthusiastic and very happy about the work and the input we are having from all of the members of the church.

The third week of this month we had another church meeting where we discussed about the contribution, that each one of us needs to give in the church, and serve according to the gifts that each one of us has been given by God. We need to motivate each other on this and give the members the vision of the potential outcomes. We also informed about the expenses during all of this period up to now. They had some ideas on the financial side of the church. We also discussed about other issues we have been through and various points to look at for the future. At the same time we planed some of the work for the way ahead in the next and last month of the 2008.

All of this work has required us a significant amount of time and effort. It has been very difficult for us because we have had some health problems lately. Vera has been suffering from the kidneys and Ilir has had a very high blood pressure. But despite these difficulties with the help of our brothers and sisters we overcame our health problems and managed to enable the work in the church. Please keep us in your prayers and ask God to fully restore our health and continue our work in this congregation.

We cannot close this report without thanking all of you, who have financially supported us, and all of the tremendous help given to us all. Also a special thank you to the certain contribution given to us to pay the electric bills of the latest months. You make us mobilize each other and preset our tasks for the future and look at the bright sight of the situation. Let us have new visions and come up with the best ideas we can in order to be recognized as the central part of this city and reach out to the lost.

In the end we need to put our emphasis on the core values of the church as an integral part of the Christian life. We need to be the church, which has developed a coherent and realistic plan of action and work by encouraging new initiatives and increasing the involvement of church members in the community and the congregation itself. May God bless you richly and keep us safe.

We have also attached some photos of our work in Kryezjarr.
 

Kryezjarr

In him

Ilir and Vera
 

Greetings to all of you dear brethrens,

We wish you a very Happy New Year 2009, a year full of blessings and success for all our earthly family, full of encouragement and love shown to the world, full of hope and thankfulness and tasks to be fulfilled. Let this year be full of opportunities to save as many lost souls as possible and a year of enlightening approaches to this world.

It is high time to report all of the work performed by us during the month of December even though we have just entered the 2009. Knowing that this month usually is a very hectic one and outstanding at the same time as it is full of celebrations we have had a challenging period of time hoping to have been a real help to a lot of people. The end of 2008 marked a year full of success and a family grown stronger everyday despite all of the difficulties faced and challenges met. Though it has been a very hectic year this month has also been a decisive one.

We are happy and thrilled to report that the work in Kryezjarr is going very well. It seems it is becoming a tradition to report only good news from this village. An outstanding work is being performed here and the people are being very supportive and eager to continue and learn more and more about the good news. We are continuing with the classes for the children and the ladies. Lately, we are being helped by two wonderful ladies, Sina and Leti, who live in the village. We think that God is working with the hearts of these people. These are the things that make us go ahead and look forward to helping people and being helped by them to fulfill our preset tasks. One of these ladies, Leti, had a wedding party in her family. Her son got married and she invited us at the wedding. This was a great honor for us and it was a very interesting experience (especially to Vera) as we got to know to their customs and traditions. We enjoyed ourselves a lot and thanked the family for the invitation.

On the 5th and 6th of this month Vera and Irena took part in training program organized by World Vision with the subject of "Child Abuse". This was very helpful to them as they help with the Sunday school and take care of the children who attend these classes on regular basis. They were very enthusiastic and found this training very helpful and encouraging.

On the 15th of December we took part in the worship service in Tirana. The speaker was our brother Steve Stamatis, who also is my professor at school and at the same time the dean of the school. His lesson as usual was very encouraging and fruitful to all of the brothers and sisters at that worship service. After that we had a fellowship time with each other and with the other students of I.B.I.A. They offered us a very special meal. A week after, on the 20 th of this month, Steve and his wife Deborah were over at our place for a visit. They spent the weekend with us and we had a great time.

As usual the main activities during the week have been going on regular basis. On Tuesday we have the Bible class, on Friday the Ladies' class, on Saturday the Youth class and on Sunday the worship service. Our brother Mondi preaches on Sunday. He is also leading the Bible class during this month on Tuesdays as our brother Steve Burn has gone to USA. We are studying the book of Ephesians. The attendance has been as usual. Valbona has been helping with the Ladies' class helped by the other sisters as Mereme and Vera. Rezarta is helping with the children in the Sunday school. Together with Ilir we went to visit some of the members' families of the church like Remzi's, Mondi's, Denisa's, Darina's, Enkelejda's, Berti's. They all were happy to see us and gave us a very warm welcome. We were thrilled by their hospitality shown to us. The church has given a support to brother Berti by buying some food supplies so that he could be able to have some more things at home in order to celebrate Christmas and the New Year's Eve as everybody else. His face was filled with smile and happiness was brought into his eyes and life even for a very short period of time. Remzi, Mereme, Vera and Ilir went to Berti's house for this visit.

It is well known by the whole world now that the month of December is a very special month for the Christians as it is Christmas time and a joyful time for everybody; but unfortunately the message it really conveys is fading away with the passing of the time. To people now it is only about presents, shopping, good food, spending money more than usual or having the so called "fun". But we all know that this is the time when we can tell the world about Jesus and his mission on this earth. It is time to share the good news and make it clearer to everyone that it is not time for fun but time to struggle a lot in order to get this evil world find the right path and follow it by living a Godly life, which has been given to each human freely and abundantly. We organized with the children a party, where they all enjoyed themselves. The parents were there, too. We did the same even in Kryezjarr. The place was packed and it was really encouraging for us. There were 74 children and 60 ladies at this party. Seeing the place full of children was really gorgeous and seeing this place outnumbered made us imagine how awesome would be if in the future all of them would become Christians. This needs a lot of effort and makes it challenging to us all but nothing is impossible to God. As usual we were made possible some presents for the children from World Vision. Trainers and boots were handed over to these children and they were very happy. Our sisters Rezarta, Mereme, Erinda and Vera helped with the delivery in Elbasan and Vera, Leti and Sina in Kryezjarr. We thanked everybody, who took part and at the same time gave thanks to our Lord, as he blessed us and the children with all of these presents and the work, which resulted a very successful one.

Due to all of the preset tasks and all of the work that was presented above we think that it is time for us to think for a campaign this year. With all the work in Kryezjarr and in Elbasan we find it necessary to ask for some help from the brothers and sisters in order to cover the work and make it easier for us. It would be better if we could have some help from more experienced, hard working and encouraging brothers and sisters. This of course would be the best time to share experiences with people from different cultures and let the people here know that our family is a very big one and that we help each other wherever and whenever needed. We look forward to your answer as you consider our request.

We cannot end this report without thanking our Lord for all the blessings he has given each one of us and for our work, which is performed for his glory. We are thankful to all of the sisters and brothers, who have supported us by giving their input and their financial contribution to make possible our work. We ask you to continuingly keep us in your prayers as for economic crises we are suffering the consequences and having problems with economy. We are facing an economic drop and crisis.

On the other hand the challenging 2009 makes us set some goals for the church and the prosperity in the future. We need to keep up with the good work and never forget that everything is made possible only because it is God's will. We are going to continue with the classes and the mission in order to draw people nearer to God, share with them the good news, meet their needs every time we can, enlarge the number of the church members, showing care and love to each other, face all the possible problems that might come up humbly and with calmness. We are sure that everything can go on the right direction and stream as we collaborate with each other and keep being on the right path. Wishing a very happy 2009 and full of blessings we end this report here. May God bless you Richly and keep you safe during this month.

In Him,

Ilir&Vera

 

Greetings in the name of Jesus

We hope that everything is going well for you and your family. Thank you very much for the kind words about our report and the encouragement you pass on us everytime. We are really blessed to have brothers, who help us and encourage us all the time.

In one of our reports we have asked about the campaign plans this summer and at the same time we have asked for some help if it would be possible from brothers and sisters from abroad with our work here. We remember that last year you told us to ask for campaigners from the beginning of the year and now we are interested into having your response about this. We need to plan ahead if we are going to have a campaign here in Elbasan this year. Of course we will take care of everything here if there will be any campaign held here this summer.

We hope to have an answer as soon as possible. We will keep in touch. Take care and may God bless you all.

In Him
Ilir and Vera

March - April 09

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

First of all we hope that everything has been going well and according to God’s will and plan. It is because of his plan that we are blessed to be part of this plan and of the mission on this earth unfortunately now full of filth. Nevertheless we will always be part of this plan as far as we are going to be willing to be a part of this mission.

The past two months have been effective and with the usual rhythm of work. There have also been few celebrations apart from the work performed by all of our members. February has been cold and somehow short but we have still continued with our work. On the 5-th of this month we celebrate the founding of our congregation and as usual we wish the whole congregation a long life together with our Lord Jesus Christ serving him humbly and honestly day by day to enlarge his kingdom and put a brick in the highest wall of Christianity on this world. We have had a visit from our brother in Christ Wayne Speer and his wife Brenda. They are always a real blessing to us every time they come here. This time they made possible the device used to measure the blood pressure and for the diabetes and we are thankful to them for this. We had a great time of fellowship together.

The Speers

Now we are officially within the lovely season of spring. During the month of March we even celebrated the “Summer Day” on the 14-th of this month. It has become a tradition to celebrate the coming of spring and at the same time having the special delight called “ballakume”. Instead of the very cold wind we now have a warm lovely breeze petting our faces. On the 8-th of the same month we also celebrated “Mother’s day”. We organized a party for the all the ladies of our congregation and of Kryezjarr. This was made possible from our brethrens to whom we are very thankful as always. The ladies had a great time and they are very thankful, too. On the 28-th we visited for the last time our brethrens Steve and Ruth Byrne. Unfortunately this was their last week in Albania, as you already know that they are moving back to USA for good. We thanked them for all their help and encouragement they have given and been to us all. We spend some very precious time with them and enjoyed ourselves a lot. We also wished them the best in their new mission in USA.

 Kryezjarr Ladies

The usual activities performed during these months are the Bible class on Tuesday, the worship service on Sunday and the classes in Kryezjarr. We are very happy to see and to report that our work is being fruitful in this village. The ladies and the children are always eager to learn more and more and to reflect back the things they have learned. We are stunned from the feedback we have from them time after time and especially from the children. They can be seen as the possible future Christian if it’s God’s will. The ladies also continue to show a great interest on the Christian life. They come up with very good questions and this makes it more interesting and at the same time make us work harder and harder. Our sisters Vera and Mereme have helped and still help with the children and the ladies in Kryezjarr. Our brother Mondi leads the lesson on the Bible class and shares his lessons during the worship service. As usual he does a very good job. We are studying on the book of Ephesians. He is helped from our brothers Remzi and Ilir during the worship service by leading us with the songs and the word of prayers.

Ortenca and her baby

Ilir has continued with his studies in IBIA. This is being a very good help and very important as well. The studies are very helpful to him to make potential sermons and lessons for the future. He continues to be under strict medical prescriptions. Thank God his health is better now. His visit was made possible from Steve Stamatas. Steve managed to have an appointment with the doctor at the American hospital in Tirana and he sponsored for the visit. We also thank them for supporting us and making possible the visit and all of the other brothers who made possible the medicine needed for Ilir.

Special thanks go to all of those, who have given their support so that our work can be performed continuously. We thank all of our brothers, who have offered some money to help Dashi’s family during the hard time they are going through because of the financial situation they are facing. At the same time we thank for the activity for the ladies of Kryezjarr for “Mother’s day”. On the other hand we need to make a request for prayers. Please keep us in your prayers and all of the work being done here. Don’t forget to remember in your prayers Agron’s mother as well. She isn’t feeling well at all and is suffering a lot.

We wish you all the best as we enjoy the season of spring and may God bless you and all of our family richly.

In Him
Ilir and Vera

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