Back Home again (for now...)

Now that I am back from Corfu, I have a bit of time to sit down and write again. The conference was very good, though also very full. The keynote speaker was a man named John Quanrud, who was one of the pioneers in Albanian missions. He, along with several others, was in Kosova learning the language and culture prior to the fall of communism in Albania. When the country opened in 1991, they were among the first people to come in and share the Gospel. It was great to get his perspective on the state of missions in Albania. We looked at where missions has been in the past in Albania, and then tried to think about where we need to be going. John has done a lot of research on the life of a man named Gjerasim Qiriazi, one of Albania’s national heroes. Qiriazi was a strong believer as well as a patriot, and did a lot for Albania in his short life.

The conference was held in a great hotel, but the mosquitoes were horrendous! Though we all ate pretty well, I think the mosquitoes ate the most! I felt so sorry for some of the younger kids – they looked like they had measles by the end of the week. A 6 ounce bottle of Coke in the mini bar was about $3 – needless to say, I found a grocery store… They also had wi-fi at the hotel – if you wanted to pay 8 Euros (about $10) per hour!

The drive down to Saranda (where we caught the ferry) was about 6 and a half hours long. That is 6.5 hours to go about 175 miles. I wish I had photos of the roads so everyone could see them. The trip is actually shorter than it used to be, and they are working on building a new 4 lane highway that would run the length of the country, so it should improve as time goes on.

Back in Tirana now, I continue to learn the ropes at the AEP. The former administrator, Jeremy Dollar, will be headed back to the US at the end of the week, and Austin and I will officially take over. I am sitting in the office right now, as I type. It looks like there will be a good bit of travel involved. Later this month, we will attend the National Meetings of VUSh – the Albanian Evangelical Brotherhood, and then next month we will be headed over to Korçë, in eastern Albania for a Missions Consultation with the team there.