July 2004 Newsletter

Greetings from Pogradec! July was a month filled with visits. Whether it was students traveling to visit family (missing class), students’ families traveling to see them (missing class), students traveling to the beach (definitely missing class), or friends coming to visit us, we have experienced a large amount of traveling and visiting in one way or another.  In truth, July has been a busy month filled with work and relaxation both. We thank you for your support, and we hope that you enjoy reading about our month.

CAMPAIGN:    Marilyn and Sarah were a great help and encouragement to us. Most of our students are women and girls, so having two women working with us was wonderful. Parents are protective of their girls, and a female presence at the school is very important. They made an impact on our students in the short time they were here. Many of our students still ask about them even after they have gone home.

TRAVEL:    We (Kevin and Allison) were able to visit with Christians in Durrës and former students when we took Marilyn and Sarah to the airport earlier this month. Albania has one international airport, which is located in its capital, Tirana. Traveling from Pogradec to Tirana by bus, train or van takes from four to seven hours depending on the mode of transportation. This also requires an overnight in the city before heading home, because the transportation usually leaves in the morning or midday. We stayed with Ray and Shelley Wheeler on this trip to Durrës. This made getting to the airport easier, and it also gave us the opportunity to visit with some of our former students. We (Kevin, Allison, and Marilyn) even visited the home of Ledisa Çota. Ledisa was a student of both Marilyn and Allison.

On the way home from Durrës we (Allison and Kevin) took the train. This was our first time to ride a train in Albania. The train, which was similar to most trains we have traveled on in Eastern Europe, was separated into compartments with a common hall. Each compartment had a door, window, and two benches facing each other. There was enough room for six adults, three on each bench. We took the train on a Saturday, during beach season, so the train was packed. We shared our compartment with two mothers, each accompanied by two children, and another older Albanian woman. It was cozy, but a lot of fun. We were able to communicate some in Albanian, and the children were entertaining. The women were very courteous even offering us some of their lunch. We saw a part of Albania that you do not see from the highway, farmers harvesting hay, and a husband and wife with sticks herding turkeys. The six hours seemed to fly by.

TRANSLATION:    Xhumert has been busy translating this month.  We are studying John with the teen class and our group is diverse. About half of the discussion is in Albanian. There was a need for Bible study materials that were bilingual or one hundred percent Albanian. Xhumert has translated some of the John materials into Albanian to make them accessible to everyone.

VISITORS:    We have had many visitors here in Pogradec this month. Eric Weinbarger and Eriola Bozo visited for five days. They were a great help, doing clerical work and odd jobs around the school, and cooking for us. Eric, now a student at Harding University, lived in Durrës for two years before moving back to the United States in the fall of 2003. Eriola studies at the University of Tirana and has been involved in the activities of the Durrës church for the past few years.

At the end of the month we had a group of five visit. Included in that group were Diana Qerimi, Jonida Kushi, Ajald Çelmeta, and Dan and Ben Asperheim. Diana, Jonida and Ajald are all members of the church in Durrës. Jonida is a college student in Milan, Italy and is home on summer break. They are all good friends and their visit was a wonderful encouragement. Dan and Ben are brothers who attend York College; they are working with the Master’s Apprentice Program (MAP), a missions program at York. Dan and Ben taught in Durrës for two months and will be returning home in early August. It was fun for us to meet and talk with Dan and Ben as we know many of the same people, because we (Kevin and Allison) attended York College and participated in MAP.          

NEW LOCATION:    We found a new apartment, and we plan to finalize the contract in August while the owner is in Pogradec on vacation. It is a two-story house with a kitchen-living room area and bathroom on the first floor and three available bedrooms on the second floor. This will be the school as well as our (Kevin and Allison’s) home. It is less spacious than our current apartment and school, but it is much closer to the center of the city and our students.

THANK YOU: We wanted to thank all of those that have encouraged us this month through prayers, e-mails and visits.

In His Service,

Xhumert, Kevin and Allison 

A visit with the Çota family

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