Magda receives a flute. Thank you!
Newsletter June 2004
Greetings From Pogradec!
This has been a month of blessings. On June 20th 2004 the
church in Pogradec received a new sister in Christ. Kandita Hasa, who was Muslim
by name only, decided to follow Christ. Kandita
had studied with Allison for five months before making her decision. She also
studied with Xhumert in Albanian when she showed an interest in baptism. Kandita
works as a music teacher in a village nearby and is the mother of a six-year-old
boy, Juli. Kandita’s faith and her warm smile have been a great blessing.
Marilyn Fisher and Sarah Everett arrived in Pogradec on
June 26th and will be working with us until July 7th. This is Marilyn’s third
time in Albania and Sarah’s first. Marilyn is a retired schoolteacher and
Sarah will begin her senior year of high school this fall. Both women are
teaching WEI lessons in Pogradec. It has been a blessing to have Marilyn and
Sarah visit because many of our students are women and
The month began with a flood of e-mails concerning our
request for a flute. We were thankful for the words of encouragement and
willingness to help. Two flutes were donated and Magda received the first of the
two flutes and the other will arrive by the end of the summer because we wanted
them to be brought over rather than shipped. Magda was very surprised and
thankful. She was surprised that we had remembered the conversation and acted.
Magda is currently without work, but has been promised a teaching job in
September. We wanted to specifically thank Gayland and Maidalyn Roberts as well
as J. Lee Roberts for their quick response and servant hearts.
This month our landlord notified us that he would be
increasing our rent in October by about 300 dollars. He also wants us to begin
paying in Lek (Albanian Currency) rather than dollars. This will make our rent
more unpredictable because the dollar’s exchange rate changes about every
week, and has decreased steadily since our arrival in August of 2002. Two years
ago one dollar was exchanged for 120-130 lek and now it is about 99 lek to the
dollar. We will begin looking for a
new location for the school and new living quarters, and of course, we will also
try to compromise with our current landlord so we can stay at this location. We
do not feel that the answer to this problem is more money. If we are unable to
reach a compromise with our current landlord, we believe that God’s will is
for us to live closer to the center of Pogradec where we can minister to more
people. Nothing is definite. Please pray with us that God will give us wisdom in this
situation.
We are obviously encouraged and filled with joy by all of
the excitement that the Lord has provided this month. We pray that you are just
as excited as you read about our month. We will update the website (this will
happen by within the next week, our internet service has been down for two days
now) so that you may see pictures of Magda and her new flute, Kandita as Jesus
adds her to His Church, some pictures of our daily life, and campaigners.
Thank you for your prayers and support. May the Lord bless
you, as you have blessed us.
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Magda receives a flute. Thank you! |
Your servant in Christ,
Xhumert, Kevin and Allison