I hope you like nature because I(Jamie) do and will continue to post
pics of God's artistry. It's just too amazing! This pic represents
something for us here. I pray this for our city, that God will break
through the clouds that blind people's eyes and shine His brilliant
light with salvation.

And again, more artistry.

It was Timmy's birthday recently. Whoa, that's a lot of candles!!
We went to his favorite place to eat here in Albania.
It's a cafe type restaurant started by American missionaries
in Tirana, the capitol. It is almost like eating in America -
REAL American food, yes! But since it's in the capitol,
it's a couple hours away.

As you can see, Kadence enjoyed the cake very much. She also
enjoyed something else unexpectedly. The Korean team that came
here in February left a few packages of dried seaweed.
I liked it and thought it was interesting, so they gave us some.
Well, Kadence loves it. Kya eats it sometimes too.

There is actually a place to go bowling in Tirana as well!
It was a fun day for us as a team.

This is funny.
There is not a single McDonalds here in the whole country.
This is a pretend one however, called "Kolonat" with a "K".
(Also in the capitol. We don't have stuff like this in our city.)

Something I've been concerned about lately as a Mom is
boredom for the girls. Sometimes, I just think, what else can I
do with these girls today? Remember, I haven't driven here
yet and am not supposed to be out after dark really. There
are 2 parks in the city, but both cost money, so I can't do
that very often. It's not like we have a beach or pretty place
to walk here either. Well, here's a couple videos of Kadence
entertaining herself with a tiny bug. I guess they just learn
to play with what their options are!

Check back with us soon. Within a few days, we're going to post
some pics from a recent outreach that was impacting for us.

Well, here's some more pics from my Mom's visit. Here,
we put her to work. : ) Actually, we couldn't stop her from
constantly doing housework! It was a major blessing for us.
If you know my Mom, that doesn't surprise you.
This is how we clean rugs - we beat them over our balcony.

This is also a view from our balcony of the sunset.

While she was here, she got to see us host our first short term team!
That was exciting for us because it is a ministry Tim and I, Jess
(the Aussie from our team) and Suela (the Albanian on our team)
recently became in charge of. The team was from Korea
scouting it out for future trips. Because of that, she got to experience
a lot of Albania. Here is a pic from the day off/fun day when we took
the team to a castle in Kruja. We got to see some really old house-
hold ways of life like mills they used to grind flour and wedding
attire handmade that was super old. I can't remember how old, though.
: ) It was cold! The mud was icy.

Here's our team there.
As you can see, we were all having a good time except for Kadence.

Sorry about the angle. Technical difficulties. Here's part of a castle.

This is just in for the cuteness factor.

Mom with a boy from the Emmanuel Center. She and the Korean
team really enjoyed their time there. For some of them,
it was the thing that impacted them the most.

It's amazing for me to see these older teenage boys
singing the songs about Jesus and doing hand motions.

After songs and talking about God, they get to color a picture.

On the day off, we also took the team to see the sunset in Durres.
It was breathtaking.

Here they joined us for a team meeting beginning with worship.
This is at the OM Center.

They got to go to Dushk, a nearby village. This is the service
during worship. A woman from the team shared her testimony
and the pastor on the team closed with some words and a song.
Afterwards, the women in Dushk, my mom and I got to have an
amazing time of prayer together.

First of all, we apologize for not keeping up with the blog in the last couple
of months. Our bad! Especially this last month, we were a little distracted
with Jamie's mom here. So, these two pics and the video below it are of a
restaurant we went to to celebrate a birthday for our team leader. It
was all you can eat fish (and meat). This is our server. He kept piling
the fish on our plates even when we told him we were done. Most
everything was good, especially the fish, but we weren't to fond of the eel.

Here is a view of our table. Jamie's mom was also with us as she was
here for 3 weeks in February. The restaurant was kind of rustic looking
and it had a few open fires like this one you could sit next to.

Kya got a kick out of the shrimp. She actually wanted to take it home
with us. As you can see, the shrimp comes with the head as well when
they serve it to you. The shrimp was good and also provided live entertainment!



This was another restaurant we visited with Jamie's mom. It is in a city
called Durres that borders the Adriatic Sea. This particular day was very
windy and we hardly made it to the restaurant because of the water in the
streets. We were carrying the girls and had to weave through chairs,
tables, and cars to get there. They also had to open a side door for us just
to get in. At the end of the video you can see a mom pushing her child
through the flooded streets. Kind of crazy because it was also winter
and cold outside.



Jamies' mom didn't want us to put this on here but it was too funny so we
couldn't resist! Sorry Jan :) Here, she is drinking a traditional Albanian
alcoholic drink. It is called raki and it is very, very, strong. It will make
your throat burn. You can read more about it with pics posted a lot
earlier in our blog. Anyways, they say if you drink a little when you are
sick or have a sore throat or need you nose cleared up it will help.
It helped alright, but not without a price! As you can see by her reaction,
the taste is indescribably bad! It makes for a good blog post though.
Thanks Jan!