Crafts, Activities, School

Well, like the past few weeks, things have remained busy, but not quite as much. Many crafts have been started, and some of our baking has also been started. Instead of lemon meringue pie, I am now making lemon chess tarts (don't ask where the chess comes from, no one seems to know for sure though if you really want to, you can look it up on wikipedia.) I made the first test batch, and it turned out very well: they got approval from the American, Canadians, and Albanians. Soo, I think they pass for Christmas. Plus, there was no rolling out dough or separating eggs, so that was a major benefit. Much of my knitting has been done, but there is still some left in the works, so I need to get working on that. Hopefully it will all get done in time!

Practices are beginning for Christmas events. We even decorated the church tonight for Christmas, which was fun but it also was a bit sad since the tree is very much a Charlie Brown tree--the top half is pretty nice, but then it makes sort of an hourglass shape and it just isn't particularly nice. But, we also have a teeny tree up in our room that Thelma and I decorated, so I've sort of gotten to do some Christmas things. It's just all very strange to be here and not home. But, for a normal week, it'd be a good one.

School is getting closer to done, as Christopher is now done with his Math books and just has one last math test. He's got 4 English, 6 Social Studies, and 7 Science to finish. The English will be easy, the Science and Social Studies may be interesting to get him to finish. Hopefully though, we'll get it all done before I go.

Anyway, things are going well overall, just pray for our FREQUENT power outages. They are a bit of a problem because they knock the internet out as well and things function slower. But, praise God for generators! Ours is a daily help here.

Past Few Weeks

We have had a good few weeks, but I've also been sick quite a bit. There are people coughing everywhere and so I am trying to shake my cold (I did go to the clinic and get medicine this time) and hopefully it won't come back.

Please pray for us since many activities are coming, we have another seminar this weekend and our prep time is being cut a bit short. We are preparing for: the party to reveal the secret partners, the staff Christmas party, the Christmas drama, and the cooking contest. That might be it, but I may be forgetting something. So, anywayWe have had a good few weeks, but I've also been sick quite a bit. There are people coughing everywhere and so I am trying to shake my cold (I did go to the clinic and get medicine this time) and hopefully it won't come back.

Please pray for us since many activities are coming, we have another seminar this weekend and our prep time is being cut a bit short. We are preparing for: the party to reveal the secret partners, the staff Christmas party, the Christmas drama, and the cooking contest. That might be it, but I may be forgetting something. So, anyway we have a lot to get done and little time to do it. I'm sure it will all be very enjoyable, we just need to get the work done first!

Thanks again for prayers!

(1 month and 10 days til I'm home)

Thanksgiving and Seminar

The past few weeks have been very full again, mainly because of the marriage seminar and arrival of several new people this past week. Bill Thomas and Linda Berg came to speak and sing, respectively, at the seminar for the church. Not as many came as had been hoped, but quite a few did and it seemed to be good for people. It was great to have people back in the apartment again, too!

Besides the arrival of Bill and Linda, Thelma Stephens also arrived. Thelma is a retired nurse who is going to be living upstairs with me and helping out around here and in the clinic. She runs a Bed&Breakfast in Canada during the summers. She seems like she will be great to have around and very huggy, which is nice for me.

Thanksgiving was interesting to have away from home, since no one else here was celebrating American Thanksgiving, but I finished most of my update letter then and had an otherwise normal day of work. It was a little lonely since I knew I wasn't with family, but I still got to talk to family, so that helped.

In other news, we've decided we need to work on giving the dog away here because logistically it's going to be very difficult, and financially a problem for myself and my parents. So, though I've gotten very attached to the puppy, I will probably be better off this way.

Prayer requests:
A place for the dog
Continued health
Working on the church website--that we will be quick and get it DONE

October-November

Okay, so a lot has happened in the past month and I'll start on this now and add more progressively.

To start, after we got back from Greece, we had the church anniversary, which was a lot of work, but went very well. Lots of people came, we showed the slideshow I'd worked on several times and it was very well received by the people. The dramas and banquet went well, and then a new church was started. The new church has been going very well, and I love going out there--people keep getting healed, giving testimonies, and encouraging each other so that has been neat to be a part of.

After that we had a the first team we've had since I've been here. They were from Denmark and part of a school called Euroclass, which was basically a ministry-type high school. Most of them were around 16, a few were older, so our apartment was very full for the time there were here (around 10 days). Having them around was fun though because I was beginning to miss home and it was nice to have people who were young and could speak English that I could relate to. During that time I also prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit and have since been learning more about that.

Since the team has left things have been more normal, but there have been some major answers to prayer:
First, a girls' group has been going on for a few weeks now, so I've had more fellowship with other girls.
Second, Valbona and I have gotten closer and have been working out together so I'm losing weight and gaining a closer friend.

Just this week Kimberley has also started school part-time (she is Christopher's little sister). We are doing Kindergarten and Pre-K type things with her--working on letters, shapes, colors, and numbers. She's is so excited about school though!

Greece, Part 2

So, we rested quite a bit on Saturday, and then that night were ready to be going again. We went up and took pictures of the Acropolis off of our roof, then decided it'd be good to go out and walk for awhile--I was antsy and I wanted to get out and do something, not just stay in the room. So, we walked down toward the Monastiraki square and the Plaka (the old town) and decided we'd go a little further than usual, just to go for a walk. We ended up walking down toward the Agora and while there met a lady who was passing out fliers for Benny Hinn's even the next day. She didn't speak a large amount of English, but she said her church was going and we managed to get directions to go to the church the next morning. We said our goodbyes, thanked her, and went back on our way toward the hotel, but a few minutes later she ran up to us saying that there was a festival for Jesus going on and we should come. Following her back we had no idea where we were going, but I was reasonably sure I could get us back, so I felt safe enough going. She introduced another to another girl who spoke more English and who told us about what was going on: there was an African-Greek church that was doing a concert with their choir, in English, and they were just setting up but had had some delays because of the rain. She also gave us directions to their church so that if we liked the music we could go there the next day. Well, the rain decided to not let them play for a long amount of time and it POURED. I have not seen it rain that hard since the hurricanes in FL last year. We were getting pretty soaked, and we did not want to get sick, so we went back before things got started but that was alright because we had found two options of where to go to church the next day.

We ended up going to the African church since it was English speaking and a bit easier to find. Valbona was a bit worried about the area, but I wasn't paying a terrible amount of attention since I was just paying attention to road signs and streets we'd passed. After a bit of confusion and some help from a man who looked like he might be going to church, we found the church and were invited in. We knew we had found the right place when we saw Acts 1:8 on the wall, or at least that was when I felt we'd found the right place. It was awesome--a bit difficult to understand the accented English at first, but people were great and so were worship and teaching. So, we had fun.

After that, we headed back to the hotel and got changed, then went out to go to the Agora. There was SO MUCH there. It was stunning to the ruins just stretched out as far as you can see. We wandered for a few hours, took a bunch of pictures, visited the museum, got in trouble for a taking a picture we apparently weren't supposed to (the lady yelled something in greek for us to move), wandered a bit more, and then headed back. By then it was later and time to get ready for Benny Hinn so we rested a bit then headed out to the Metro. We had checked it out earlier and bought our tickets so that was all set, it was just a matter of making sure we got off at the right stop, but the man who had helped us find the church was on the same part of the metro, so that told me we were going in the right direction.

Benny Hinn was not particularly thrilling. My main disappointment was that he did not present the Gospel that night. Worship was great, but then it needed a better follow-up than talking about his family's accomplishments.

We got dinner out there and the Olympic Stadium area was beautiful, so we had fun.

After Benny Hinn it was late, so we went to bed and the next day we went to Corinth, which shall be the next post. :)

Greece, Part 1

Okay, so I know that some of you really want to hear about Greece and here goes the beginning at least:
We arrived around 7 Friday night to our hotel after a very short flight in a VERY SMALL plane from an EXTREMELY SMALL airport. The airport in total is maybe the size of Wallmart, and had two gates with three flights leaving besides ours that evening. What I could see from the window (Valbona had the window and we were only slightly in front of the wing) was beautiful, and Athens was just spectacular. And huge. We left small, we came into something incredibly large. Since it was evening, the lights were just starting to come out and the city was just starting to glitter a bit. Our taxi had taken us through lots of small winding streets, which we found were common to Athens and finally arrived at our hotel. I loved the elevator, but I don't think any of the pictures I got did it justice--there was also a wooden spiral staircase that was very pretty, but the old iron elevator was very nice and worked smoothly unless we happened to stick our hands to far out, then it would stop wherever it was (we didn't do that often).

Our room was teeeny but it was very clean and when you looked out the window you could see the acropolis, so that was very nice. We wandered around that first night in a square that we ended up visiting just about every day, got our bearings a bit, and had some very greasy souflaki/soufflache (if you need to know what one of those is, go here: www.kojaxsouflaki.com/fr/menu.htm).
We'd gotten a tourbook but decided that we didn't want to pay 50 euros to go on the Athens sightseeing tour, so we decided we'd start with the Acropolis the next morning. Hotel breakfast was small but that was good since we didn't want to eat a huge amount, and really if I had wanted to be stuffed I could have eaten more. Overall, the only complaint we really had about the hotel was that they didn't change our towels/sheets, they just fixed them up and made them nice each day.

Anyhow, the Acropolis is just the name for the area, there's the Parthenon, the Erechthenion, and the Propylaea, plus a museum and an entrance to Mars Hill (the Areopagus). After a reasonable walk but not a terrible one, we reached the top and got a spectacular view of the city. It reminded me a bit of climbing the mountains in Xining, except the mountain here was higher and the city was much larger. The ruins were amazingly huge and it was neat to image what the city must have looked like when the buildings were standing and not in ruins--though for things in ruins, they were in remarkably good shape. We were there well into the afternoon and then took a break from sightseeing to go eat ice cream and nectarines and to sit/lay down in our hotel. And that, for the moment is where I shall leave you. I'll get to another update another time.

Leaving in an Hour

Wheee, I'm leaving in an hour for Greece :) Pray for us as we travel for safety, easy use of ATM or credit card acceptance if we run out of money. And pray for the weather--it's supposed to rain several days and we don't want to have to run around in the rain.

Thanks all, love you, expect pictures Thursday or Friday!

On Our Way to Greece!

Well, we're not quite on our way yet, but we have a flight and a hotel! Yay :) I'm not sure exactly how we get into the Benny Hinn event itself since the guest passes get sent to America--I'm assuming we can just get them at the door, but maybe we'll end up calling, I don't know. The hotel we're staying at does not have internet, so I haven't decided yet what to do about bringing my computer. I may bring it anyway so I can offload pictures everyday onto it. We also have a plan--there are about 17 museums that are reasonably close and would be good to go to, so if it rains we will still have plenty to do.

Pray for us to get done with work here before we leave and for going to Tirana tonight--there's a concert that a group from the church is going to (probably myself included) and so we need protection again while we're there and in transit.

Thanks for reading!

Decisions and stuff

So, I've decided that I am going to go through with the Italy thing--everyone seems to think it's a good idea, and I should be able to work some when I get back to make some more money. Not that I'm really going to need that much, unless we go to Greece in the spring (we might do that if we can, we'll see how finances are then. Thanks to all who responded--it's nice to know that others are behind the idea.

In other parts of my world, thing s are going well with having new roommates and I'm glad to have them. It's nice to have company (I'm sure the dog thinks the same thing). They seem very nice and I think we'll get along well.

School is going on track, so I think we'll be able to get done by January, providing that Christopher's reading keeps improving. So, please pray that it does and that he works even harder, since I think I'll need to push him a bit more for it to all get done.

I'm learning more, and people tell me I've learned a lot, but it's not a huge amount, so I'm going to be looking at getting a textbook to help me. Pray that that will work out reasonably well.

Thanks all for reading and praying!

Brent&Carol and Italy

Brent and Carol's flight got cancelled (something about the company going bankrupt) so please pray for them! They're supposed to be driving down to Bari, Italy and then coming on the boat, so it will be a very long trip for them.

I, however, have been thinking about going to Italy with Valbona and it appears the Benny Hinn thing is not going to work, but we're just going to go for fun. So I'm polling my readers: if you were me and could spend almost a week in Italy for $500, even though you don't have much in the bank, would you do it? That's basically what I'm looking at, and I'm thinking that I'll just use my savings to go, but that's a significant chunk of it, so I'm sure. What do you all think?

August in General + Weekend

This weekend was a pretty good one, I'm still frustrated with some things, but overall I got to rest a reasonable amount but also to be helpful a reasonable amount. I went to another wedding reception the Sunday afternoon, gave the dog a haircut, and generally did some hanging out with the Pennoyer family. The kids are very amused by the southern accent I can put on--I think I had them laughing for about a half an hour just telling them what "y'all come back now, y'here" meant :)

August, of itself, I think was a good starting month for me. I can't believe it's already over, but it is and so here is what I think: I hard some really hard moments, though they were few, and there are things I have discovered will be hard for some time, but there were also some very good times. I have not needed much here, as most of my needs are supplied, so I spent in total, about $85 American. People have been incredibly friendly, but it's hard to get to know them and feel like I have real friends since I can't always communicate well--that's one of the hardest things. I still feel like I don't have anyone (other than God) here to turn to yet, and it will probably be that way for awhile.

More later about August, but for now I have devotionals.

Okay, I'm back now. Back to what I was saying: I am learning quite a bit of Albanian, I suppose, but it's still difficult since even when I can understand what someone is talking about, I still can't really understand the specific content. It'd be nice if the Albanians made anime that I could watch subbed into English, but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon. We'll see what happens when my new roommates get here--they may have a tv they'd be willing to let me use sometimes (there are a reasonable amount of American movies subbed into Albanian, so I could get some reading practice in).

In terms of my actual work:
School, however, has been great. Christopher is an easy one to teach and now that we have his desk, he seems to be focusing better and doing a great job of it. Every now and again he tries to rush through his work and makes goofy mistakes (hmm... never heard of a smart kid that did that before) but otherwise he does very well.

Worship team is good, but not easy. I really have to rely on God because we've only had one practice in the month I've been here and most of the time I don't even know the song order before the first service starts. But, I seem to be doing okay since people have said that I did well.

Therefore, praise God that things are going well--it's good to feel like I belong here because of God, I just need to feel like I belong here in terms of getting to know people. Please continue to pray for me--September looks to be slightly hot again and the mosquitoes seem to have revived!

Everyday Days

So, I guess I would have to say this is starting to feel home-ish. Though it's not completely my place yet, I at least feel at home in the building and I'm beginning to recognize things in town--I could probably find my way to a few things now. This week has been a week of getting into the routine with David back, since it's a different routine than before. I know a bit more of my expectations now, so that helps. Christopher's desk is having its legs put on today, so by next week, we should be working in our "official" school room, which is good. Last night Valbona and I went for a walk, and then met up with some other people and went to the Kaiser, which is a restaurant up on top of one of the "hills" here (to me it's a mountain) and it has a SPECTACULAR view. That was nice, since it overlooks the whole Durres area, including the ocean and the city glitters from there. Anyone who comes there should go there at least once, and I've been there twice now :)

Anyhow, just wanted to let you all know things are going well, and it's quite possible that I'll be bringing Bianca back with me, provided I can afford to do so. They're either going to try to sell her, or send her back with me.

Prayer requests and praises:
THE WEATHER IS FINALLY COOL!
Understanding the declension system--there are nine moods for verbs, and there are multiple tenses within the moods (indicative has EIGHT by itself). Eight tenses wouldn't be so bad except for the moods besides that. So, pray for me, since there don't seem to be many curriculum-type books out there and that's what I really need. Tapes and the dictionary/phrasebook help, but they're still not enough to really understand the grammar, which I would like to do.

Mail!

I have gotten my first mail now! Ryan and Linnea sent me some! Yay :)

On a note for supporters:
I've spent about thirty dollars U.S. on food and supplies for the apartment. So, it's looking like August will definitely not cost me my full support. However, if we do go to see Benny Hinn (I think that's how you spell his name) in Italy, then that will cost quite a bit. Hopefully, with a ferry, it won't be too much.

Daily Life

So, Gene has gone back to the States and I am getting settled again into daily life. Last night I fell a bit on the stairs and strained the muscles in my left arm and in my back (a little) so today when Valbona said that Christopher wanted to go to the pool with his uncle for awhile and we could do school tomorrow, that sounded good to me. So, I have the day off for the most part--I am however going to be decorating in the church for a wedding this afternoon. I'm not sure exactly who they are, but I was asked to help and I like decorating, so I said sure. I think I'm sort of in charge, so that's fun.

On another note, I am apparently supposed to pick a ministry to get involved with, so I guess I'm getting involved with music since I'm playing every Sunday now. I suppose that means I should be playing for other things too, but I'm not exactly sure. David apparently usually tells people something to get involved with, but he told Gene he'd let me choose (thankfully Gene told me).

And last note: I'm going to have housemates too. In two weeks, Brent and Carol are coming back and they will be here the whole time until I go in January, and they might be here some of the time when I come back. We'll have to work on who gets what spaces and how that all works out, so we'll see how it goes.

Prayer requests then are:
1. That I do a good job with wedding decorations
2. That I feel better
3. That I get along well with Brent & Carol when they come.

Shopping!

I went shopping by myself and survived!!!! Praise the Lord! I found stuff I needed, paid, got change, and understood a bit of what the ladies said to me. Whoohoo.

Good Morning

Not as in Hello, but this was a good morning. School has gone well--Christopher is his usual funny self (he told me today that he had played with a gizzly bear!) but we are getting things done and all is well. Bianca is also doing well--no going to the bathroom in the house yet today :) Plus, talking at morning devotionals seemed to go well today--right after I finished, Valbona had a scripture God gave her to go along with what I said, so it was like, hey, I guess I was talking about something good after all. Plus, people were nodding while I was talking (they apparently still nod when someone is talking to them in English) and seemed like they were agreeing with me. So, all went well.

Prayer request for the day:
Mosquito bites are bad today, please pray we do not get any more.

Honeymoon is over

So, today I think was my hardest day. Good things happened, but I'm just in the adjustment phase. Please, pray for me and getting used to my new life here. If you want to know the whiny-type details, let me know and I'll email you, but nothing particularly serious.

Good Day

Today was a not particularly eventful, but good day. We had school and Christopher was his silly and amusing self, ate lunch, got some planning done, went for a walk, and laughed at translating songs. Right now, the worship team is working on translating songs into Albanian, and it's apparently a very difficult task since the languages just get confusing after awhile, but people were having fun. I now know where the morning devotionals are, so I can start going (finally!). I'm supposed to speak for the one on Monday--just some short encouraging-type thing, so hopefully I will know what I should say soon. I'm thinking I might talk about doing everything with your whole heart as to the Lord (my phrasing). So, I am off to watch some movies with the Pennoyers and I hope you all are well!

We went to a "park" last night, so pictures of that will be up soon as well as pictures of the city in general. Please pray for the mosquito situation, they are eating us alive, even with repellent, I still got two more bites last night! (I'm not the only one with problems either).

Please also pray for the puppy situation--David , the main missionary in charge of here and the man whose son I'm teaching, bought a puppy without his wife's approval. She seems to be trying to reconcile herself to the idea, and I love the idea because the puppy currently stays with me. So, I'm hoping she decides to keep it. Anyhow, it got a tick last night, so that's the part that needs prayer--we don't want to see any more ticks or fleas on the puppy! Her name is Bianca, and she's a white Westie-Poodle mix.

Summary Type Thing

For those of you who haven't heard from me since I left, here's the brief version of what's happened so far:
First off, the plane ride went smoothly and though Gene's luggage got inspected, we had no other problems getting through customs. That was definitely a blessing! Customs in Albania was a bit nervewracking because of the large police presence, but not too bad. The police presence here is a bit like it was in China, but Christianity isn't illegal here, I just need to get my papers sometime soon to stay longer. That, we'll do when David comes back with Gene.

Getting adjusted to life here was a bit odd at first, but it is seeming more and more normal. I'm unpacked now, though I need to do some organizing and decide if I'm sending much of anything home. Mostly, I have needed everything I've brought. There have been a few things that I don't necessarily need, but that have been nice to have. I've been glad for the recommendations of those who had been to Albania because there are things that are very difficult to find here, if not impossible.

People have been great here. Valbona has taken me in and is making sure that I have company (but not too much company--i.e. if I don't want the kids in the apartment, she takes them off of my hands) and that I have food. I've been glad for her and that we've been getting along well. The other workers have also been embracing, helping me with translations and sometimes asking for me to help them. So, I suppose I feel like I do have some friends here, even if they're not particularly close yet.

I've been playing my flute in the Sunday services, and though I cannot understand much of the music there are some that have been translated so I know the English words. Plus, untranslated music is great listening practice. I'm getting lots of practice listening to others and figuring out the sound of the language. It's different, but not impossible--there are not many words that I have thought "How on earth do I say that?" about as there were with Chinese. The structure of the language is interesting and between that and the vocabulary I have plenty to do.

School has started also, and Christopher is doing well. Just for us however, since the rest of Albania does not start school until the end of August. I think that we will be able to get first grade done by January, and if I come back after that, we can probably start second grade also--especially in math. Sometimes, the books are too easy for him, and other times, they are right about his level. Reading is a bit difficult, since he tends to flip words backwards, which if he had been reading for a long time would be disconcerting, but this is only the second day we've actually read things, so no problem.

It's fun though, seeing all of the quirks of a new country and understanding how things work. Strange thing for the day: if you turn the key in the lock twice, then you have to unlock it twice also, three times, you have to unlock it three times. Not sure exactly how the lock mechanism works, but it's kind of strange.

More later, but for now I'm off to work on planning!

Test Post

Hi all,
I know many of you have been waiting patiently for an update from me, and this is how I think I'm going to do my updates. While emailing all of you would work, this will be quicker and easier to access for all involved (I think) , so I'm going to try it out for awhile. Things in Albania have been good so far, and the difficulty of adjusting has lessened. The first week after Gene Cooper left was probably the hardest since that meant I was really "on my own." Thank God that he was able to come over with me though, that eliminated the stress of travelling and made the trip fun!