Busy, Busy!!

Greetings!!!
Hello everyone! A lot of things have been happening here in Kosova, and time has flown by! We are making a few changes to the operation and maintenance of our blog, so please be patient. Here are just a few things that have been happening here.

Divine protection!
A couple of our families had a bad rash appear on the children. We initially took them to see a Doctor from Germany. He gave them cream and it seemed to help. The problem never really went away and as children do they scratched at this rash until, in some cases, it was raw and nearing infection. We were able to take the families to a children’s doctor, who is the wife of a friend we met here, recently and she gave prescriptions and knew exactly what to do. Kathi was busy loving on this little 3 year old girl the whole time at the doctor’s and even to the pharmacy. The pharmacist looked at Kathi and said,” You may want to be careful”. To which Kathi replied “why?” She then proceeded to tell Kathi that this was a prescription for Scabies and this was highly contagious. Praise God we have been ministering to these folks in their homes for months and never got the disease.

Food Supply
This same household has two families living together, totaling 4 adults and 6 children, and has only a wood burning stove for heat and cooking. On several occasions God has been able to bless them, through us, with food donations. Some of the items needed, and therefore supplied, include flour, eggs, milk, butter, oil, sugar, and a sausage-like meat called Suxhuk (suh-jook). These simple ingredients help feed this household for a month, or more.

Got Milk?
Another of the ministry areas that has been placed on Kathi’s heart is providing families with farm-fresh milk. The milk is delivered to our home twice a week, and Kathi boils, filters and bottles the milk as preparation for providing it to the families. The milk delivery started as a simple home affair for our own supply, but soon became an open door for ministry opportunities. Each week we are able to supply four families with enough milk for a week. This has greatly blessed these families as it supplies healthy milk and helps minimize the grocery bills.

Hope for the hopeless!!
One of the ladies in the church, who has been very faithful, came to us with a need. Her wood burning stove, which she uses to cook and to heat her home, was so full of holes she couldn’t use it anymore because it smoked the whole house up. A new one cost about $60.They are made of thin, unpainted, metal and are not the black heavy type we see in many places. This winter was very cold and her family could not stay in the house without heat. Your support made it possible to supply this family with a new wood burning stove and a supply of wood for the cold winter months.

This same woman, whose husband is in prison and is living on 40 euro per month with her two sons, was required to move this weekend. She called and was very nervous about this because she was previously told she had until July. We arrived to help her move all of her 2 rooms of stuff to 1 room on the other side of the building. The painters were at the place she was moving from and the new tenants were really rushing her. We were able to help her move into the room but first, we had some issues to deal with. The floorboards in the house were built directly on the soil under the house. This has softened them and allowed for rats, mice and bugs to have their way. The floorboards were loose where they had been nailed and some had just rotted to the place where there was nothing but space between them. We had some thin backing board at our house, so we got that, some rat bait, some ant powder, and even got some steel wool pads from a man in the church who sells them, and went to work. With Al’s prior exterminating experience, it was easy to help out. We were able to stuff rat poison down the holes in her floor and walls, followed by the steel wool to prevent any reoccurring rat infestations. We sprinkled the ant powder straight on the floor boards to help control the bug flow up through the floor. We got everything treated so she could lay down the cardboard she puts under her worn out carpets, and moved the rest of her things in to the room. In the process, the neighbors decided to “help” her move her cabinet. This was a trash heap find but very precious to her. During the move into her room, the cabinet came apart at the seams. Old pressed particle board doesn’t hold up to much abuse. This woman was mortified. All she could see was that her beloved cabinet was being carried into her room in pieces.
Two days later we were able to go back and help her paint her room with what we would call wet dust. It is a rock that they add to water to create a paint-like substance. If you touch the walls once it has dried, your hand will come away covered in a white dusty powder. It is very cheap but covers the dirt on the walls left by wood burning smoke. We also had some 1x2 boards and used them to rebuild and re-enforce her beloved cabinet and make it stronger than ever before. She was so happy. Al was also able to install her found-in-the-trash ceiling lamp, which she also treasured, much to her delight. She is now getting settled in to her new place and working to make it home for her and her two sons.

Home Visits
In the early part of March, we were able to visit a family that is new to the church. The woman of the house had asked us to come to their house for coffee many times, and we were finally able to do it. When we arrived, we were shocked by the state of their house. It had been raining a lot here and many areas were flooded. This family’s house was one of those places. In addition to the flooding issue, caused by the water flowing through the walls, the floors of the house were made of dirt. There were no boards, and only one rug that did not even cover the entire floor in the main living space. Cockroaches were having their fun everywhere and a dead rat was lying in the middle of the main walkway. In some parts of the house, the water was as high as our knees. The woman who lived in this house with her family was very distraught about the conditions of her house, and we were able to minister to her during our visit.

Children, Children, Everywhere!
The children’s ministry has been changing a lot recently. For the past month or two, we have had between 19 and 27 children coming for the children’s church on Sunday mornings. This is very exciting. It has been so much fun and such a blessing to be able to love these children who otherwise are unloved, and to see them having fun, smiling and laughing, and worshiping God. They are hearing the word of God on a weekly basis and seeing it lived through our living. They are learning to love one another, which is a major issue here, especially among the different people groups. Most of the time the way adults deal with problems they have with their children is to slap them or beat them. Of course, this is the way the children learn to deal with each other. We have had an interesting time teaching them that this is not the way to deal with each other. Instead we are teaching them respect for each other and to love each other as we love them. It has made a visible difference in their attitudes and how they act around each other in and outside the church.
We would like to thank all of you for your continued prayer and support throughout our time here. God has truly been blessing us and our work here. We have seen the changes in the people here and are very excited to see what else God has in store for His church and the people of Kosova!

Blessings,
Al and Kath