The long awaited last post

Hey peoples,
I know this is unpardonably late, and my only lame excuse is busyness so you'll have to forgive me and get over it. I'm sorry!
Well, in conclusion of our trip I'll tell you about what I noticed, learnt and the impressions I came away with as you all know what we did in our last wee while from Adams (long) post.
It was kind of weird going back to Albania after so long away, some deja vu moments and some wow that's different ones as well. Overall I had a great time and it was really cool to be able to give a little back. From what I could tell the locals appreciated having us, and from what Will told us our being there made it possible for both the Fier and Patos churches to have a really good Christmas. So, based on the responses I'd definitely say the trip was a success from the Albanian point of view. I also really enjoyed getting to know some new people and especially catching up with old friends who I hadn't seen for three years! So many had grown up so much, not just in size etc but in maturity and faith particularly. It's so cool to see people who were relatively new when I left now really involved and committed to God and working with other Christians to share about Him etc. Sharing my testimony was really cool. I found it totally nerve-racking the first time and got all emotional as I was speaking, but I think it really connected with people (half the church - the female half - had tears in their eyes) so it was worth my nerves!
For me, the trip taught me a few things. It reminded me that I need to rely on God and not on my own strength, and being thrown in the deep end usually in the area of language was one way that happened! Leading studies and prayer meetings was also a bit of a challenge as we tried to understand and figure out how to respond to the way Albanians responded to the way we led studies etc (does that make any sense?). I also learnt a bit more about working with a team and how to deal with the dynamics of it.
So there you have it. Albania was cool and I think it was one of mutual blessing for us and the local churches.
When the three of us were in Paris I also caught up with the family I worked for and lived with when I was there for 6 months as a nanny. It was great to see them all grown up and I had a chance to have a good chat with the Mum about how things went when I lived with them. They were really pleased when I told them I'd love to go back to live one day!!
Anyway, I'm sure you've had enough by now. If you would like to know more just ask!
Thanks for all your prayers and support.
Emily

Home Sweet Home

Hey there people,
Well I guess its time I give a final post for the Albania trip. I not going to give you an account of what happen in the last few days in Albania cause others have done enough of that.

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their support. For those who supported financially, those through prayer, those through encouragement, those who showed an interest, and of course the ever-faithful blog readers. The other thank you that needs to be said it to the Murray and Fey Cotter. Thank you so much for making this opportunity available to us. Thanks for all the hard work you put into the trip both prior to leaving and while we were over there. You did an amazing job of keeping us all together and in one piece. So a big THANKS all round!!

The trip to Albania was an amazing experience and heaps of fun. I guess one of the things I liked about it was the incite it gave me on missions. Going onto the mission field is something I would like to do in the future, in what context I am not sure, but this trip gave me some ideas on what it is like, what it involves and what I could expect.
One of the key things I learnt in my time over there was realising God’s control over things and learning to rely on him. We can do everything we can to make things work but in the end God is the one who makes things happen. We may have some idea of how we think things should work, but God’s ways are much higher than ours. He has everything so perfectly moulded and planned that the best thing we can do is it try get in line with this plan. The analogy that comes to mind is the potter and the clay. God is the amazing artist who knows how the clay should be and how it should be put together. The best thing we can do is to be ‘good clay’ and let us, our plans, and our ways, be moulded by God.
Some of you will know that I had to come home early for my sisters wedding. Well that was an awesome time and well worth coming home early for. It was a very special but relaxed day, with a great dance party after the reception. Now I officially have a brother in-law. Rachel came back from Oz for the wedding and a 10 day holiday which was great. She did really well meeting all of my rather large extended family in one day. We had a really good few days here in the Bay, pity the weather wasn’t what it has been the last week though. Now I am at working here for Opus in Tauranga. I am coming to the end of my second week and I can say it has been really good so far. I wasn’t looking forward to going back to much, but it have enjoyed.
Well, that’s about all for me. For those of you how are coming to my North Island 21st celebration/Albania report back on the 5th February, I look forward to seeing you there. For the rest of you, I’ll either being seeing you in Christchurch in February or whenever we meet again. Until next time….

God Bless,
Tony

All Good Things Must Come To An End....

Seems I’ve begun the last few posts apologising for the lack of recent postage – however none of the breaks have been as long as this one!

So much has happened obviously since that last post. I will try to summarise some of it, and then maybe summarise my experience overall. I think I’m going to struggle a bit though, because I’ve found that no matter how many people ask me “so how was Albania?” I still don’t really know what to say.

Anyway. When I last left you we had just had Christmas in Albania. Things really started winding up for us after that. We had another couple of bible studies to do. Tony and I went to Lushnje to lead the last one on Purpose – which went amazingly well. It was quite disorganised, and for various reasons we hadn’t been able to actually go over the study until we were in the van on the way there. However we were sort of struggling to see where the study was going, and didn’t really understand much, so I was kinda worried. We got there though and started leading it, and it was going alright, but just sort of average. We didn’t have our usual translator, who is really good, and the guy we had was good, just not the same. So we were sort of struggling through, there were a couple of younger guys in one corner sort of giggling away, obviously not paying much attention. Then getting towards the end, I just felt like I knew where we were heading. It seemed like Tony and I sorta clicked, as he started sharing some stuff from his life – we were talking about a familiar concept in Navs, of how our faith can impact our everyday lives – how serving God can occur anywhere, anytime. Anyway, it just seemed to be making sense, and obviously some of the people there were starting to get interested. Just as Tony was about to ask the guys to stop disrupting the group, one of the girls there did it instead, according to our translator telling them in no uncertain terms that she wanted to learn more, and that they were distracting her. So that was kinda cool. Well the cool thing was how God spoke to her. She came up to us afterwards and thanked us profusely; it was just obvious that something had clicked for her. It was awesome to see how God can work, how we felt to unorganised and ill-prepared, and yet it was the most clear example I saw while there of someone really having a revelation or something opening up that really impacted them. So yeah, definitely one of the highlights of the whole trip for me – just to see how God can work in peoples lives – in spite of our inadequacies – our un-preparedness and lack of direction.

To be honest I’m struggling a little to remember everything else that went on. We had a time of worship and prayer with the Patos church every morning from about the 27^th until we left, which was great. ShaRon, Tony and I also got to share a devotion each at these.

We managed to get a bit of shopping done before we left, souvenirs and gifts to bring back home etc. It also rained quite a lot during this week, so that made things slighty more difficult, but it was amazing how good the weather was while we were there overall!

On the 29^th most of us headed up to Tirana and the airport, where Emily, Christine, Tony and I left for Viena. We’d said goodbye to most of the people that morning at the church, which was kinda sad. It was quite weird how much I missed them all after we left, seeing as we hadn’t really know them for long. After eating our last Sufflaqe at the airport we departed.

We split at Vienna, with Tony heading back to NZ via Singapore, while E, C, and I flew via Munich to Paris.

Paris

Paris was great. Pretty much everything I expected it to be, the place just has an atmosphere, a feeling, its just Paris. We arrived at night, to be met by E’s host dad, who very kindly took us to our lodgings. We were so amazing blessed to have the use of an apartment in Nanterre during our time there. It belonged to relatives of the Cotters, who are missionaries there. It was empty though for most of our stay, and it was brilliant to be able to come back to our own we place each night.

I’d bore you to tears I’m sure if I recounted everything we did in detail, so suffice it to say we visited Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Musee Grevin, French shops, the Arc de Triomphe, La Defense, numerous Metro stations, French bakeries, a French movie (on the Champs Elysse,) and a movie about the history of Paris. Other highlights included me climbing the Eiffel Tower on the most amazing of days – awesome views, and visiting Musee D’Orsay, where we got to see real original paintings by the likes of Renior, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet etc etc. That was very cool. We also went out to a delightful (never mind the slightly surly waiter (but that’s another story)) French restaurant, where we had a great (if slightly expensive) 3 course meal. We drank coffees in numerous cafes around the city, and welcomed in the New Year standing by the Eiffel Tower, which was lit up quite spectacularly (although slightly disappointed at the lack of big fireworks!)

(I apologise for the spelling errors, particularly in the French words – please correct me Emily)

So yeah, a pretty excellent time

We then unfortunately had to depart, but this was balanced I spose by meeting up with the others in Frankfurt, from where we flew to Singapore.

Singapore was another experience altogether. It’s a funny wee place – its to Asian, and yet so western. Pretty much everyone can speak English, and all the signs etc are in English. However it still manages to maintain its Eastern culture. We visited Little India, and China Town, and a few food courts around the place. They have excellent food courts with heaps of different shops and foods to try, all at really god prices. We also went shopping – with plenty of selection in the electronic goods area. I was kinda keen to get a new pair of shoes, seeing as they were much less expensive than in NZ, however finding size 12 shoes in Singaporean shops proved too difficult for me!

We then flew Singapore Airlines (13kg overweight) back to Christchurch – minus ShaRon, who flew AirNZ to Auckland. Hate to say this ShaRon, but Singapore Airlines were great; far and away the best I have experienced. Mainly due to the personal entertainment system (including GameBoy games!) the nicer food, and I think slightly more leg room.

And that’s about that!

Overall impressions? Still not really sure. It was an amazing experience. For someone who had never left the country before – everything was new, and a lot of it eye opening and mind expanding. Getting out of my comfort zone caused me to think about a lot of different things, or perhaps to think differently about the same things would be more accurate. God was so faithful throughout the whole time - really everything went so smoothly, so few problems, and when things did go wrong they worked out so well (think about Christine and I missing our very first flights!). He also taught me heaps, which I think I now am going to have to record so I don’t forget it all. Most of it about myself probably, as I was saying, the different context, or being out of ones comfort zone made me realise a lot about myself in particular. Another highlight was getting to know the rest of the team pretty well. It was an amazing bunch of people, I think quite diverse and different, but we got along really well I thought. I know I learnt so much by learning more about them, and seeing different perspectives on things. I also loved to chance to do some reading. I read heaps of books while I was over there, which was great, ranging from novels, to autobiographies to a book on spiritual disciplines, and many more.

So hopefully that about wraps it up from me. If I think of anything else to add I might, and I should also try and get T, E and S to post with a bit of a summary from them if I can. Thanks to everyone to took the time to follow what we were up to. Thanks especially to those who prayed for us – it is so so much appreciated, and I know it helped.

Mirupafshim, au revior and zoti ju bekofte!

Adam

Christmas in Albania

Hello all
Sorry about the lack of blogging lately. Its been a while since we've been in Fier, plus i guess we've been pretty busy.
I write a post on the laptop the other night to bring in and put on here, but then if course i forgot to bring it today!
So i'll see what i can remember.

Christmas eve was spent in the morning preparing for the afternoon with youth from Patos on 'the meaning of christmas' which went quite well i think. Then we all headed to Lushnje for a dinner with the church there. That was great, with good food, company and some Albanian dancing. Emily and ShaRon in particular were a real hit with the guys there..... Unfortunately for Tony and I the culture is not one where girls ask guys to dance - but we had enough fun videoing and phtographing E and S with their numerous guys :)
On christmas morning there was a service at 9 for kids, which had over 180 kids in attendance. Packed out the church, was very cool. T, E & S all stood around the edge like hall monitors trying to keep them all quiet - worked fairly well i think.

Then it was the adults service, which was really cool. Its great hearing the christmas carols sung in a different language. The uni students who study in Vlore also did a really cool drama kinda thing.
After this all of us except Murray went for a drive to Vlore. Its a nice ('almost looks like a real city') city on the coast. Its the closest port to italy so apparently the most popular port for sumgglers.
We saw one of Hoxha's old houses, and then had pizza and coffee at a restaurant overlooking the sea (wouldnt recommend the restaurant)

Tony and i then went for a swim. I thought it was pretty cool swimming by moonlight on christmas day in the Adriatic Sea. Actually surprisingly warm for the middle of winter.

Since then we have gone visiting again, to Berat yesterday - the oldest city in Albania, older even than London. Quite a nice place. got a few good photos, particularly of a huge old castle up above the town.
Today M,F,E and S were all invited out for lunch, and Tony and i are in Fier before M picks us up to take us to Lushnje for our last study there (on Purpose)

On the health front, F,E & S are all crook at the moment. Hopefully everyone is well again before we head off to Paris.

Crazy to think that we only have 2 days left here, it has all gone so fast.
Well i should head off
Hope everyone is well, and had a great christmas
Have a Happy New Year
Zoti ju bekofte

It's Tony....for once

Hey hey,
Yes, thats right! Tony has made a post. I know you are all shocked and horrified but dont worry i'll try not to make a habit of it ;)
I dont know what the others have just posted so sorry if i repeat stuff.
Things have been going really well over here. Like usual, never quite to plan but thats all good. It would be boring otherwise.
I preached my first sermon since being here last Sunday. It went reasonably well i think. Thank goodness the chruches are relatively small so i wasn't too nervous. I had some good comments about it from different people which was really encouraging. On Sunday avo we went into a old people's home which was full of surprises. With about 20min notice Adam was asked to share a testimony and i was asked to share a quick message (but dont worry they said, only 10min long!!!). That was too bad, but when they told everyone that the people from NZ would now be sharing a song, now that was something else. Did we know about this? NO! Well not really anyway. Thankfully i could remember a song on the guitar (by the way, they didn't know i played the guitar) and Sharon can sing, so we managed....just.
The last few days we have been doing alot of work around the house to get it up to a nice standard. It's actually been quite nice to do some physical work. Speaking of physical, Murray and I had a bit of a play fight yesterday and he managed to hurt my back some more and sprain my finger. But i reckon i still won :) My finger is a bit swollen and bruised so it strapped to the other finger which is making typing more gammy than it usually is.
Well i gotta go. The bus for Patos is leaving.
God Bless,
Tony

Half way there

Hey everybody,
We're about at the half way mark here so I guess we should update you on how things are going here. We've all been keeping busy with English schools, bible studies and preaching/testimonies etc. When we don't have those we play Uno with people who come visiting or do various jobs that need doing round the house (such as scrubbing tiles, laying carpet, cleaning skirting boards ready for varnishing etc).
I have my own little English class, there are only three of them (and they are so cute) and they are total beginners, yesterday we learnt the numbers from 11 to 20. They're good fun though they sometimes have trouble with my accent.
We've had two bible studies so far and done one of them three times and the other one twice. The Gospel study went really well, we had a lot less time than we thought though so Tony did really well to compact it on the spot. The discussion method seems to be a little new to them so we didn't get as much response as we were hoping for but we are trying to work around that. In Patos there were quite a big group of non-Christians which was really encouraging. The second study was on Grace, Hope, Peace and Love (by ShaRon). We spent two hours on it in Patos and the other one in Lushnje went really well too (though unfortunately the numbers weren't the same as at the first study).
On Sunday Tony preached in Lushnje (with very good reviews from the Pastor there). I gave a brief testimony thing during which I got emotional (it was quite a touching incident for me that I was sharing about) and consequently half the people present (ie almost every female, including my Mum) had tears in their eyes by the end of it. Christine was dry eyed as she didn't understand what I was saying - actually I'm surprised everyone else did, my Albanian goes rapidly downhill when I'm nervous - so I told her on the way home and got her waterworks going too! If you're really curious ask me when I get back and I'll tell you all about it!
Anyway, this post is long enough. Hope things are well in New Zealand and wherever else you may be reading this from.
If you want to pray for us (and we hope you do):
- Thank God for a good response to what we've been sharing so far
- Pray that the things we have yet to share will be well received
- Pray for health (especially Adam who has been attacked by a cold)
- Pray for more opportunities to share with people
Thanks for the prayer and support so far guys (Rachael the printing money is being well used).
Love Emily

PS Is it okay if it's purple?

Hello All.
A while since the last post im afraid. We are restricted to whenever we can get into Fier and use an internet cafe.
Things have bee going well. The house is taking shape - got carpet down in the lounge and M & F's room yesterday. And the work in the churches and English schools is also going well. We have done the fundamentals (grace, hope, peace and love) study with 2 groups now, which have gone really well. Emily and I led one with 5 of the older students in Patos which i really enjoyed. The people are great. ShaRon and Tony led the group in Lushnje which by all accounts also went well.

This week one of the english school teachers is away at ABI for the week, so we have been taking her classes. They run from 1 - 6 so we have pretty much split them up amongst ourselves. I am taking an 'advanced' class from 5-6, which i think is going alright. I'm finding it quite difficult to explain to them why what they write is wrong though. I've mainly learnt english just by hearing and speaking it, so i know what's right and wrong, but i dont know the rules to explain to them why. Its working out though. We have some interesting discussions around the dinner table after our lessons at night.

We have also borrowed the TV from the English school after much cajoling from Fey. Her and Tony spent a while yesterday hooking up the arial so now we can satisfy her cravings and watch rediculous Albanian TV programmes. We also borrowed several movies from Will (i've managed to miss both of the movies shown so far - the first looked poor and i wanted to read my book, and i have a cold at the moment so last night i went to bed earlier)
What else?
ShaRon has become our morning breakfast angel - with her smiley friendly self moving around the kitchen/lounge like a blur cooking toast in the oven, making drinks (its amazing how much some people need their coffee in the morning!), taking away plates mere seconds after they have been cleared etc etc etc.
Emily also really likes mornings :P But to get back to the truth... is incredibly helpful with her knowledge of Albanian, and has we think broken new ground in leading the Patos church prayer meeting the other day (all in Albanian of course) and did a great job.
Tony has been dosing up on Neurofen for his back, and is currently sporting an injury (surprise surprise..) after rumbling with Muzza yesterday :) He is also copping an inordinate amount of teasing about a certain you know who - but seems to be coping well. Oh yeah - he is reading a book!!! And enjoying it!!! He has read one particular passage out to us at least 3 times. It is worth it though.

We went to Apollonia on monday for our 'day off' with Will, Doreta and their kids Esther and Lydia. This is the site of ancient Roman ruins - where in fact Paul may well have visited - and was pretty cool. The history here is just so much richer? than NZ. The views werent bad either. Funny though, since the Cotters were here previously they have started charging to visit. 150 lek - unless you are a foreigner when it becomes 500 lek!! We had 1 Albanian, so she and the other Albanian speakers managed to talk the guy down to 250. Guess they figure foreigners can afford more - which is probably true.

The internet place we are in now is not actually a cafe like the one we normally visit, and is filled with kids (all guys) playing internet computer games. There were not enough computers, so Emily and ShaRon have headed off to the other one. From what im seeing they arent very good at the games :)

Well i hope thats enough information to satisfy people. Feel free to ask any questions and someone may try to answer them :)
Hope all is well in NZ (or wherever else you may be)
Mirupafshim

Mire se erdhet ne Shqiperi

Hey guys,
Sorry about the impossibility of deciphering my last post. I will change the yellow to readable black and will conform to pressure and leave this one as it is.
It's a little weird being back in Albania but so far I am enjoying it, especially being able to use my
Albanian. Our first bible study went really well. Tony did a great job in leading it, especially as it was effectively chopped in half by time restrictions and he still managed to cover all his material though in less detail than we would have liked. The older Christians in the group were really positive about it, there were several people new to the church there and it was good for the older Christians to be reminded of the basics of the Gospel. Afterwards we had a drink for one of the girl's birthdays which was really good for us to get to meet and talk to people.
I have been quite challenged by having to use my Albanian up the front (at church) and praying aloud - I had never done either before! I make way more mistakes when I'm nervous but I still got the point across and people seem to appreciate that I can speak (ish) the language anyway. "Teaching" an English class yesterday was also a first for me.
Anyway, I have three people standing over me because we have to go.
Zoti ju bekofte,
Emilia

Unreliable Albanian internet cafes

Noooooo...

Just lost all of my last post - somehow it didnt work.

Will try to give a quick summary.,

In an internet cafe in Fier now, but have settled into the Cotter's old house in Patos. Yesterday was spent mainly cleaning and washing and unblocking drains. Things are going well, i think everyone is fine, although Tony's back could be better (hint - prayer would be great :) )

Today we start our 'real work', with Christine taking a parenting course, TEAS with some youth, and i think that Murray and Fey are starting a marriage course this afternoon as well.

Its all very exciting and new, particularly for me i spose. Its great walking around town with Muray, Fey and Emily. So many people they know come up to greet them - a lot of connections here, and they are obviously very well thought of.

I'm just blown away by pretty much everything, but am working through it all. It really is a mind expanding experience.

Well i should keep moving. Have been on here an hour now and need to get off.

I hope everyone is well, thanks so much to those that are commenting and emailing us - great to hear from you. Feel quite out of touch with the world in many respects, but have enjoyed catching up a little today

Mirupafshim
Adam

TEAS finally hits Albania!!

Hi Everybody!!

We are currently in Durres - port city of Albania!! After a few flights that seemed to go on for almost forever we finally arrived in Tirana yesterday!
Our last day in Singapore was full of excitement! Millions of photos of us holding snakes at a snake farm :-) and then dinner at a restaurant with HOT Thai food and drama as we rode in a taxi (6 of us!) to the airport...got a wee way away from the restaurant and ems discovered her handbag was still at the restaurant! Could in no way communicate our predicament to the taxi driver so ended up calling Tim (friend of the Cotters bringing our bags to the airport)on the cabbie's phone and telling him the problem. Got to the airport and after a few minutes mad searching Tim, Christine and the bags arrived!! Then Tim sped off to rescue Em's bag and we rushed around checking in etc. Was a VERY tight thing in the end but we all (including the handbag) made it safely on the flight! Yay! Then a wait in Frankfurt airport...long enough to have a slide show on the computer of the HUNDREDS of photos taken by the boys (proper tourists that they are!!) On another plane, change at Vienna then arrive in Tirana :-) We were met by Will (ECM missionary also), had coffee, went out for a pre-dinner munch with he and his wife and another, then back to ABI (Albanian Bible Istitute) where we are staying and all in bed and asleep by 8ish! Rather tired! Spent today in Tirana meeting with another ECMer and the autism care place people - VERY lovely people.....saw the main square.....sat in traffic for ages! Had lovely sufllaqe for lunch and are now back in Durres at an internet cafe where we mostly can't access our emails! So a big SORRY from us to you for the lack of emails and/or replies!!
Overall an amazing first whole day experienceing more of what makes Albania what it is, learning a few more words and settling in! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND THOUGHTS! We should have net access again soon and will be in touch then!
this was posted by sharon by the way :-)
Sorry it's not pretty - this computer is pretty archaic....net access anyways!

Durres!!!

Kia Ora Everyone.
We are currently in an internet cafe in Durres, Albania. The internet is incredible slow so this is a quick note to say we can't access our email at the moment so sorry about the lack of communication. Hopefully by Monday we will have acces to it but who knows. One thing about Albania is this rarely go to plan!!! Please keep praying for us as we will be starting our work here on Tuesday i think. Better go, time is up.
God Bless

Emily in Bangkok - couldn't think of a more inventive title...

Hey people,
This is going to be a colourful post because Bangkok is definitely colourful. I won't go over the same stuff as Adam so here is a short account of the things I have noted about the capital of Thailand...
The people are very polite and modest. The first time we went out yesterday I wore a singlet (a decent one too) and felt slightly underdressed! Everyone else had their shoulders covered! Interesting. Not sure if it is because it is their winter here or a cultural thing.
The language has less sounds than ours (no fs or ws) but it is tonal. So they say one word about 6 times - sounds the same to me - but is actually in 6 different tones and therefore 6 different words.
Their architectural design is amazing, especially the western-thai blend of style. King Rama 5 who introduced it is viewed as a sort of demi-god and the present king - Rama 8 is loved to bits - pictures of him everywhere! Especially because it's his birthday (77) in a few day.
Everything is very cheap. If you want a cheap cheap wedding ring go to the best gem shop in the world - here in Bangkok. If you like the bling bling this is where to get it. Some of it incredibly detailed and ornate too! Almost looks tacky except for the fact it's real.
Anyway, before I get you bored I will sign off. We're having a great time so far.
:) Emily

PS Will try a post a picture of Adam sometime - quite the tourist. Imagine (until the photo arrives) Adam with a camera, video camera and camera bag around his neck chewing gum while gazing at the sights in amazement and you have Adam the rookie tourist!