God is so faithful!! we have been waiting for several months for a tax rebate which we thought would cover our costs for going to Holland for the next stage in our journey as development workers in Europe.....

with no sight of the rebate our costs have been covered!! Praise God!!!!..thanks for your prayers!

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???

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!!

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!!

Chris writes...time is so close now we leave on Saturday.... and we are frantically trying to get all the packing done and say goodbye to our friends and extended family here while keeping things running at the kindergarten while making all the preperations for our time in the UK!! We really appreciate your prayers.

But the two stages of our time here in Kosova are bluring into one as I was starkly reminded yesterday of one of the reasons why we are coming back.......hearing about a 20 year old boy who was found dead here with a needle sticking out of his arm. The youth here are very disenchanted...corruption is rife...they have been promised much but little is happening...it is a ticking bomb.......please keep praying!!

Summer is here?

Chris writes: today, the first of June our clock is ticking ever faster. We now have 11 more days here and must admit to a real mixture of emotions...excitement at the thought of seeing the U.K. and our family and friends again, nervous at the thought of leaving the security of Humedica and Krushe, excitement at the thought of coming back to Kosova later this year and nervous of how it will all go over the summer and will we have enough support to enable us to come back at the end of September??

We know that this is the right way forward and a few months ago, just like Peter in Matt 14 we asked Jesus if He wanted us to step out of the boat and just Peter we felt He said Yes, so that is what we will be doing in 11 days time!

Please pray that we will both keep sane and use this remaining time here wisely!!

God Bless....or as they say here Zoti ju Bekoft

Lorraine writes- Water has been a common theme over these last few weeks. For one it has been raining heavily and two we have visited a couple of amazing waterfalls. The picture on the left is of Drini I Bardhe near Peje and the one on the right is at Mirusha, just outside Gjakova. We had two staff outings and visited them both. It was a great time together and for the staff a new experience; to visit them as they had never had the opportunity to go before. We were so happy to take them.......

Its been wonderful to see some more of the beauty of Kosova. It has some stunning areas that are a must if you get to visit. We'd be happy to show you them, if you come ever get the chance to come our way!!!!