This is it....

So the fat lady is warming up her vocal chords to start to sing, our time here (for now) is almost over. Tim & I leave on Monday to arrive back to the Emerald Isle. While we will be pleased to get home to a bed, clean clothes, a full wardrobe to choose from and a much more bearable temperature (& friends & families of course) we are sad to be leaving behind some great friends that have been a privilege to serve alongside and have had an unforgettable experience, for which we give thanks to God.


We arrived back late last night from Albania, the 10 hour bus journey was not one of the highlights of the trip but it could have been much worse - no major travel sickness or complications on the homeward journey (it helps to have friends who work on border control!!).


As we said our goodbyes to the campers it's hard to know what impact that the week may have had on them. The vast majority are not Christians and not from Christian homes, so please pray that God will have used the discussion groups and even the simple interactions with the leaders to speak to them. Pray for the follow up with them as the church seeks to put on English classes from Sept and that more will come along to the teenager programmes as well.

We will probably blog one more time to sum up our experiences here over the last month, but for now tiredness has taken over!!

Please pray for our travel tomorrow and as we say goodbye to some of the amazing people we have had the chance to serve alongside.

Lucy

CHUBBY BUNNIES!!

Where to begin.......

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is all.

Not really :)

It's almost 2am and Tim and myself are sitting on the hallway stairs having a midnight feast of go ahead bars & a glass of the wonderful (+multi-talented) 'nurse' Vlora's dolce vita plus multivitamin fruit juice. And giggling like schoolgirls which is pretty apt given the love notes that some of the girls here have just left on Tim's pillow!!! oh how great it is for tomorrow to be a friday :(!

It has been exhausting, tiring, challenging but something that neither of us will ever regret doing!!

We have had an awesome time getting to know the kids and in particular some of the leaders as well. The best part of the camp has to be the laughter that we have all shared together - Lucy's outstanding quick reflexes in uno (the card was still in the deck) and also how we are corrupting the Albanians with are NORN IRON phrases...'wise up' 'build a bridge and get over it' & 'button it'

Everyone had a great time today ... not at the beach - ohhh no, not while eating - no chance BUT when the marshmallows came out everyone knew what time it was .... Chubby Bunny Time & these Kosovo kids can pack!!! 3 packs of marshmallows later we were almost out of food ( thank goodness for the gag reflex!) There was also few mini challenges that got some well needed points to the teams (mainly the greens who destroyed everyone) the night was topped off with the leaders went head-to-head with vitamin C tablets and cup of "coke" in hand!! it ended with a slight bang and a little fizz!!

Tomorrow is the final day of the English camp - so we are praying for extra strength and endurance to make it through this final day and hope that all is well (it is currently wet with thunder and lightening so pray for the weather) also pray Vlora who has just told us that she hates people who are loud when talking ... opps?! Pray for the team who have worked AMAZINGLY hard and made this this trip a resounding success!!

No time!!

As we thought we don't have much spare time so here are a few prayer points that we would appreciate your prayers for:

- energy: it's been a long month and are days are getting longer! Up for leaders meeting at 7.30am and not in bed til midnight and are time completely filled in between.

- enthusiasm: it can start to wane when the energy goes!

- it can be frustrating at times for tim & myself trying to communicate with kids (&some of the leaders) due to the language barrier, pray that it will get easier!

- so far at the beach we have had no incidents, pray that it stays this way!!

- where we are staying there are a few elderly residents pray that we would be considerate and a good witness for the church we are with but at the same time be able to do all the games planned & enable the kids to have a enjoyable time.

Sorry it's quick and no photo's but we have spoilt you over the last few weeks!!

Here we go!!!!!

So this is it.... the time has come.

Tim & I are heading to Albania to teach English.

Pray.


The bus will leave tomorrow at 11am or so, with 40 odd kids and 10 even odder leaders and it will take approximately 7 hours to get to Vlora. Pray for safety in travel, a smooth crossing through the border checkpoint and strong stomachs & bladders on the bus!!

Each morning at camp there will be 3 activities that the kids will rotate round, all centred on teaching them English (it is an English camp after all). Tim & myself will be involved in the more structured, intensive activities despite having no teaching experience! So please pray for confidence, ability & plenty of wisdom!

The afternoons will be spent on the beach, not all the campers & not all the leaders can swim or are strong swimmers so we would really appreciate prayers for safety.

Then in the evenings the campers will be split into discussion groups where we will look at a passenge from the Bible. Due to legal restrictions we have to be careful of what we say so again please pray that the leaders of each group will have discernment but also the courage to ask deeper questions. Pray also that God will work in the hearts of the campers, that even studying these passenges in a comprehension fashion will give them cause to explore God's word deeper.

And then.. after all that we will have some games or movie time, pray that the campers & leaders will have a blast and get to know each better during this time.

So that's it. We are pretty anxious, we had no intention when we left Belfast on the 3rd July that we would still be here come the 23rd and be staying until the 1st August. Toiletries and clean clothes have long run out (& been replaced - don't fear) & Prishtina now feels like a second home, we've met some incredible people and are humbled that we can help out the church with their camp in this way.

We both have had different verses in are heads over the last few days as we have contemplated (& joked about) our current situation. Tim has been reminded of Proverbs 16 v 9 "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps" and for me it's been Jeremiah 29 v 11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". We don't know what's in store but we know that God has planned it from the beginning and that it is for good, we have no reason really to be anxious or worried but every reason to be bold & confident in Christ!

We hope to keep this updated while we are on camp but have no idea how much time or access to internet we will have but please do check back and also check out the ECMI Shorts facebook group as we might, at the very least, be able to post short updates on there.


Thanks for joining with us in prayer!

Lucy & Tim

21st July...what a day!

It wouldn't be a trip to a foreign country without someone having a birthday!! luckily today was the 25th year in the life of Tim and so to celebrate Primrose baked up a storm with coffee cake (not made with coffee), eggs and 'bacon' which went down a treat. there was also no expenses spared in the ECM budget on the birthday cake

the rest of the time was spent well .... we collected some essentials for camp this Sunday and then went home to watch Thor via Dan's projector! Afterwards we had a leaders meeting at the church to go over + finalise some things for the camp - which went on quite abit that we (Primrose, Dan, Lucy & Tim) were almost chomping at the bit to get food in us!

Since it was a special occasion we heading out to Paddy O'Brien's Irish Bar in Prishtina, and of course since we are (northern) Irish me and Lucy decided for a glass of the black stuff each and a plate of fish and chips! which was outstanding though funnily enough we enjoyed our meal outside to get away form the smokers from inside!

...........things then got crazy haha........

this has been a birthday I will not forget anytime - to new friends and new places!!

thank God for another year to praise and pray + hope there will be many more!

The Prodigal Bag

It had come the time to return the many borrowed beds, (that the ECM team had been using whilst staying with Primrose + Dan, to its rightful owner - which meant a wee journey to Pejë so alot of folding, bending and bungee cord attachments later the perilous explorers (Dan, Lucy & myself) began the trek. This journey would become doubly rewarding because it finally reunited Jean with her prodigal bag....however happy that might sound her brown shoe is still AWOL so please keep a look out on your travels!

The journey to Pejë was superb however it was clear that the weather was going to have other ideas, but we continued on and after a refreshing fill up of ice tea with Randy and the American team staying there we took off in a hope to beat the clouds and catch the sights of the Rugova mountains....we were NOT to be disappointed!

With the song 'Indescribable' by Chris Tomlin ringing in our ears and the sights we were looking at - we couldn't even try to comprehend the sheer power that went into making this world we live in

"From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea, Creation's revealing Your Majesty.... Indescribable, uncontainable.... Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim - You ARE amazing God"

Having sank a few glasses of ice tea the travelers began feeling the effects of bladder versus bumps + found that the bumps were winning! we took a brave decision and proceeded up a road that took us to the border of Montenegro, there we took the once in a lifetime decision to pee in a different country ..... much to the satisfaction of Lucy and me!

(note the high 5 was after we washed up)

we then felt the hunger building and went to California for a well needed top up of energy+carbs before setting off back home to Primrose who was stressing about the up and coming English camp to Albania which she had to prepare talks + discussions on (hence the fact she did not travel out with us - she needed space haha)

that sums up another amazing day of traveling in and around Kosovo - such a beautiful place!

Prayers needed for - camp preparation, leaders sanity and children safety!!

Tim

**sniff sniff** part II

Today was a big day, not only did we have our first planning meeting but another member of our merry band left us. And 3 became 2..

Prishtina airport now winces at the sight of the green landrover pulling up as it is well aware of the emotional wrecks that it withholds, the securty guard hands us a box of kleenex as we bid a fond farewell to Karen.... sniff, sniff.

Oh well, life goes on. Back to the apartment for some freshly baked cornbread..

YUMMY!!!!

T minus 6 days

ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was the first planning meeting for the english camp to albania that Tim and I are staying on for. Obviously it wasn't quite the first planning meeting as the camp starts on sunday but it was our first planning meeting.

How did we end up here again?

So initially everyone on the team was flying out on the 3rd July and returning on the 14th.

11 days.

Then some leaders dropped out of the english camp and Prim & Dan were getting a little desperate. Very long story short - I felt quite clearly that God was telling me to stay, even though I wasn't overly keen - I'm not a teacher and my grasp of the english language is somewhat tenuous. But having taught the kids in the first week the story of Jonah (I, myself, played quite a convincing whale) I did not want to end up being vomited onto a beach, so here I am...

30 days...

taking it all in my stride...

Tim is coping much better

Beautiful sunset and relax.......

So, back to english camp, there are 11 leaders (9 from the church and us two from Norn Iron) and around 40 plus kids. Most are not from a church background and we have to be very careful how we talk to the kids about anything Christian due to some fairly strict laws in the country. Please pray for wisdom for each of the leaders as we seek to bring the truth of God's love to these young people but are restricted in what we say. Pray that as leaders we would treat each other and the young people with patience and respect and through our actions they may see the love of Christ. It is a fantastic opportunity to meet with these kids and each night there will be a discussion time where we will talk about certain Bible stories, pray for each of those leading group discussions.

A few other prayer points:

- safety in travel: it's a 7 hour bus journey to Vlora in Albania & it's currently 38 degrees

- safety while on the camp: there'll be plenty of sport & outdoor activities as well as afternoons on the beach

- that the food and accommodation will be adequate: we aren't expecting the Ritz but pray that the rooms will be cool at night to be able to sleep and the food able to fuel us through each days activities.

- we are short a female leader

- Tim and I would especially appreciate your prayers as we are definitely entering into the unknown and as 2 of only 4 native english speakers we may be called on to do teaching (at which our only experience was the albanian teaching of the other day!!).

- energy to make it though!!

The morning after

3 left....

The team may have gone but that was not to mean the remaining 3 would be resting on their laurels. Oh no. This is Kosova, there is work to be done, people to see and whole new experiences to "enjoy".

And it was to be a simple start to the day as well, get a taxi to the church, then look out for a man in a green car and get in. He would take us where we were going...

Jumped into the cab - no-one knows the address of the church. Get over that hurdle. Arrive at church, sitting outside, no sign of a green car, a man in a green t-shirt is loitering though - could it be him?

No.

It's the man in the blue car.

Of course.

We then headed to see a project that a lady from the church works with. It's a learning centre for kids from the Roma community. The way the school system works here is if you don't register for school within the first 2 years of being eligible then you have to pass a test to get in. How you pass a test when you've never been taught to read or write is tricky though! The kids from the Roma community often aren't registered in time so this centre helps tutor kids in Maths, English & Albanian in order to help them pass the entrance exam and enter full time, mainstream education.

We thought we were going to observe.

They thought otherwise.

Fine for teacher Karen, but Tim and myself were a little taken aback when we were told we had to take one on one sessions for the morning. Teaching albanian to albanian speakers.

How well do you think this worked out?

The project itself is very worthwhile and has a very dynamic lady leading the way. But there is only one Christian volunteer. So please pray for her to be salt and light in that place. The Roma community is a very ostracised one and has many needs: material & spiritual. Pray that more Kosovan Christians would be willing to work within this section of the community despite the tensions that exist and that they may show God's grace and forgiveness to them.

**sniff sniff**

Thursday 14th July, t'was a dark day.

The sun may have been burning brightly outside but inside, in our hearts, it was torrential rain.

The team was leaving.

Many around the world remember the day the Beatles split up, it sent shockwaves around the globe. We like to think that the dissolving of the ECM Ireland summer team to Prishtina had a similar impact.

Elaine, Joanne, Jillers & Carlena left us. Jillers tried to extend her stay with some dubious items in her hand luggage that led the security staff at Prishtina airport to believe that she had evil intentions. (Anyone who knows Jillers would realise she is no evil villain attempting to take over the world, unless they've been stuck in a lift with her - then her dark side comes out).

So that left Tim, Karen & Lucy.

Kosova wept.

Tim comfort eating through the pain of separation.

Kamenica - Part II

So after Monday's adventures we decided that we would maybe not go up to the top of the hill to visit our good friend Geoff again. As much as the team are great topiarists we felt that we should focus on our prayer walking:

"this boots were made for prayer walking"

So under strict instructions from Primrose to get into a group of people whom you weren't related to or didn't know before the team we marched off in 4 groups in different directions, armed with a handy card with specific prayer points for different buildings, locations, people in the town.

It was during this time that Dan and his group got talking to members of the Romany community and so we told them we would be back the next day to meet with them & play with the kids in the park.

At the very beginning before we had set off for Kamenica on the first day, we had prayed that we would be able to make some contacts in the town. 2 days there we had met someone right at the top and then those very much on the bottom rung of the ladder. The least and the lost.

We came back, armed with a parachute......

Please pray for the town of Kamenica, particularly as Kosovan church leaders look to establish a church there.

We thank God for the opportunities we had to show just a little bit of love in action with the people of this community.

a few photo's of the last few days..

last day of kids clubs...

girls sports camp

our individually designed t-shirts for Kamenica

inspiration took a little longer to find some people

'Kosova Moments'

After 7 years of coming here, I thought I was desensitised to the quirks of cross cultural interactions.

As I looked down at my watch, a couple of days ago, to see why my tummy was rumbling (we've eaten constantly and so well this team!) I began to laugh at the absurdness of the situation.

Here we were: 8 people from NI, two missionaries, 4 (lovely) Kosovans. Standing in the beginnings of an elaborately designed garden of a man we'd just met. As he told us about his star shaped rockery that had rocks from as far away as Peru, a 7000euro Japanese maple tree, beautiful flowers, two massive German shepherd guard dogs, a gorgeous but tiny, yapping hound pup.

The man showed us pictures of his daughter, his nephew and all the rest of the family. Then we looked at the architectural drawings for the house with a jacuzzi that he plans to build on the hill below us, over looking the beautiful valley with the city of Kamenica nestled in it.

Our plans to pray there were side lined while he continued to tell us of his great wealth, briefly discussed God and belief systems.

There we were, this strange mix of people, sweaty and smelly from a 2 hour journey from Prishtina in 35deg heat with no windows and a 2 hour sports camp earlier in the day, wearing home made white t'shirts with 'Dashuria ne Aksion' scrawled across the back. Sweat and wind had given us creative hair styles, tiredness and hunger had subdued our conversation, our feet and legs dirty from dusty flip flops.

Before we knew it, we were back in our vehicles driving towards the town. Our convoy became longer as we followed the 'rich man from the big house on the hill' towards a restaurant that would give us a discount because he knew the owner.

We pulled up in our sweat box vehicles to an exceptionally posh restaurant: bouncers with bow ties, a red carpet we were scared to walk on in our dirty shoes.

All eyes from the other patrons on us as we were guided to our seats, still sweaty, dusty and wearing home made clothes, the ink now running as they soaked up our sweat. We wondered if the absurdness and hilarity of the situation would be communicated as we tell the folks back home?

carlena doing a turn on the red carpet

feeling slightly underdressed (& the ink had started to run on the homemade t-shirts, they seemed a good idea at the time..)

You should now be able to comment on the blog.

so lets hear your witty insights!! (or encouragements!!)

Day 8

One of life's little pleasures #3: waking up on a sunday morning knowing you've an extra hour in bed!

No 8am breakfast today but a far more leisurely pace, a help yourself style buffet breakfast (ending at 10am) which would obviously mean me rocking up at 9.55 for a bowl of cereal & a bit of toast in the hand for the bus. And here ends the lazy sunday morning....

Packed lunches in hand, cool boxes packed & all dressed in our sunday finest we were confronted with ..... a flat tyre. Rats.

Thankfully I am not a man & therefore do not need to pretend to know about these things, so all the ladies jumped into 2 cabs and left the menfolk to kick tyres and strain muscles (it's what they wanted).

Once we got to church (slightly late) we realised it was starting late (felt just like holywood baptist) as the power was off. That wasn't to stop us though, and the worship group fired on ahead. There really is something remarkable about people from different cultures, who speak different languages all coming together and worshipping God. We sang a song which was originally in English but translated into Albanian. The room was filled with a cacophony of sound but a beautiful one - and you couldn't help but be reminded of the verse in Revelation about every tribe & every tongue worshipping together in Heaven.

A lazy afternoon was spent in the park (well, for most of us - Tim went off to play football and lost half his body weight in sweat but showed the Kosovan men how to tackle proper - like).

The next few days will be different from the last week: football camp with guys, craft & sports with teen girls in the morning. Then the afternoon we will visit a town about an hour away where a new ministry is hoping to start and spend our time praying around the town & maybe getting some kids games on the go.

PRAYER POINTS FOR INCOMING WEEK:

- safety in travel, we will be covering more miles this week on the road so please pray for protection & no more flat tyres or vehicle trouble.

- for wisdom as we prepare talks with the older guys & girls. There is a limit on what we can say, which can be frustrating but pray that God will use what is said & how we interact to speak to everyone there.

- if it were to cool down a few degrees no-one would complain, particularly given the more active nature of this week.

- an injury free football camp

- give thanks for the young people in the church who have been helping us this week

- for the time spent in the new town, that we will be a positive presence and not a negative one. That we draw attention to ourselves for the right reasons!

Hutch.

Day 6

(Retrospective blogging!)

Our first activity of the day was with the teen girls group. This group has been running for some time in the church. The girls were full of fun and we enjoyed our time with them, making bracelets and playing games. After a few initial difficulties with remember our actions during one of the games, we managed some pretty speedy rounds and had the person in the middle, dizzy with spinning round trying to figure out who was 'it'!

Whilst that was happening, Tim and some of the young guys from the church were planning our sports camp next week. There has been much interest in the camp, possibly due to it being advertised as a 'Football Camp with professional football coaches from NI and America'! Tim has stepped up to the challenge of transferring his rugby skills with the help of the boys from the church. Please pray for him and the others that will be sharing a short thought at the end of the session. We'll also be bringing the girls down to the sports venue for the last hour of sports too. The temperature is supposed to be 35 degrees next week and our sessions are 10-1. Prayers would also be appreciated for keeping the young people hydrated and safe in the sun.

Our third day of our kids club in the local church was another enjoyable time. Tim shared the story of the fishermen catching many fish with the help of Jesus and Jo did a good improv with her memory verse when our timing over ran. Than it was back to the park for some games with the general public. We were a little worried at the start as there weren't too many children about. We'd explained the day before that we were Christians from N.Ireland here to share with them about Jesus' love. We didn't have to wait for long though and plenty of children arrived. We didn't have all our 'usuals' back, though we think that may be more to do with the very high temperatures and people heading out of the city for the weekend.

Our action packed day continued in full force with a delightful and tasty meal with Pastor Femi and his family. Immediately followed by a 12 hour praise and prayer session in the church. We managed a few hours, not quite the whole session! The worship was fantastically led by Shpresa, a 15 year old believer who has been leading worship in the church since she was 12!! We have all been inspired by her faith and energy in sharing God's love for His people.

The highlight of the evening could have been sharing communion with our Kosovar brothers and sisters, it could have been the amazing prayer, praise, it could have been acting out putting on the armour of salvation, but I think we all agree the highlight was Pastor Femi blowing the shofar during the praise. His jubilant, intense and passionate playing will be a fond memory for a long time! I'm hoping for Part 2 during church on Sunday!

Karen

Day 7

Upon waking up after an extra half hour of much needed and appreciated sleep the team made their way down to another delightful breakfast of muffins and eggs (which 1 team member was happy to see as she was unsure if they exsisted in kosovo) the team made their way to the final kids club of the week. They were very rushed and arrived very sweaty this made no difference to the kids as they still arrived with full enthusiasm.
They played a few games of pass the parcel which proved difficult to explain because the teams translator had stayed up all night leading worship and had clearly lost ability to translate as she insisted on singing frosty the snowman all day long!!
Elaine then went over the memory verse and did a fantastic job as she had no power point and had to use on the spot skills (only a teacher would have)!
Following this we procedded to do a quiz with the kids which tested them on all they had learnt all week. (this was not good for 2 leaders as they got covered in shaving foam and wotsits)
On to the park and a final day of playing games in the scorching sun proved so much fun! the kids did not let the heat stop them and there energy rubbed of on the leaders.
on the way back from the park carlena went over on her ankle and will probably spend the rest of the time here hobbling around! the team then had the afternoon off and went off to a lake where they all got nicely burnt and had a much deserved break (karen even managed to sunburn 1 armpit and lucy managed to sunburn 1 knee)
carlena and primrose stayed at the apartment and had a bonding session over facebook photos!
the team then arrived home after a long journey (and unappreciated traffic) and schorching heat! to a lovely prepared meal by primrose!!
we are all now sitting drinking tea and eating biscuits!!
tune in tomorrow for day 8 :)

carlena!

day 5 (day 4 is still to come!)

After a very healthy breakfast yesturday morning we made up for it with an amazing baked apple fried bread breakfast.

We have a problem with a certain team member & their faith - in that they have too much!! Particularly in relation to the faith they have (misguidedly placed) in albanian drivers & whether they will stop or not when she steps out. She was somewhat perturbed to find the rest of her teammates standing well back, trembling in fear at her exploits. She even scared our albanian friends!

No better way to begin a days work than with a fantastic time of prayer and worship. We were well catered for with familiar tunes and english words. This was followed by an off the cuff question and answer time with the Pastor. Here we gained so much insight into the lives of the Kosova people and what the past ten years were like for someone, Pastor, to live through. We sat with mouths wide open and goosebumps on our arms as we heard some harrowing reports of what Pastor witnessed. But as he so correctly said, people who live in peace are very different from those who live in conflict. Conflict allows you to call and depend on God in a deeper than any good times could ever encourage. God proved his power back in the days of War at Kosova, saving the lives of his people and bringing Pastors family to salvation.

As always the club was a success with many children enjoying the games, crafts, story and snacks provided. Today Jonah's whale came to life much to the excitement of the children. The park was no disappointment, seeing 60+ children waiting for us and parents sitting watching the fun. One thing we have seen in the park is how God's love is contagious. The fun and laughter that we have is a strong magnet for drawing others in and helping our paths to cross with people, young and old, that we would never meet in the church building.

Elaine (p.s this was posted at the church in between activites so no photo's but rest assured we have continued to be snap happy)

Day 3

After another hearty breakfast curtesy of Prim and her kitchen helpers, we began our day by leisurely loading up the land rover with our equipment for the day, a refreshing walk to the bus stop and a short time to relax in the sun.

That's where the serenity of the day ended and the laughter, singing, hard work and 10 hours continuous use of our feet and legs began.

Our first activity of the day would have been excellently used for arachnaphobia desensitisation therapy. However, we had to face our fears without the help of trained professionals. We did not need them. We had Jillian (please note the spelling). With her nerves of steel, she willing chased down, tackled and neutralised a rough estimate of a million spiders.

Our major concern was for the room's occupant, known, for the purposes of protecting his

identity, as Spider Boy. We're convinced he's eaten more than his fair share of spiders whilst sleeping. We cleaned walls, furniture the kitchen, bathroom, cupboards and spider's webs, folded clothes, emptied the rooms of furniture and took to the painting with gusto. Even we were astonished with all we achieved and plan to invite Spider Boy for dinner some time incase he feels lonely now all his spider friends have gone. We'll return to the house tomorrow to finish some painting in the first half of the house and start into the second half. The owners of the house are Christian's associated with the church. Their circumstances have changed and they no longer have an income. We are hoping the work we have done in the house will mean they will be able to rent it out and develop a means of independent income.

After a quick turn around, we began our first kid's club at the church. It all started in a fairly reserved and quiet fashion with 13 children from the church. After our bible lesson, craft and games, we headed down to the local park armed with a giant parachute, some balls and perhaps a little naivety at the interest we would attract. It our last count we had 43 children, and a large number of parental spectators, playing games. Kudos goes to Carlena for her quick thinking in rescuing a fallen child in a competitive game of Pata, Pata, Goose (aka Duck, Duck, Goose). The entertainment prize goes to Elaine for the attention her mud stained clothes received on our bus journey and walking home. Between that and seven pale, tired-looking foreigners running down the street to catch the bus at the end of a exciting but long day, we haven't really done very well in avoiding attracting undue attention to ourselves, as Prim requested at the start of the team! We'll be heading back to the park tomorrow and have no idea how many children we'll have by then. Please pray!

Karen

day 2

One long and well overdue sleep (for some) later the team woke to a pleasantly warm and sunny day, looking forward to a days adventure around Prishtina. After an amazing breakfast treat from Primrose of (gob smackingly) amazing pancakes, we began with preparations for the kids club that begins tomorrow from 4-6pm and runs till Saturday. We were also graced with the presence of some of the churches youth who helped in sorting out songs and helping with pronunciation of the memory verse in Albanian (which was/is in great need of help with)

With all the "ground work" done for the club we were taken on a walk to find the bus stop and learn the bus routines but mainly it was to go and feed the team!?

The team were clearly buzzing with all the excitement over the kids club and some of the ideas that were brought up were mind blowing - all i can say is that you would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation!!! Food went down a treat, unfortunately that cant be said for us all as Dan can be testament to with a little added extra given to him with his portion of French flies (... I mean) Fries.

Once we came across that we were quick to get to the church to see what we were working with as the team have never seen the church just heard the stories. On our journey by foot to the church, we had come to see the amount of pressure we were under, by the adverts posted, to make this trip a sporting success as you can read:

Professional football coaches from Ireland & America

We introduced the team to close friends of Primrose, Dan, Kazza + Lucy who showed great hospitality and kindness (and patience to put up with us all.) We left with a spring in our step + a rumble in our tummy which was subsequently filled by more fine dining from Primrose.

The club+other activities begin tomorrow so please pray for smooth sailing with transport + child/team safety throughout the day and also the week ahead + be thankful for the work that is being done in Prishtina and later with Kamenica.

More to come tomorrow from celebrity guest bloggers, but for now - Mirëbrema!!

Tom

Prishtina 2011

It was 3am, it was dark and gloomy, Glengall Street had an ominous air, but there was something, something gleaming, a bolt of colbalt blue - it could be none other than ECM Ireland team to Kosova.

Sure a hoodie was a controversial choice given the average temperature of over 30 degrees in Kosova, but this is a team unafraid of controversy. This is a team that is willing to jump security barriers at airports, laughs in the face at the metal detectors & no liquid rules. And the less said about passport control the better. So after the smooth, incident free travelling we have been welcomed with open arms by Dan & Primrose, staying in their apartment block (and a cute little welcome pack with Kosova's must haves - pack of seven days & a pen).

So now it's time for massive pizza and then planning & sleep!

But we are very thankful to God that we did all get here, that all our bags arrived and that the smell of freshly baked cookies greeted us :)

Hutch.