Visit to Kosova - September 2008Report and feedback of our latest visit to Kosova
Wednesday 10th to Monday 15th September 2008
John Peters, one of the leaders at TCF, Eddie Gjoni, who has recently moved to Thurrock with his family from Albania, and myself set off for our latest visit to Kosova. This was the first time the 3 of us had travelled together, as normally Eddie would travel from Albania and meet us in Pristina, Kosova.
Our purpose was clear. We have been travelling to Kosova for 8 years seeking to work with and support local leaders and their churches. It’s been a good time, we’ve enjoyed developing the relationships and seeing our own influence and ministry grow there. In the last 18 months the involvement of people from TCF in Kosova has grown considerably, and so we wanted to review our involvement with the leaders that we work with, ensuring that the next few years of ministry there will be upon a good foundation. My own feeling is that God is releasing something fresh and new from TCF for Kosova, and we’ll see an acceleration of people being sent on short and medium term overseas trips – so it’s important we lay good foundations.
John, Eddie and I are good friends, and travel well together. We laugh a lot, which is always good and necessary, but we also moan a bit, as we miss our respective wives. In all this there is definitely a release of ministry through us that is different to the way we work together locally, and this is encouraging for us all. It should be a good time! We travel out on Wednesday, arriving late afternoon in Pristina. Faton, a leader we have worked with for 8 years now is a good man and always there to meet us. Today, however, there is no sign of him! We call him and discover he got the times muddled, so we catch a cab and make the 90 minute journey on our own, arriving at our simple hotel in Gjakove by approximately 6pm.
We unload, and head off down to the church building, an old restaurant in town, where the youth group are meeting to practice music and drama. There’s a good buzz in the place, and it’s great to see people again. There is a large youth gathering at the church this Friday, for all the churches in town, and these guys are leading the worship and ministry.
We meet & greet Faton & Kymelina Berisha, the leaders of the church here. It’s good to see them again and they look well. They should, they have just returned from a weeks holiday in Montenegro and have serious suntan!
 We head out for dinner together, and spend the evening catching up. Conversation is good and flows easily, not least because their English is getting so much better. They have English lessons 3 times every week at a local language school kindly paid for by a generous friend in Holland. Things in the church sound good, although we learn that one of the young couples have separated and divorced recently. This is very sad, especially as the young woman is now abandoned by her husband and family, but we also learn that her own family have abandoned her as she broke the cultural rules when she took her 6 year old son from her husband and his family. So Tina is now alone with her 6 year old son, homeless and with no money or job. Faton & Kymelina are doing their best to support her of course, & she is staying at a house that the church rent for kids ministry in town. It’s not a good house, totally unsuitable for living in to be honest, as it has no bathroom or kitchen facilities, so it’s just an emergency stop gap for now. We talk about how we as a church can assist this situation, both in the immediate, and in the medium term.
The next day (Thursday) John, Eddie & I meet for breakfast at 9am, and Faton & Kymelina join us from 10am. We set out an agenda for the day that creates opportunity for them to share how our relationship and working together is going, along with how we all see things developing over the next 2 years. Our morning is interrupted by the local Fire Brigade and Police Force who slowly drive through town, past the hotel, with their sirens blaring in memory of those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks in New York – today was the 7th anniversary of those attacks. This seems strange, as we are in a predominantly Muslim country, but there is a lot of respect here for the British and American Governments who helped remove the Serbs from Kosova & have supported the Kosovan claim for independence. The poster below was displayed in many shop windows.
 Our day continues with visits to different coffee locations, the level of sharing is good and they are hugely appreciative of the help and support of the people of TCF. Their desire is that this level of involvement from us not only continues, but develops over the next few years. We talk a lot and develop a plan which means we’ll commit to being here about every 4 months, and bringing a team each year. We agree that there is a need to focus much more strongly on teaching and discipleship in the church, but that we also want to develop practical outreach and serving in the community here. We finish up about 10pm that night – a long day of talking, but hugely encouraging!
On Friday morning we meet for coffee, share a few final things and say our good-byes. Eddie, John & I borrow a car and head off to Peje, approximately 1 hour North, where we plan to meet some more leaders that we’ve worked with over recent years. We arrive at our accommodation, a nice house at the foot of the mountains that an American couple (Randy & Linda) run. They live here as missionaries with their 3 children, and there is also an Irish team of 6 staying here, who are working locally refurbishing a Muslim village school. We dump our luggage and head off to meet Bukerijah and the leaders of the church here in Peje. Again, we have a good day of reviewing and sharing about our involvement, and ascertaining the impact on this local church. We finish up at one of their homes, sharing good Kosovan hospitality, and talking ‘til late. We arrange to meet the next day, Saturday.
On Saturday we meet early for breakfast, and to pray with the Irish team. This is one of the great things about travelling on overseas mission – you meet all sorts of people and the mutual desire to share the good news of Jesus brings you quite close together. I think there is something to learn here in terms of engaging in our mission locally in Thurrock – it seems Godly relationships & discipleship always flow better out of a context where our mutual desire is mission! Must think about this some more…
Anyway, following breakfast we head out to meet the local leaders again and spend the rest of the day seeking to encourage the work, and help them with a plan to build discipleship and ministry here. There are things to pray about though, Bukerijah is planning to move to Montenegro to engage in evangelism there on a long term basis. This would leave them without a leader, so we talk about this, and agree that we will revisit them next time we are here to encourage them. We finish up Saturday sharing communion with the Irish team back at the house. These are good guys from The Barn Fellowship, Northern Ireland. See what I mean about mission bringing people closer together!
On Sunday I head off back to Gjakove to preach in the church there, and Eddie preaches in Peje. It’s a good day, especially for me in Gjakove. The church is full, with loads of kids and young people, which is always a good sign! I share from Romans 12 verse 1&2 and simply encourage them to keep offering themselves to God, even in the midst of hardship, persecution & pressure from the world – & there’s a lot of pressure here especially for those whose families are Muslim. Hopefully I encouraged them to keep following the ways of Jesus.
After the meeting I head off with Faton & Kymelina for some visits – it’s always good to visit people here in their homes. We visit Driton and his parents. He has just married, at last, but I was unable to meet his wife as she was away visiting her mother for the week – it’s a normal custom here for the wife to return to her family for a visit shortly after being married. I see his parents again though, which is good. They are not believers… yet! We then head across town to meet Tina, and to talk with and encourage her. The situation that her husband has left her in is very sad, but she seems strong in the Lord and has a passionate desire to keep serving Him. Later we take a drive out to the hills to visit Rosa, a widow with 10 children, 7 of them still living with her at home. This is a lovely family; they are so happy and very pleased that we have visited. Rosa is still unwell with high blood pressure and heart related problems.
 The blood pressure machine that we left money for earlier this year works well, but it’s not the answer for her heart problems of course. I have a great time with them, but I discover some very serious and sad news – it seems that every where you go in this place the problems and hardships are enormous, and sometimes I am simply overwhelmed, to the point of despair if I am honest! They share with me that Rosa’s late husband (who died in the war) killed a local man before he died, and to this day there is a blood feud running between the families meaning one of her young sons (16 + 20 years old and still at school) would be the next to die in this awful feud. They are clearly distressed by this, but the 2 families are actually meeting today as the younger family members wish to forgive and resolve the feud. This is good news, except the mans brother is still unwilling to forgive. I don’t really know what to say and how to truly comfort people in such circumstances – I cannot even begin to imagine a life consisting of this level of hardship. I encourage them to pray and say that we will too… what else am I supposed to say?
I finish up having dinner with Faton & Kymelina, and then head back to Peje. John, Eddie & I have supper with the Irish team and head off to bed. Tomorrow we leave for home, and the Irish guys are on the same flight.
On Monday we meet up with an Albanian friend of Eddie. He and his family are training to be missionaries in Pakistan, and so are here in Kosova learning about the Muslim culture. They are lovely, and we hear about their exciting plans. Inspiring! We head for the airport, check in, get a meal and begin anticipating our arrival back home. We are pleased with the trip, and our future plans for overseas mission from TCF. We’ll be sharing some of this with the people of TCF next week...
Next time we visit will be in November, 13 of us are travelling for the weekend. We also have plans for next summer when a crowd of young people from Diss will be joining us. If you would like to join us on any of these trips to Kosova, or to other parts of the world that we visit please give us a call.
Russell Godward
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