Greece and Macedonia

The time to leave Albania came so fast and on Tuesday, I headed off to Greece. The bus took about 11 hours, with maybe 2 hours taken to cross the border. I think I was the only non-Albanian on board, and I was something of celebrity, a number of people wanted to look at my passport. Some of them also took some little booklets I had in Albanian on the life of Jesus.

We arrived in Thessaloniki in the evening, and I met a man called Tommie Naumann, who plants churches in Eastern Europe and beyond, and who had invited me to come over. We had a day together, getting to know one another and then the next day we travelled to Skopje in Macedonia, where he had meetings with church leaders. They have invited me to go to Macedonia and work with the church, as they have much there they want to do. Tommie has also said he would like me to be involved in the church in Greece. I am back in Thessaloniki again (as it was a day trip to Skopje), and I feel that I am at a cross-roads in my life. So I am praying and thinking about what to do next.

I have been given more gifts of money over the last few weeks. God has generously looked after me and I still have more than I need, even after nearly 11 months since I started travelling.

Back in Albania

It took me two days to get there, including one night train and two boats, the second from Brindisi. I arrived in Vlora (Albania) in the morning and when I got to the passport control I was confused about where to go. An Albanian who spoke English came to my help, and got me through. He then took me into town to the place where the buses go to Elbasan - typically helpful Albania behaviour.

When the bus came, the conductor started a conversation with me:
"Are you English?"
- "Yes"
"Are you a missionary?"
- "Yes" [that was the easiest answer to give]
"Of Jesus Christ?"
- "Yes"
"Praise God! Do you know Nick and Sar?"
I was rather surprised by this! Nick and Sar, who I was visiting, are in Elbasan, about 4 hours from Vlora, so it seemed quite amazing that this man knew them. He then treated me a bit like a friend on the bus!

The reason I had gone to Albania again was to train up the new church administrator in using the computers. I had a lot of work to cover in a short space of time, so it was pretty busy. But as usual it was great to be there and see my friends. I didn't have as much time to be sociable as I wanted, but one evening I saw the light on in one of the other flats and found a number of the people from the School of Light (the school for blind and visually impaired people) sitting there. We sat together and laughed so much together - they really are a great group to hang around with.

Sicilia

Travelled to Sicily from Naples, and went to a YWAM base in Piedemonte Etneo, between Taormina and Catania. The people there were great and there was a surprising large number of native-English speakers. Nonetheless, I still had a lot of opportunity to practice, especially when helping to lay concrete for three days with a group made up solely of Italians. Sicily in fact has it's own dialects - at least 8 different ones!

The YWAM base is in the foothills of Mount Etna, one of Italy's four active volcanoes. Every time I looked I could see smoke coming out of the main crater. In spite of this, people still build on the slopes, probably because the land there is so fertile.

Whilst on the base I was also involved in pruning vines and olive trees, and since I have been reading Romans 8, 11 and John 15 in the Bible, which are about God's life flowing through us like life in a vine and in olive trees, it has made all the more sense to me.

Yesterday I had the experience of being given a personally addressed envelope containing quite a bit of money. It was anonymous.

A few days ago I got an email, inviting me back to Albania, so right now I am in Brindisi waiting for a ferry, having travelled across from Sicily last night.