Saturday, July 18, 2009
The last day
Alban loves to drive - I'm so glad, because he again chauffered us back to Tirana yesterday. What a wonderful time we had at the Pashos, but understand that Daniel was in the hospital this morning. Please continue to pray. When we left, it looked like the worst was over, but now we are concerned that it may not yet be over. So, we have been praying for them, and have yet to hear more news. Please keep them in your prayers.
Last evening we enjoyed a wonderful meal with Pellumb and Elli and their two children. Joni, their five year old son, aspires to be an artist and showed me his portfolio. He carefully explained everything about the drawings - in Albanian. But, what a sweet and quiet spirit he had last night. Estella, their 13 month old daughter, was easily entertained by passing a pamphlet back and forth between her mother and me. All the while, we "solved the problems of the world," sharing our differing visions for evangelism.
This morning we had the first opportunity to present our quilt to unbelievers, and what a blessing it was. As you know, our purpose has been to equip the church with a tool for evangelism, so we have limited the meetings to believers (although a few unbelievers have slipped in). But, today we were asked to give our witness. So, we discussed quilting, the unique aspects of American quilting and then the story told by the quilt we brought. Most of the group were from the orphanage, and have been mentored by Genta, Flori's wife, for some time. Even so, there were a few adults who apparently have not accepted God's wonderful gift. So, we discussed the blocks, the stories behind them, then worked on the first block - creation. While Genta (and others) were preparing lunch, we "reviewed" the story represented by the quilt, I gave my testimony, and asked who had accepted Jesus' gift. It was a wonderful moment for me as the girls almost universally raised their hands. There is so much more to loving those orphans, but perhaps we have played a small part for them. Plus.... one of the adults Genta had invited expressly to hear the Gospel message asked her if she could go to church with her. Oh, that God would be so kind as to harvest another. At any rate, we finished telling them that the stars in the cornerstone fabric (between the blocks) were believers, joined together by the blood represented by the red fabric in the sashing (I'll show a block, its the red and black fabric between the blocks), and even though I was returning to America, we would be joined in the same family.
Tomorrow, hopefully on the plane, I'll try to organize my memories of this whirlwind trip, but I believe we have met with well over 100 women, and shared our vision with leaders from the church, missionaries to various parts of the Albanian world (including Macedonia), and Christian workers in prison ministries and to unwed mothers. It is our hope and prayer, and I hope you will join us, that this quest will bear fruit; that we will be in a position to support from the US, and that if God wishes, we will return again to these wonderful people. So, this will be our last post from Albania. But, we will be so happy to share this adventure with you after we return.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
It's Thursday, about 10:50 pm here in Vlora. We have been out of internet range for the last few days, so haven't added any posts since our first day or so here.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
It's Sunday evening - about 10:30 pm - and we just finished dinner. There has been no internet for the last couple of days.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Back from Ibe
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Our first quilting group
Monday, July 6, 2009
First Day
Sunday, July 5, 2009
En route
Paul and Abbey Rainey were kind enough to take us to the airport yesterday, and helped transfer the 400 pounds of checked luggage. Although we had six bags, the computer did not charge us, and the supervisor told the passenger agent she didn't have to do so. So, God went before us - each "bag" was less than 70 pounds (one by 1/2 pound). We had a little lunch, then joined the other 2 passengers on our flight (it was a good thing because of all our luggage) and left and arrived early to LA, only to wait for 5 1/2 hours there. Trekked to the international terminal (United is the farthest away), had to go through security again (how many of you can get a month's worth of "liquids" in a quart size Ziplock bag?), and found our way to the gate. There, we waited.
Friday, July 3, 2009
It’s Friday... 24 hours to go. We have finished the last errands, and will repack our checked luggage today, making sure each meets weight requirements. It looks like we may have more women participating than I had dreamed - we bought extra cutters and mats on faith, planning to have one for each participant. But, now it doesn’t appear that we will have one for everyone; we’ll let strategic friends decide who gets what. Pray for wisdom as they do that - and for stamina for everyone involved.
I think we have all we need for ourselves; we may have to use a shoe horn to pack our things in our carry-ons. Since we have some required needs - e.g., a cervical pillow - that means less room for toothpaste. This is a new adventure for me - am hoping to take just what I need and nothing superfluous.
The second block is above - called Garden of Eden - and is a traditional pattern. We all tried to put flowered fabric in this block, since it isn’t an obvious garden.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Three days left
Wow, have we been busy! We’ve been trying to gather the supplies, cross all the “T’s,” and anticipate potential problems. Anticipating every problem is impossible, but we’re trying to reduce them to a minimum. We’ve “packed” so that we know weights and sizes for our checked bags, and will need to take extras. Please pray our scale is accurate!
We’ve included the first quilt block or “square” - the one we will teach first to our groups. This one is titled Creation and is coupled to Genesis 1. Can you see day and night - or perhaps the heavens and the earth? Hopefully, it will provide a platform for discussing the story of creation when “quilting bees” are formed with un-churched neighbors.