November 2009 in Tirana, Albania

Here it is , November 2009 , already. I probably will sound repetitive , but the year(s) has flown so fast and it is hard to believe it is gone....

We just had a fantastic Annual Albania Foursquare Pastors and Leaders conference . It went from November 11-14th.
Our guest speakers and worsip leader gave encouraging messages and teaching based on our theme this year,..
"Christ in you, the hope of glory".. Colossians 1:27B.
After the teachings and worship, we had time to hang out with one another by taking an excursion to Mt. Dajti via the telefonic, cable car, called the "Dajti Express". This breath - taking ride to the top of the mountain takes about 15 minutes and is breath - taking for two reasons. One, the view is gorgeous,.... old village houses are passed along the ride up and they look like little toy houses from our view so high up. Sheep, shepherds, goats, donkeys and women and men working in the fields , planting or tilling plots of land that dot the landscape that is so interesting as the panarama changes with each month into another collage of nature's beauty and God's awesome creation; this is what we see.
Second reason, I describe the ride breath-taking is because the cable car is runing here in Albania. We are all grateful for the fact that the cable car and it's mechanism is Austrian made.... but this fact still does not help when the electricity goes off and the power to move the cars stops.! Chris has experienced this "dangling of the cable car" while riding up with some British friends and they all admitted to being "afraid"... hmmmm, maybe they were teasing me, but nontheless, I would not want to be up there and waiting for a generator to kick in.... (I am a bit of a chicken inside although,I do still like adventure..... )

Another fun excursion we had was to go bowling at the modern bowling lanes .... black lighting and automatic scoreboard...with a group of adventurous people. I enjoyed the laughter ...but must admit ... the sore hand, shoulder and hip
the next day reminded me that bowling once a year is a bit hazardous to a body growing older year by year.... smile.

Our guests, Mattias Nowak from Switzerland, Arie van Oudheusen from Holland, Thomas Zahnd from Switzerland, Jeff and Grace Rockwell and Heather Cupples from the USA and Romke, also from Holland , and Richard Welch from Saranda, Albania have now gone back home to their churches ... We miss them already and are so glad that they took time out of their lives to bless us and the Albanians.

Now I need to find some photos and post them.... Hope to see you in Albania when you are able to visit. You are always welcome!