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TCF TEAM IN KOSOVO
Friday 20th - Monday 30th July 2007
The team together early in '07 preparing for our trip
Day 1 - Friday 20th July
The team eventually left Gatwick this morning after a one and a half hour delay, arriving at Pristina airport, Kosova late that afternoon.
Janes diary reads...
"...the heat hit us as we got off the plane - really hot! We left the airport minus 9 suitcases - not sure what happened but now 9 of us have NO LUGGAGE!!"
"Arrived at the house we have rented - there's no electricity (energy saving Kosova style), but we didn't expect The Ritz! It doesn't matter though, we are all just very excited about being here. We walked to the restaurant (where we will eat most evenings), had a really nice meal & good wine!"
A presentation at the school in Opterushe...
Day 2 - Saturday 21st July
Today the team travel from Gjakova to a small village in the hills called Opterushe. This is the village we sent a lorry load of aid to back in 2000. Since then we have visited the village, building some good relationships with the school, the village elders and some families. Today will be our first time back there for a couple of years, so should be good.
Jane's diary reads...
"... up early, gorgeous brekkie - fresh fruit, bread, yoghurt, cheese, jam etc. Perhaps this is The Ritz after all! Everyone rallied round to help those with lost luggage, so we're sharing clothes, toiletries, bedding etc. All together for prayer at 9am. Then we all set off by coach to Opterushe."
"How amazing! what a sweet little place. Everyone is so kind & the children were incredible - so well behaved - made us feel so welcome. we played games, sang songs, told stories. A wonderful day!!"
"Returned to the house at 3.30pm. Very relaxed. Our youth are great! Once again nice meal out."
With children in the village square at Opterushe...
Day 3 - Sunday 22nd July
We will spend today with the church that Faton & Kymelina Berisha lead in Gjakove, a church TCF have been working with now for 5 or 6 years. They are a great bunch!
Janes diary reads...
"Brekkie, meet for prayer and then all walked to the Church. People are so nice, so friendly. Our youth lead the worship. Really enjoyed church! Back to house for lunch. Just chilled this afternoon, sitting around, chatting - really getting to know everyone!"
The house we rented in Gjakove...
Mr & Mrs Minip, the house owners who became great friends whilst we were there...
Day 4 - Monday 23rd July
Today we make some changes to the team & what we are up to. The work in the 5 gypsy colonies in Gjakove begins today and will run through everyday to Friday this week - we visit a different colony each day. These are the poorest communities in and around the town here and Faton's church is carrying out ongoing ministry into these communities most weeks, running weekly youth and kids programmes, visiting familes, and providing food boxes at certain times of year eg the banana box appeal we ran last Christmas. So we will run a kids programme each morning & then deliver food boxes to the poorest families in each colony. We have purchased 120 boxes of food at 15 Euro a box - that's enough to feed an average family here for about 2 weeks.
Today we also send half of our team up to Peje where we work with another small church and have contacts with some American missionaries. They will stay there until Friday, again running kids and youth programmes, evangelism with the church, and some of our guys are travelling up into the mountains to do some construction work with a team who are building a timber camp where youth camps can be run for local kids.
So it looks to be a good week!
Janes diary reads...
"Brekkie & prayer. Heading off to Peje later. Arrived at house in Peje where we will stay with American missionaries. WOW, fantastic house. Met by Linda & Randy who run the house, they are doing amazing things here! Lovely meal, great food, then went to meet the youth group. Great bunch, so keen to learn & they are lovely!"
The team enjoying a meal together...
Day 5 - Tuesday 24th July
Today half the team are working in Gjakove carrying out kids programmes and food distribution in the colonies around the town. This is both inspiring and heart rending stuff - some of us just stand there and cry when we see the poverty that these people are living in. It should not be like this anywhere in the world, and personally I have not even seen poverty like this in the countries of East Africa that I have visited, let alone here in Europe. Every family we deliver food to we offer to pray for, and they all say yes - so we pray for many with sickness, disease and longstanding, serious health issues. Miracles are needed...
The other half of the team are now working up in Peje running kids and youth programmes.
Jane's diary reads...
"Up at 7am, brekkie at 8, praying together at 9 & out to run the kids programme by 10. They are a group of 5-10 year olds, and we play games, share testimonies & tell stories - very enjoyable. We head back to the house for lunch, then straight back to run a ladies meeting. This went well, although a bit difficult to translate, but we got by well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Back for dinner at 5pm, then straight out again for the evening youth meeting. The youth are great fun and very responsive. It's been quite a hectic day but really good."
Games with children in one of the colonies...
Day 6 - Wednesday 25th July
Jane's diary reads...
"Woke early today. The house is in such beautiful surroundings with mountains all around us, chickens and goats in the fields etc. Today Russell, Janet & Andy A head back to Gjakove with some of the young people on the team - they leave at 8.30am. To replace them Anne, Andy B, Eddie and some of the young people join us from Gjakove for the next few days. We have a meeting with the Church at 10.30am. Met more poeple there, and great having Eddie with us to translate. He is such a fantastic guy and has really been helpful in explaining all that has happened here in the country over the last decade. Back to the house for lunch and then out again to run some evangelistic stuff with the church. Unfortunately only a very few turn up, so we head back to the house for dinner at 8pm."
In one of the colonies there is a school where we work to install a water drinking fountain. This is the guys working hard laying drainage pipes...
Day 7 - Thursday 26th July
Jane's diary reads...
"Although we planned to spend the day working with the church nothing much happened, so we sat around relaxing until 4pm. Then we have an evangelistic meeting in town where we will meet the Mayor of Peje! Once again no one turned up which is ashame, so we went to see the waterfalls before returning home for the evening."
In Gjakove however the team are very busy with lots of food aid still to be delivered, families to be visited etc. Yesterday we started work on installing the water fountain, and this still has to be completed as well.
Running the kids programme one evening in 'Gypsy Street'...
Day 8 - Friday 27th July
Today the guys in Peje head back to Gjakove on the bus and we enter the final weekend of the trip. We meet up and head out to last gypsy colony that we have to visit this week, again running kids stuff and delivering food. We also need to get back and complete the water fountain, and tonight we are running an open air gathering in the High Street in Gjakove. It's a busy day, we have a lot to get done still, the heat here hit 44 degrees on Wednesday but is now cooling slightly (although it's still hot and very tiring) and tomorrow is our only 'day off' - so we want most things done before then!
As always, I am impressed with this team of TCF people, their heart, vision & compassion is amazing to see - and they don't give up - they want to get all the work done as much as I do. So we've had lost luggage for 9 people for 5 days, fatigue from the heat, a little sickness for some, little sleep as we all share rooms and some snore very badly!! But this is great fun, very touching & challenging, it feels fruitful and rewarding, and God is doing stuff - in us and through us! YOU WOULD LOVE IT - WHY DON'T YOU JOIN US ON THE NEXT TRIP?
Jane's diary reads...
"Up early as we are returning to Gjakove and visiting the colonies today! Today was amazing, met really poor families, but they are wonderful people! We went to their homes, had Turkish Coffee, shared stories, and prayed for every member of every family. The children are beautiful! We returned to the house for lunch then headed off out to the school to see the installation of the new water fountain. We visited some more families. This colony is right next to the city rubbish dump - we walked there - I was mortified!!"
The city rubbish dump next to the gypsy colony. This is where the poorest people live and around 100 of the 400 children in the village 'work' on the rubbish dump every day. We found the greatest needs in this colony and fed 70 families here. This is where we sent banana boxes full of clothing last Christmas. Despite the fact that we sent aid at Christmas with warm winter clothing for each family and all the children, we met one family who's newborn child still died...
The completed drinking water fountain for the school...
Day 9 - Saturday 28th July
Jane's diary reads...
"Day off today - going to swimming pool! Back for showers, went to restaurant in a beautiful setting but unfortunately the meal was a disaster!"
Following the morning being spent at the pool we took some of the team to Baram Curri, a small town over the mountains in Northern Albania.
One of the families we visited...
Day 10 - Sunday 29th July
Jane's diary reads...
"Off to church am. During the afternoon we went to vsit the SMILE Centre. A lovely building & once again people doing a great work here. In the evening we had a farewell party with the church, traditional Albanian music & dancing and all that, Really good fun, people are great."
Another family we visited...
Day 11 - Monday 30th July
Jane's diary reads...
"HOME today! It's been a great trip. The team have been fantastic and I will miss them all! Prayed for our landlords, Mr & Mrs Minip - lovely people. Said goodbye to Eddie, Joyce & baby Grace! Will really miss them - they are such a lovely family!"
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