Children from VBS in Albania.Just tonight while reading Bible stories with our children, I experienced an amazing moment. We were reading about the women going to the tomb and finding, (or should I say NOT finding) something amazing. Jesus had risen! When I read the part about the angel's announcment to the women, my oldest daughter sat up in her bed and started to clap. She loved the happy ending! Don't we all. In Christ, there can be a happily ever after to all of our lives, and this is something we can sit up and clap about!
Also I wanted to share with you some news about work currently being done by friends in Italy and Albania:
LECCE CHRISTIAN MISSION
(Italy and Albania)
CASELLA POSTALE 36 (73100) LECCE, ITALY
Mission E-mail: chcr.lecce@tiscali.it;
July, 2009
Pino Neglia – Jessie Lee Troyer
Special Albania
Again this year we had our usual VBS in Albania in the city of Elbasan and in the village of Gostime. It began only a few days after the conclusion of our annual Italian Churches of Christ convention , the details of which I gave you in our June newsletter. In this VBS Chuck Schmidt, from Wichita, KS., was to have participated but because of continuous delays and flight cancellations of Delta Air Line he was blocked at Atlanta on standby for some days and finally was compelled to return home. He felt both embittered and frustated. He was to have accompanied our singing in VBS on his guitar, was to sing solos, and planned to bring with him the portable baptistry which his church had donated to the Church at Elbasan. On my next mission trip to Albania in September, I’ll take the baptistry with me . (providing it arrives in time.)
The first stop of my trip to Albania was at the Christian clinic at Durres where I took the usual supply of medicines . In the first photo to the left are the doctors and nurses who run the clinic. Much to our dismay, in the period when I was in Albania there were extreme climatic conditions; in fact, on Albanian TV they said such storms had not occurred in more than 100 years. The roads turned into torrents of water and mud. Water was in our church location at Gostime. We managed to keep the water from flooding the location by digging trenches.
In spite of the torrential rains the young people came to our VBS. We had a maximum number of 31 at Gostime and 29 at Elbasan. The team of teachers were: Arian Kosta, evangelist at the Durres Church; Koli, member of the Church at Elbasan, Mondi Gjoni, our native evangelist at Gostime and Elbasan; and I. At Elbasan we used the usual elementary and middle school building. The theme was: “Conversions in Acts of the Apostles.” Due to the bad weather we prolonged VBS for a few days. The road from Elbasan to Gostime was a disaster. I never before saw so much mud.
Sunday, July 5th, the only day of sun and no rain, we had the inauguration of the new center and church location at Elbasan which we had rented on my preceding trip in April. There are four rooms and removing the dividing wall between two of them will give us our worship room. One other room will be used for Bible study and the fourth will have a ping-pong table. A sign like that at Gostime reads: Youth Center – Church of Christ. Under the name is Mark 16:16. I had taken chairs bought in Italy. The bath is very small…but at least…there is a bath…!!!
I had taken balloons for VBS which we used also in this occasion. Koli was baptized several years ago and his wife, from Muslim background, is studying the Bible. Another person present for the first time at Christian worship was Genny, economics teacher, who is also of Muslim origin. I had the privilege of sharing at length the Word of God with her. She promised to continue attending services and to study the Bible.
Don’t forget to pray for these children that the seed of the Gospel that we have planted will produce the spiritual fruit of conversion to Jesus Christ Lord and Saviour and re-birth of water and of the Spirit.
Pino Neglia – Jessie Lee Troyer
Lecce Christian Mission
