Email from
Albania....
"...Yesterday Jared and I helped Agime plant sweet corn!
We worked 6.5 hours and planted 0.5 of a denume, which is one twentieth of a
hectare, I think about a tenth of an acre. It surely made me think about our
corn planter, but it was fun working during a nice day with good friends. The
day before, a neighbor of Agime's came with his donkey and worked up the piece
with a small plow and later a harrow. It
was fun to watch, and I even got to plow a little. We plan to plant the other
half of the denume in about two weeks. Glen had been given the seed from a group
out of PA that comes over every year to give seeds away. We have four varieties:
Bodacious, Iowa Chief, Kandy Corn, and Peaches and Cream. Agime is planning to
plant another denume with watermelon and then plant grean beans on the bank of
the canal. His cucs in the greenhouse have little fruit hanging on and are 1.5'
high already. .
He took a little break during the day and asked us how our baptism services were
when we were baptized. I shared with him a bit and think it might have been
reassuring to hear about it from someone who's
already done it. Both he and Goni are in the baptism class that Dan and Melika
are giving, and now the latest news is that they both want to go ahead and be
baptized. Praise the Lord!!!!
I don't believe I mentioned that on the way to Saranda I got to see a yoke of
oxen plowing a field. It appeared that the field was so steep that a tractor
couldn't have done it, and it was neat to see how they had to plow down a swath
and walk back not plowing sometimes. This was from watching out the bus window,
so I didn't get much time to look close. .
Well, today is laid back for us, cleaning the apartment and catching up on some
emails. I made egg a la golden rod for Christina the other day, and she really
liked it, the first time for her. Also, today I found a recipe for eclairs in
the country Menn. cook book that I may try this afternoon. My last dessert I
made was cherry turnovers.
This past week Jared and I went up to Tirane with Barbara Keener and her boys. I
had said I wanted to go to get Bibles up there, and she had asked if we could go
the same day. Willie couldn't go, so we needed to go up on the bus. It didn't
suit us to go on the day she needed to go, but I felt like we should try to make
it suit, especially if it would give her more of a peace about going without
Willie. So, the evening before we were going, Christina and I walked out to
Gorecaj to tell the guys in my Bible study that it would be postponed for a day.
While there we ran into a girl from church whose mother needed a way to get from
Gorecaj to Lushnje so she could get to Tirane by bus. It ended up that we took
three ladies from Gorecaj with us into Lushnje, and then we all caught a bus to
Tirane. They were going to visit a young niece who was in a hospital in Tirane
because of severe burns from hot water. When we arrived in Tirane, we separated
from the ladies for the day, not making any plans to connect again. Well, when
we arrived with our taxi at the bus station at 4:00 that afternoon, the ladies
were on the bus we got on! Buses leave every fifteen minutes. So, we were able
to bring them back to Gorecaj when we arrived back in town in the evening.
Another thing that happened during the day that was neat was that Barb ran out
of money on the way home and didn't have enough for the ride home; since I was
along, I was able to help her. Thank you for your prayers! They are being
answered and God is helping and watching out for us in very special ways.
Jared and I brought home 47 Bibles ($220) that were purchased with the church
fund. We might set up a stand to give them away when the people in town go to
celebrate Easter at the Orthodox church. The
people that are involved in Bible studies with the missionaries here generally
all have Bibles, but I believe many families don't own one, yet are Orthodox
Christians because they go to the services there. .
Jared and I went to a supermarket in Tirane that had lots of grocery type things
we have in America. Prices weren't too bad, either. I bought a big Nestle Crunch
bar there for the team. Tirane seems to be a year or two ahead of the rest of
the country. Perhaps because of such bad roads. . . ." .