Well, dear friends and loved ones...
Here's a pic of some precious friends of mine.
It is really a strange transition, living in another culture.
In the beginning, everything's new and different. You're always learning,
always making mistakes (we're still learning and making mistakes!).
Gradually, over time, things become more and more normal.
You feel more and more at home. You even start to forget what was
considered "normal" in your home country vs. your new one.
I was however, recently feeling less like an "American" in a couple
situations. Once was while going to the second hand market.
There is a family of stronger Muslims on our street. I stop to say hi
when the mom is outside. I really want to try to develop a relationship
with her. I know she sells clothes at the second hand market. So, I
needed something for Kya and went there to her spot specifically.
After telling her what I needed and watching them dump out a pile of
used clothes on a tarp on the ground, I then began picking through it
to find something suitable for Kya. I just kinda laughed inside at the
feeling inside of me saying, "What are you doing? You're buying used
clothes from a gypsy Muslim on the dirty ground for your daughter!!"
As I shook the feeling off, I reminded myself of this woman's state.
Knowing the reality of heaven and hell is enough to go through things
much more extreme than just this. All that matters is her soul.
Another time was when I stopped to visit these friends in the picture.
They were eating lunch and invited me in to eat with them.
They don't know God personally yet. While sitting with them in this shop,
they forcibly said again and again, "Eat! Eat!" which of course I did
and enjoyed the moment very much. Their lunch was bread,
peppers cooked in oil, cucumbers and a few chunks of cheese.
Once again, this feeling came over me that I've described.
They were so happy to have more than enough for me.
They even gave me some for Tim.
This is an ordinary poor person's meal here.

Kya's growing up! She got this certificate since it is the end
of her little school year. She still struggles with going sometimes.
I think it's hard because she still doesn't know the language well,
but it actually is the best source for her learning it well.
Also, without it, she would have almost no other "kid" time.
She has made her friends here.

Along with "graduating" her first year of any kind of school,
she just turned 4. We went to a little local zoo for her birthday.
It was really small, but fun. Here's Kya face to face with a monkey.

Here's a little unsettling visit with a lion. It was "unsettling"
because there was just this little wire cage between us and it.
I've never been so close to one before and was actually really
surprised by how powerful it looked. Also, you can hear it growl
at us in the video suddenly.

The girls racing a bear. : )

Lately, Kya's been into sharks. I have no idea why,
but that's what she asked for for her birthday, so that's what she got!

homemade paper wall decor

4 years old!

Ministry Reality

Well, no pics with this post. Hope it's OK if I just show some humanness if you will and relay a hardship of our ministry here.

Yeah, it's hard sometimes. I will admit the emmanuel center for gypsy children is one of the most difficult ministries I've ever been a part of. How are you supposed to fight against a mindset that has been ingrained in people for centuries? - that you are a beggar and that's all you'll ever be, so may as well be good at it. Don't try, don't go to school (cause then you won't be on the street making money), don't wash up (cause then you don't look pathetic enough to get money when you beg), have lots of babies and start when you're young (because it looks more pathetic and you get more sympathy when you have a dirty little precious baby at your feet or say "I have 8 kids to feed"). I will say how I feel. Just when I think I'm getting somewhere and connecting with them, they do something to remind me what a stronghold they're trapped in and can't get out of. Just when I was really feeling good about the day we had with them last week, they work as a team to distract me to get into my purse. ohhhh. Why? I honestly can't blame them. They are children. Children do as they're taught. The one girl that I really had hope for that stood out as different, has turned "bad" (as our Albanian co-worker put it) and stopped coming. Her mother and older sister are prostitutes. What is her hope? Whew. I know sometimes we like to post happier things, but I hope it's OK to show you the not so fun side. For me, the really difficult side. What makes you go on when you see absolutely no fruit and hardly anyone else wants to join with you in the ministry? When you feel like it's an absolute waste of time because there is no change or visible hope. The thing that keeps me going is this - because Jesus told us to. This is what Jesus taught us to do in word AND action, so we'll do it. We can't give up on these kids like everyone else does every day. Also, we serve the God of impossibility and hope in seemingly hopeless situations. I am so grateful for that. We can go on and perservere because of who God is. Praise Your glorious name, Jesus. Thank You for loving these kids more than anyone ever could.

Good times

We wanted to apologize to any of our blog readers who might have
read a comment on here about a week or two that was very vulgar.
We don't know this person personally and we are screening the comments
from now on.

And if the person who made that comment ever reads this, we just want
to let you know that we are not mad at you. If that is the way you feel,
then you are entitled to your own opinions. We also want you to know
how much Jesus loves you and that if you have a lot of bitterness
and anger stored up inside that He can take these feelings away
from you and replace them with love, joy, and a peace that only God
can give to you. We hope and pray that God will work in your life and
one day you can give your heart to Him. God Bless you!

Also, we apologize for posting Albanians as a "forgotten people". You're right. Albanians aren't forgotten by God in any sense. I think the reason we posted that was because this country was so closed off for so many years under Enver Hoxha's rule, and no other countries had access to it, it became in a sense, forgotten, because of it's inaccessability. Please, forgive us. We have removed that from this blog.

So at the end of April, we had a 4 day retreat in Macedonia. These
pics and video are from the beautiful ride through Albania while traveling.
(You will hear more about the retreat in our newsletter)

While we were there, we had some free time each afternoon. We decided to see
how good of drivers our girls really are. I think they need some practice :)

The city Ohrid that we stayed in bordered a big, beautiful lake that
separated Albania and Macedonia. We were told that back in the day it
was like the "Jerusalem" of the Balkans because of the amount of churches
and Christian history that came out of here. This was a castle at the top of
the hill that we walked to one day.


This was the view outside our hotel.
Definitely a refreshing change from our dusty city!



Got to get them trained early!!



Ahoy ye pirates! This pic and the ones below are from a pirate themed
birthday party we went to for an American missionary who lives here.
It was a lot of fun and also challenging to find pirate clothes here in Albania.



Even as a pirate she is cute!


Yeah, yeah. Don't laugh. We are on the mission field,
so this is the best that we could do. : )

So, I think we have a natural here. Watch how she goes to
play and puts her hand on the strings to play a chord. We
never showed her this, she just did it. Watching her try to
play and sing at the same time makes us think that she
might be a future worship leader! You never know, but
if God wills, that would be awesome!

As many of you know, Jamie and I love doing and teaching mimes and
dramas. This is the first one we were able to teach and perform in front
of the church during Easter. Actually, it was the week after Easter which

was the Orthodox Easter here. It was an evangelistic service at our church
and these two boys go to our church and love being in dramas. One of
them wants to be an actor when he grows up. This particular mime
is called "The Healer". Some of you have seen it before and even though
we have performed it many times, it's still one of my favorites.

We just put this video on here to show you how the girls like having
fun. Kya is goofing off for Kadence and she loves it. We are so
thankful that they have each other to play with.

This is a march for Jesus that was organized by some of the local
pastors in our city. The march took place in a city nearby, and people
from different churches and cities showed up to support and be
a part of it. It was very encouraging and I believe the town we
were in was mostly Orthodox. This was on Saturday, April 18,
the day before the Orthodox Easter. After we marched down
some of the streets, we stopped in the town center where there
was a stage set up. We had worship, preaching, and some
of the local pastors came up and prayed over that city with
different requests. Even though all the churches were not
represented or present, it was a great step in uniting our
community and churches together. And in this day and
age that is a tiny miracle in itself! Praise the Lord!

My (Tim) parents came to visit us in April for 2 weeks. It was
such a joy to have them here. They were able to experience
quite a bit while they were here. A march in the capitol for Jesus
(see below). A team coming over. All of our ministries. But I
think one of their favorite parts of being here was hanging
out with the grandchildren and playing with them. I know
our kids loved having grandma and grandpa here and we
are so grateful they were able to come and visit.
We miss you guys a lot!!!



This was Easter Sunday in Tirana, the capitol of Albania. This
was another march but was much larger with many believers
from all over the country showing up. It was really a fantastic
time of spreading the Good News and letting all of Albania know
that Jesus is very much alive in the hearts and lives of many
people here. Christianity is not recognized as an "official"
religion here and this march was not at all a march of
protest but to show God's love and make His name known
here in this country. There was also worship, teaching, prayer,
and a general excitement that filled the air this day. It
was a privilege and honor to be a part of.

Village Outreach

These are all pics from a village outreach.
This is at a missionary's house who is an Englishwoman
married to a gypsy man. Ironic!
Yet, there's just something right about that.
He is the pastor of the church here.

This man had a hard life. I only remember a few details because
there were so many people who were suffering and had a hard life
I can't remember who has been through what.
Some experienced death, some diseases, some disfigurements,
some mental impairments, some were grandmas raising their
grandchildren and had no idea where their daughter was,
some were eating bread and peppers and had nothing else,
some had spouses leave them. These may seem like not that hard,
but here there aren't government programs and support groups
and other things to help them. If you are a woman with children
and your husband leaves you, how do you receive income?
What hope do you have? I don't know how the older women survive.
Most of their husbands have died and their too old to work.
How do they get money to live?

This is one woman's ceiling.

This is a crib.

They always love the girls!

This woman could not stop kissing me long enough to even take this pic.
The outreach was because someone from another country donated
a bunch of money for food packages for the really poor people.
We just delivered them and recorded it all to send back to the donor.
She just kept praising God and kissing us. Here's a couple pics of her house.

This is her ceiling.
We could see the sky through the hole and that's mold all around it.

This is a ditch they dug INSIDE her house to drain the rain that comes
in through the hole in the ceiling. There's something in me that screams,
"This is unacceptable!!" It's hard to see the way these people live.
I didn't want to leave the first house we went to, but we had 50
packages to hand out! We decide next time we do this,
we will do less packages that are bigger so we can spend more time
with the families we deliver to.

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.