Tuesday 27 July 2010

Kosova for the kosovans!!

Interesting seeing all the news reports from the ICJ about Kosova and whether its declaration of independence in 2008 was legal.

Having lived there for 18 months and got to know so many of the people who lost family members and/or friends I guess it is hard for us to be impartial.

What I do know is that many people have fought many battles over this tiny corner of the world: the Bulgarians, the Byzantines, the Serbs, Most recently in 1450 - 1912 the Ottamans, the Serbs again from 1912 - today.

During those hundreds of years they have been tortured, supressed, bullied, amongst others by many of their conquerors.

I spoke to an Orthodox person in the UK recently who seemed to be under the impression most of the region is populated by Orthodox people. From my experience this is not the case and it is mainly Kosova Albanians who live there. Around 90%.

Is it time to allow the people of this country to decide their own destiny?

What do you think??

WWJD???

Sunday 25 July 2010

Chris writes: our busy time here in the UK continues but thankfully we have managed to have a week off in a remote part of South Wales of relaxing and watching the rain!

After that we came here to 'All Nations College', just north of London, where we are having two weeks of training and getting to know another mission organisation which we will also be linked with CMS (Church Mission Society). We are learning, amongst other things, about something we often take for granted...culture...and crossing into another culture.....the way we see and experience things can be so different to the way other people see things...even the Gospel...one person will see one thing in a verse and someone else something different.



A few quotes from CMS have struck me: "Mission is not someone else's job - it is mine". Mission is something we as Christians should ALL be involved in...some of us get called to serve abroad some at home. "Christian mission is about crossing boundaries not crushing them". We must find a way of "engaging with each other which is respectful but not compromising". Lesslie Newbigin.

Very interesting!!

Friday 2 July 2010

Chris writes: it is hard to believe but we have been in the UK for three weeks now - the time has flown by so quickly it feels like so much longer. Our time in Krushe feels so far away and the sadness of having to leave so many of our friends there has been equalled by our joy to see our friends and family in UK. Our three weeks here have been a bit of a rollercoaster ride and one blessing after another. We arrived here and after a night just outside Reading went up north to Clitheroe via the collection of our vehicle. Then to north Wales and more blessings. Then we had our weekend with OM and have now been accepted to work with them in Kosova, subject to raising our support. Finally we headed south to Bournemouth and Moorlands to congratulate our friends on completing their degrees. Then along the coast to Worthing and Shoreham.
We leave Worthing on Sunday and head off on our travels again!!

Our Time here has been birthed in prayer and we are so grateful to all of you who have prayed for us. We are experiencing such a mixture of emotions as we are travelling around talking and sharing with people and are both trying not to strive in playing our part to raise our support. We have found when we went unprepared that the Holy Spirit was given room to take over and we and others were blessed as a result. Please do pray that we can maintain a blanace and that He gets the glory not us.....this is the reason why we ALL do what we do....for His glory....Amen!!