Check out our 2011 quilting trip

We blogged our latest quilting trip at www.quiltinginalbania.com, but many had a hard time accessing it. Try linking here.

The last day

Well, it's Saturday about 3:45 in the afternoon. We leave at 4:30 in the morning, about 12 hours from now, and already are talking of returning. The weather for the last few days has been very hot... 40 degrees Celsius, or about 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Whew! Add to that the humidity and it is tough for these Central Coasters!

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.

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.

We have enjoyed spending time with the Pashos - when we arrived it was warm, but now we have "African Air," and it's really warm (90s at times, humidity about the same). There was no water in Vlora for the last two days - but thankfully we were south of here in a city called Soranto. While there we visited Butrint - a castle/city with 2500 years of history. It was fascinating to view the amphitheater (Roman and Greek) and the second largest baptristry, built after Christianization.

Tomorrow we return to Tirana, will have one more group on Saturday, then we leave this wonderful land. It is reminiscent of home - with large craggy cliffs next to a coast studded with rocky coves interspersed with sandy beaches. We even saw the submarine base established during the Communist times. Interesting.

Please pray for the Pashos - all of their children have the GI "whatevers." It's hard when one after the other requires cleaning. But, Dori is a champ - and hopefully, we are not too much of a burden.

Will be able to blog from Tirana, so will fill in with pictures of Vlora and south then. Right now, we must go.

It's Sunday evening - about 10:30 pm - and we just finished dinner. There has been no internet for the last couple of days.

Today we are in Vlora with Dori and Alban, Daniel, Rueben, and Cindy. Today we gave a presentation at the International Baptist Church here, and had about eight women. They were determined to finish a block, so you can see that they did the Coronation Crown. We attended church there this morning - it was a challenging sermon. The pastor spoke on Amos and Hosea. Interesting... Hosea hasn't been the most understandable book over the years - and he made it, in some ways, come alive.

We arrived here yesterday (Saturday); Alban was kind enough to pick us up in Spille and the

n stop for a couple of hours in Lushnje. In Lushnje, we met with Erna and Esther along with two women from Esther's village. What a wonderful campus they have (except that someone is knowingly building on their land; it looks like they may have to go to court to clear it up). The building itself used to be the courthouse - interesting. The villagers seemed especially interested - with the colors and patterns. It really felt good to have such an enthusiastic response - I'm glad we were able to stop.

On Friday, we left Tirane and went to Spille where we presented the concept of quilting bees and piecing blocks to the wives of the pastors at the conference - the meeting included others, I think, as there were women of all ages. The older women were particularly interested in the technique and were ready to start sewing on a new project right there. Due to sp

ace, etc., we just gave a demonstration and were unable to have the women actually sew. There was a contingency from a city near Elbasan (I think it was Bejan) who desperately wanted us to have a quilt class at their church. Unfortunately, we won't be able to stop, due to time constraints and lack of tools, but we expressed our hope that we could be at their church next year - God willing.

We did have a couple of hours off and read - otherwise it's been busy. We estimate we have presented to a out 100 women so far, and we have two more presentations at the end of the week. Almost every group has been enthusiastic - unless they are great at pretending. So, it seems that we have been successful at introducing this technique and have extracted promises that it will be used for evangelism. Only God knows what will happen - and how.

Thanks for following our adventure. We will be resting for a couple of days, then back to Tirane Friday, and then we leave this wonderful land on Sunday.

It is 8:30 in the morning on Friday (I think the blog times my missives in Pacific Coast Time - 9 hours behind the time here). There is definitely a problem with the internet in the evenings. So, it's morning and I have little time to write. Today, we go to Spille and the sea for a pastors' conference so I can present the idea of quilting as an evangelistic tool to them. Perhaps we will have a little time to relax with Pellumb and Eli. So far, it's been very busy - but that is good.

Yesterday we went to Gerdec - a small town close to Tirana where there is a church plant. They have classes in sewing, and the teacher was there along with about 12 or 13 women. It was very hot, and the sewing machine was very tempermental. But, we got one block almost finished, and left a quilt top there.

The nearby mosque is still praying at 4:15 am or so, but we are doing better regarding sleep. Food is delicious - no problems so far. Must go - breakfast is over and we must leave. The pictures are of Gerdec.

It is definitely easier to upload images in the morning. Here are some images from the village yesterday. Bill says it is very much like the villages he visited, but closer to Tirana with roads allowing a car to travel there.

Smells like it might rain today - it's definitely cooler, at least now (7:30 am). We are watching the area prepare for the day. A couple of vans with oodles of eggs loading to take somewhere, the farmer's market awakening across the street, cars driving by. Next door is a pet store, it looks like, with cages filled with little finches, and pet supplies stacked next to the door.

Just down the street is a crumbling building, sort of "picturesque" until you realize that people live there. Beyond that is a multistory building which looks relatively new.

Traffic laws are a little different here - although I've seen cars stop for pedestrians (they haven't hit me yet), when dealing with other cars, it seems to be whatever you can get away with... a left turn in front of you (it happened last night as we were coming home, almost didn't see the car), running red lights, and so on seem common. Driving in the city is fraught with challenges, and progress is very slow, even slower than in LA.

Well, breakfast is here, and will try to write something this evening. I'm wondering how everything is at home.

Back from Ibe

What a wonderful village! The people are so friendly, and curious. We went to Ibe today with Luisa, a friend of Eli. Luisa and her husband, Memli, have been visiting this village for a number of years and have developed a group of new Christians there and have built a church. It was deliciously cool with its cement floor today, as we arrived in the humid heat. None of the women spoke English, but all were excited to do their first block! So, we set about doing it in teams, and they seemed to catch on. Children wandered in, so did a cat. It was all so friendly, and easy-going. The other residents are ethnically Muslim; perhaps they will share piecing, then quilting, with them. Luisa has told me she will see if she can use quilting as a tool for evangelism - and will send pictures of anything that comes of our visit.

Genta was unbelievably helpful - working hard to help the ladies with the tools. The pictures from this morning were from yesterday; the pictures with this post are from today. Tomorrow we go to Gerdec with Adi - google it and you will find it is the site of a disastrous munitions dump explosion in March, 2008. So, it will be interesting to meet the ladies there. The pictures don't seem to be downloading. Could it be that there is a glitch in the system during the late hours of the day? I'll try to send the pictures tomorrow.

It seems that there might be a future for quilting in Albania - wouldn't that just be wonderful?

sharon