Kosova

This year a team from Thurrock Christian Fellowship and Diss Christian Community Church (Norfolk) joined together to visit our friends at Victory Church, Gjakova, Kosova. As usual we have arrived home having had an amazing time, and really seen God at work as we have travelled together.

Team Arriving at Pristina Airport on Friday 24th July 2009

The team was made up of 8 people from TCF and 16 from DC3. The majority of the team arrived on Friday 24th July to join up with some who had travelled to Kosova at an earlier date. We travelled to Gjakova where we were staying at the Church building, which also has two stories of bedrooms and accomodation. After settling into our accomodation that afternoon we set out to the youth meeting for the evening where we met the church, and then home for take away kebabs! Nice!!

Saturday 25th July 2009 - Day 1 
Part of the purpose of travelling together as a team is to maximise the opportuinity for discipleship of team members, so learning to pray together and share around the Scriptures is part of our day. Steve led off our first session of morning worship, setting us off on simple study and reflection of Matthew chapter 5, 6 & 7. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit for their's is the kingdom of heaven' takes on a whole new dimension when you (probably one of the wealthiest people in Europe) are among some of the poorest on this continent!

We then set off for our first full day, with part of the team heading to Bajram Curri, just across the border in Northern Albania, and the rest of the team prayer walking around Gjakova.

You can view the city and pray from the hills around Gjakova. 'Greater things are still to come, greater things are still to be done in this city' was a recurring theme in our prayers!

Team Visiting Bajram Curri in Northern Albania

Beauty and Poverty

Sunday 26th July 2009 Meeting at Victory Church, Gjakova - Day 2 

Victory Christian Church is a great Church meeting in the town of Gjakova, and we spend our time in Kosova serving with them. They meet in an old reastaurant, outside under a vine. It's a great location and they are a fantastic bunch of people.

Some young girls in the church performing a drama for us...

Gary Jones from TCF preaching at their meeting... 

 





Monday 27th to Thursday 30th July 2009 Kolony - Day 3 to 6

Monday to Thursday were spent visiting local gypsy colonies around the town of Gjakova. These are very poor communities where the church visit and minister each week through the year. We carried out children and youth programmes in each community, playing games, activities, sharing bible stories and testimonies, and praying for hundreds of children through the week. These are exciting times, working with kids who are happy and responsive in so many ways. We then also visit families in these communities, delivering food parcels, and praying for sick people.

Above is a picture of Sam with the monkey. Sam was our youngest team member at just 11 years of age, and he travelled with his dad. Read his diary...

Russell & Graham teaching a song, "He's like a Rock or a Castle..."


Two local boys...


Some homeless people were recently housed in their 'new' accomodation... a wooden shed basically!



Friday 31st July 2009 Day off at Merusha Falls - Day 7

A lovely, well deserved rest day at a local country park filled with lakes and waterfalls. Great for swimming!

Saturday 1st August 2009 Day spent in Valbona - Day 8

Victory Church run a youth camp in the hils of Valbona, Northern Albania and on the Saturday we travelled there for the day, to spend the day with the children and to serve there.

Our team members Matt, Reuben & Mark on their way to camp in Valbona with some of the kids from Gjakova...

Sunday 2nd August 2009 Day spent at Victory Church - Day 9

Each Sunday evening the people of Gjakova walk through the town with their families - it's  a local tradition - so the streets are full of people! So on each Sunday evening we did open air presentations on the steps of the 'Mother Teresa' statue, in the local park. With an acoustic guitar, a few worship songs & a piece of drama we soon had a crowd of approx. 200 people and were able to share the message of Jesus with them. We then prayed for people whilst talking with them in small groups, and inviting them to Victory Church. We had some great conversations, and I think one family turned up at the church the following week as a result of this.

Graham talking to the crowd...

Gary & Dave talking & parying with local children at the open air meeting...  

Monday 3rd & Tuesday 4th August 2009 Days spent painting the basement of the church building, & delivering food parcels to 15 families

One of the highlights of the trip for me has to be when we prayed for this little lad, the one in the yellow sleeves, who is also 3 year old twin of the other lad in the picture. 5 days before this photo was taken we visited his home to see him writhing around on the sofa, suffering from (his mother had been informed by the hospital) 'mental illness'. You could not touch him without him sreaming, he did not eat well, walk around or go outside, and looked very sick, malnourished and close to death. It's a times like this you realise that often all we truly have to rely on is the power of God, so we simply prayed for him. When we had finished praying the family asked us if we could leave some 'charms' for them, as that is what local Muslim leaders do. Again we simply explained that we had nothing to leave them other than the presence of Christ Jesus, and that if they needed further help they too could call on his name and He would answer them! They thanked us for our kind words, for praying for their sick child, and we said our goodbyes feeling rather heavy in heart and inadequate.

5 days later some of the team returned to this family to deliver a food parcel and were overwhelmed to see that the same child was now running around the house! Bar (one of our team members) commented to me later that day that he was literally un-recognisable from the child we prayed for a few days ago, and the family commented that since we had prayed the child had grown stronger and recovered! Wow, how amazing is that? Thank you Lord!

Wednesday 5th August 2009 Team returns to UK, and back to TCF & Dc3!

  

For those wishing to join us on future teams please contact Russell Godward. Faton & Kymelina Berisha will hopefully be visiting us in UK in October 2009, spending time at TCF (Thurrock, Essex), DC3 (Diss, Norfolk) & Oak Grove Chapel (Norwich).

Check out the Victory Church Website, it looks really good!

Updated Wednesday 12th August 2009