Lots of news to make up for lots of not posting...

Sorry this is a lengthy post, but there will soon be pictures....but you have to read it first! A lot has happened since our last blog update last week. Sorry it has been a while with no updates!

This last week has been incredibly busy, but very, very encouraging. Last Tuesday, our shipment from the States arrived! It was about 6 weeks later than the date they told us it would arrive, but we are so thankful that nothing was lost or broken. We couldn’t decide whether it was good or bad timing (from a natural human perspective) since the conference described below started that same day outside Tirana. But it was absolutely the Lord’s perfect timing, because we basically shoved the boxes into our apartment and ran out the door to catch a taxi to the conference. It was almost torturous for me (Gretchen) because I was so excited to unpack some of our belongings – specifically our own sheets and my candles! But we were to headed to something even more exciting than linens and candles…


Last week was the annual Albanian Pastors’ Conference. There were about 60-70 participants from all over Albania. This conference is unique in Albania and fulfills a huge need for the training, fellowship, and mutual encouragement of pastors and church leaders here. Usually, the conference takes place here in the heart of the city, in the same building the church meets in. But this year, it was held at a hotel on the side of Mt. Dajti (remember the mountain we went up in the cable car?). From the conference room (and our hotel room) there was a spectacular 180 degree view, with dusty, smoggy Tirana down below. Our keynote speaker was Les Lofquist, president of IFCA, who spoke on the topic of Biblical church leadership in 10 general sessions. [Sidenote: It was special for us to meet Les for the first time, as Justin’s great grandfather, William McCarrell, was one of the founders of IFCA.] They were excellent, and very edifying, even to those of us who have been taught the same passages and principles for years.

Here is the conference room:


And here is Les with the conference logo behind him on the screen:


Justin & Les:

There were more than a dozen breakout sessions/workshops, including sessions specifically for the women. The theme of the women’s sessions was Suffering for the Savior and was co-led by Albanian and American women.

Here are all the women (minus me... I was taking the picture):


We even had a visit from Ruth (as in the biblical Ruth)! One of the Albanian women performed a beautiful 10 minute monologue – in costume – from the life of Ruth:


There were times for testimonies and lots of wonderful worship time. [Another sidenote: One of the great things about the Albanian language is that it’s phonetic. So once you know the sounds of the alphabet you can pretty much read anything, which means we are able – with lots of concentration – to sing the worship songs and hymns with the Albanians. We don’t always know what we’re singing – but we sing loudly anyway, praising God with our hearts and voices!] And as always Justin put together a movie/slideshow at the end of the conference for all to see. It summed everything up beautifully. He’s got such a knack for that kind of stuff – and people appreciate it so much.

Here is a great picture of everyone at the conference (minus Justin and Kreshnik...who were taking pictures):


So we got home on Saturday afternoon, and immediately began unpacking and putting everything away. So we’ve been very busy lately trying to get our home back in order. Even Oakley helped us unpack:


We just finished a meeting with two other leaders from our church here – Ryan and Roger. We discussed ministry events for the Youth Ministry and Young Professionals Ministries and put together a calendar for the next couple months. Here are some things you can be praying for in the future:

- Young ladies’ Bible study every Tuesday evening
- Fellowship Lunch this Sunday (once a month at our home)
- Prayer & Praise April 7 (once a month)
- Concert Outreach & Summer ministry kick-off April 23 – A Christian band will give a free outdoor concert and we will be doing evangelism and passing out gospels of John and the book of Romans.

Besides what’s listed above, please continue to pray for developments in our relationships here with the youth. We have very dear friends and are encouraged by their desire to grow. Please pray for more young men in the church here! Currently, there is one boy in the youth group and we are trying to encourage him to share Christ with his friends and invite them to some of these outreach events.