Pogradec Newsletter March 2005

This month we rejoiced at the beginning of spring. The city of Pogradec has a large group of workers who tend the flowerbeds and trees of the city. Pogradec is known as the “city of flowers”, and the city’s crew works tirelessly beautifying the city, especially the area by Lake Ohrid. We were encouraged to see the soil being turned and trees planted because we knew that spring has officially come.

This month we received good news about the summer campaign. Our campaign will begin in June with the visit of Van and Jean Tate. They will be working in Pogradec until the July. Then, Phyllis Carter and Elsie Reid will arrive at the beginning of July and work until mid-August. We feel very blessed to know that these people will be working here this summer. We ask that you consider working here as well. It would be wonderful to have a couple or couple of people come in mid-August until mid-September. This is a lovely time of year here and college students do not begin classes again until October.

In March we, Kevin and Allison, accompanied a group five Albanians to the Youth Day hosted by the Tirana church. We had a bit of an adventure both getting there and back, but the message and day were well worth the effort. Tirana is about three hours away by van, but there was a van strike going on at the time of the youth event. One of the youth was able to secure our spots in a van going to Tirana, but we had to leave at four in the morning. We arrived in Tirana early, and we found the sight within minutes, so we had time to have a coffee and talk.  The speaker for the day was Mladen Jovanovic, a member of the church from Zagreb, Croatia. He encouraged the youth to trust in God and to follow His word. There was also a time where the teens were able to exchange thoughts in small groups. These groups were very successful because they emphasized the main points of the day’s lesson in discussion format. The teens from Pogradec met youth from Durrës, Vlorë, Tirana, Lushnja and other cities of Albania. After the youth event we prepared to go home. We had a lot of difficulty finding a van and the one we found asked twice the normal fare. We decided to spend the night in Durrës, which had been our plan B. We worshiped with the Durrës congregation on Sunday morning and took the afternoon train home to Pogradec. It was a beautiful day, and the train was alive with music. In the seat ahead of us a child played clarinet and a man played bongos. The following day was “Summer’s Day,” a Muslim holiday that celebrates the beginning of spring. Many on the train were headed to Elbasan, the city famous for celebrating this day. The time on the train passed quickly, and after Elbasan, the train was almost empty with our group of seven having a car to ourselves. We arrived at the train station and took a car to Pogradec at about seven-thirty that evening. It was a weekend full of adventures and learning. We were also pleased that the church in Pogradec was able to provide most the money associated with travel (The train is very economical with the six-hour ride from Durrës to Pogradec costing about three dollars per-person).

March was a month of national holidays (there were a minimum of five). Albania celebrates national holidays for the Muslim, Bektashi (an Albanian Muslim sect), Catholic, and Orthodox religions. It also celebrates its own holidays including Teacher’s Day and Women’s Day this month. This meant a variety of days this month when some of our students did not attend our course because they had a day off from school. It has been interesting to see how a former communist country has adapted to having so many different religions within its boarders. We have tried to adapt to these holidays and were very excited to see that many of our students attended regardless of the holiday. 

From left to righ: Allison, Klajdi, Denis, Landro, Anila, and Menti

  In Christ,

< Back   Newsletters   Next>