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!

Ok, so you want to take a guess at what is in the bottle?
A guy at our church was cleaning and changing the filters
in the church van and this is what he came up with.
33% water and 67% fuel! That is what was inside the gas
lines and running the van. And you think that your fuel
in America and elsewhere is dirty!

Sometimes you might see a person like this man riding a
donkey through town. Hey, it's a lot cheaper than taking
your car, especially when gas is so expensive.
Gas is equivalent here to about $4 US dollars a gallon
That is down from $7 a gallon when we got here.

This is the view from our balcony. There has been a lot
of rain here the last few months so to see a beautiful
sunrise over the small mountain behind us is another
reminder of the majesty and beauty of our Creator.
It also was a nice break from all the rain.

So when you have spare time or get bored, what do you do?
Well, we decided to make sculptures from plato that was
sent from the States. Jamie made this one. I think it is the
closest I will get to surfing for a while.

These cards and nighties (top pic) are courtesy of The Uprising
from our home church The Journey. The sent us a great package
that had lots of goodies in it. The cards were so encouraging and
we were so grateful for the thought put into it. Thank you Josiah
for putting it together and also everyone who was involved!

It burns

Well, sorry about the lack of pictures on this one. Our computer is getting fixed in the States right now and hopefully will be back within the week. We'll see.

So, here's the thing. I just got done with a conversation with a few nonbelieving natives here. I never thought this would be an issue, but it seems there are still people who were happy about the Communist times. They liked Hoxha, the dictator who ruled here for over 40 years making Albania an atheistic state and the poorest country in Europe. (pause)

I'm sorry, what? (pause again) Hmmmm......

I was like, "But during those times, you were only allowed x amount of eggs, x amount of bread, x amount of sugar, no more. No freedom. And you had to wait in line for hours to get it."
They argued, "But eggs were 5 lek apiece then. Now, look how expensive they are! I need a job, but there's no work. He opened schools and businesses."

It's hard to imagine what they've been through. One of them was this dear old woman that I see almost every day. Picture her - she always wears all black because when your husband dies, that's what you do here; her hair is covered with a black wrap as well; she is absolutely full of wrinkles; she actually has all her teeth, although they've been stained golden from her smoking. Even though we've talked and she knows I'm a missionary and she's a Muslim, she still happily welcomes me. At times, she gets passionate about it, but always leaves me with a smile, none the less. After all she's experienced here, what grounds do I have to talk to her about it? Her "work" is a little shop which is literally a 8x5 ft. rectangle make of plywood and 2x4s. How do I tell her about HER country? She's lived through it all, not me. How do I identify? Anyways, just thoughts.

On the other hand, what got it all started somehow was that there was this guy sitting at the "shop". He knew a little English and asked me some questions. We got into a discussion of belief and Jesus. Oh, the battle for his soul! I could see he was unsure. I could see he was open. I told him it was God that we met because God wants him and is calling him. He smiled and laughed. He's probably around my age. The minutes passed so fast and I had to leave while it was getting dark. On my way home, my heart burned. Even now I am unrested, distraught. Can you feel it? Can you feel the burn in your heart for his soul? I know you didn't see his skinny frame, short black hair and thin sparatic facial hair along with his crooked teeth behind his cigarette. You didn't get the chance to see his face while you tell him that when you pray in Jesus' name, things happen, miracles happen. I want you to see him. Pray for him. Plead to God for his soul. Yes. This is what I live for. Join me in this fight.

This is our O.M van. since we don't have a vehicle yet I (Tim)
used it to go pick up some wood. The wood was wet when I
bought it and I'm not sure how old (or new depending on

how you think) it was. The place I bought it was about 5 minutes

outside our city in a lot just sitting outside with no covering.
They have a box there that is 1 square meter and you just throw
the wood in until it fills up. I costs about $40 to buy that much
and it will probably last us around a month.

I chopped the wood right next to where we park the van which is a
3 minute walk from our flat. I didn't have a big piece of flat wood
to put the pieces on when I chopped them so I used whatever
was around, like this cylinder block. (I broke 2 of them in the process.)

This is the chopped wood up on our front balcony. After I bought
the wood and loaded it in the van, I drove it back, brought it out
again to chop, put it all back in the van again, drove it to the outside
of our flat, then had to bring it up 3 flights of stairs. It was tiring
and took about 4-5 hours for everything, but it is definitely worth
the heat inside we now enjoy. Did it make me feel like a man doing
REAL men's work? Oh yeah, you bet! :)

This is our raging fire inside. It doesn't quite heat up the whole
flat but half our flat gets really warm!

These are our friends Mattias and Sue, a couple from Chile
who spent almost a year serving here in Lushnje, Albania.
They just left to go on the O.M ships. We only knew them for 4
months but became good friends with them and we will miss them
a lot. Our kid's really loved them too and they were excellent with
them and really loved on them while they were here. Aside from
ministry, we spent many nights hanging out and talking, playing
games, and sometimes watching movies. They also babysat for
us a couple times so Jamie and I could get out for a few hours.
When they left, we gave them our 2 player Blokus game because
they loved to play Blokus. They will be missed and we hope
and pray the Lord reveals His will perfect will in their lives.

Here's Kya and Jamie singing together their favorite worship song,
Hosanna. Kya's really learning a lot of the words and is starting
to sing to a lot of songs we listen to. Currently, Switchfoot is
her thing - especially "Nothing is Sound" which is also one of our favorite songs.
yeah-ya

Gezuar Krishtlindjen!

Merry Christmas! Or should I say Happy New Year?
New Year's is THE holiday here. Because the Communist dictator
Enver Hoxha declared Albania an atheistic state during the time
he ruled here for forty some years, Christmas is only
celebrated by Christians. So, it's just another day around
here pretty much. It's weird because people have Christmas
decorations around everywhere, but it's all for New Year's.
These guys are carrying turkeys. No, we didn't have a turkey for
Christmas because the only turkeys here are like this - alive!
We did have a yummy lasagna and Korean chicken, though.
No complaints here!

Christmas lights decorate the streets for upcoming New Year's.
Sorry about the blurry picture. I was in a car when I took this
and the roads here are not smooth.

Party! On Christmas day, we have an evangelistic service.
It was full which is really good. Then, that night, the church
has a party and the people invite their friends from outside the
church. Each house group from church had something to present,
like a song, a drama, etc. Then, we ate and danced. It was really fun!
Here's some Albanian music and this is traditional Albanian dance.

It's actually harder than it looks.
Not like I (Jamie) know how to dance anyways. : )

We were so blessed by our family and a couple friends with
packages for Christmas! Here's Kya just after opening Pooh
from her grandma and grandpa.

A fun book from her aunt and uncle. Yippee!

It's getting colder inside our flat. Thankfully, we just got a
wood burning stove put in! Can't wait to fire it up!

Drilling a hole to put the pipe through for the smoke. Afterwards,
they filled up the excess area around the pipe with rocks.
Not exactly pretty, but Tim will look for something else
to patch it with.