Albania Mission Trip

 

Bre w Cru Staff Aurora,    Head of Barleti U. Physical Ed., me, and head of Albania AIA Alban P

Speaking at Teuta Sport Center, with the physiotherapist/archer, and with Jim S and our friends from Suissa.

Memories from Albania

On 18 March we spent about 20 hours traveling to Tirana, Albania. You might not recall exactly where Albania is, but that is common. Albania lies just south of Montenegro, just west of Macedonia, and north of Greece. It gained freedom from Soviet control in 1991. All religion had been outlawed by the Communists, and Albania had been declared an atheist country. Currently it is about 70% Muslim, 20% Catholic and 10% Orthodox, with a fraction of a % evangelical.

Miami University (Oxford, OH) sent profs in education, social work, biology, nursing, computer science, and business communications. I expect bonding to arise from this shared experience. Brenda and I sure enjoyed our time of fellowship with these folks and with the local Cru staff there.

On Wednesday the 20th I (Phil) spoke at 12:00 am at Barleti’s University (after arriving in country just the afternoon before) on the "Value of Sports in Educating the Whole Person". The next day, I spoke at the Teuta club to 20 coaches on “Recovery from Exercise Training: A Brief Review”. On Monday, March 25 we drove about 4 hours (including a coffee stop) to the SE Albanian town of Korce where I again spoke on Recovery, as I did the next day at a university in Shkoder. Alban, my Cru host and the Albania AIA director said these talks were very important for their ministry.  In total, I gave 5 talks in 9 days and got to meet a lot of important people in Albanian Sport and Higher Education. More importantly, I was able to lay a foundation for future ministry and evangelism. The Cru staff there put emphasis on building solid relationships to share the Gospel.

On Thursday, March 28 in the morning I spoke again on "Value of Sports in Educating the Whole Person" at the University of Sports in Tirana. I also had another opportunity to speak at another University but didn’t have time.

Brenda along with another lady in our group, was able to meet with some young Cru staff moms, about parenting. She also had the opportunity to take about 3 of them individually out for coffee. A staff couple took us out for coffee to enlist our financial support. As you might imagine, trying to raise money for Christian ministry is tough in Albania, and thus far they have only 3 Albanian supporters. We will be donating!

Some observations about Albania:

Since Communism only ended in 1991, most Albanians don't have a Christian heritage nor a foundation upon which to build.

For 4-lane streets, people simply put on flashers and park in the street.

Albanians don’t wear shorts.

Streets and sidewalks are full of cars, scooters, and bikes and sidewalks are full of people. I tried to run 2x there, and the only saving factor was the large park about a half mile from our hotel.

Lots of fruit and olive production.

Lots of old bunkers that are pretty impressive.

Lots of unfinished masonry homes, and no wooden homes.

Lots of old Turkish forts.

Lots of unusual, really original architecture.

Lots of small universities. None bigger than U of Tirana at about 30k, down from almost 60k.

Several of us were scheduled to speak at Vlora University on Wednesday, 27th. All our talks were cancelled due to University elections--yes, they elect their leadership. Apparently, the Rector (president) and other leaders must win the vote to continue to hold their positions. Wow!

Lots of car washes==big part of culture.

The old name for Albania was Illirium, and parts of the ancient road still exist.

With Einstein, view of Macedonia on the way to Korcea, and Bre and I on Illyrium road.

Final thoughts:

Our return trip was a bit of a trial. Due to lack of aircraft, and over and hour sitting on the tarmac, we arrived at Dulles Airport far too late to catch our flights to Chicago and Birmingham. We did get to Birmingham only 16 hours later than scheduled. But such are the travails of travels.

G^d blessed us all thought this trip. It is so great to know Albanian Believers and Cru staff there. It was great to serve with a terrific group from Miami of Ohio. Who knows what G^d may do with our ministry efforts there.

And, your prayers and financial support make it possible for us to make these mission trips. We are grateful for you.

Brenda and Phil

Bre in a war bunker, Native Albanian Mother Teresa, the Grand Mosque.

If you wish to write a check, please make it out to "CRU" to ensure it will be tax-deductible. Our name does not need to be on the check.

Ever Been to Albania?

In all of my travels, Albania was #65. We went there the last of March with Cru Faculty Commons. It was the largest mission group we have experienced. We had 12 altogether w 7 of those being profs from Miami of OH. Our Cru staff colleagues, the Samlands, arranged the trip and led it. They had previously been missionaries in Hungary and had spent some time in Albania. Brenda and I met them over there a few days early to get a feel for it, and be able to host the group better.

We got in on Tues, and the Albanian AIA leader, Alban, had me speak the next day at Bartleti U, a private university. As is my habit I had some Bible verses left even after I had cut the gospel part from the talk. My Albanian buddy told me to take the verses out, because it is seen as very off-putting to some of the locals. I complied and the next presentation was in Durres. It was to ALL coaches and they were as challenging as I expected. I monitor my audience closely, and they were tough. One of my most responsive audience members was the Sport Physical Therapist, who took us to his office after the talk.

He enjoys competitive archery also!

One of the most striking aspects of Tirana was the architecture:

There's more, but let's save that for later.

Japan 2023 Last Noteworthy

 

One noteworthy observation—there is almost NO litter in Japan. It was so rare that I was tempted to photograph the little bit I saw.

Besides the noticeable cleanliness and the computerized restaurant meal ordering, the “no-touch” payment option for cash was impressive. Likewise, the cleanliness of the trains and public areas highlighted their high standards. Though restaurant meal prices were pretty similar to the USA, the fruit prices were shockingly high. The houses are nice, but the lot sizes are quite small and every house I can recall had spaces for more than one auto, mostly covered.

I was impressed that there were few fat Japanese. I saw only one obese person who appeared to be Japanese in 2 weeks. The food seems generally highly nutritious, but everything seemed to have much less sugar. Even the ice cream seemed more creamy and less sugary.

The neighborhood organization is taken seriously and is quite complex. Not volunteering for helping with the community operation and celebrations is a serious faux pas. Everyone in the neighborhood knows everyone else, except those who don’t volunteer are shunned.

Now, I am biased, but in truth David’s two daughters, ages 9 and 6, are terrific. They play extremely well with each other, they are quiet, and obedient. In two weeks, I only heard David raise his voice to them about three times and never heard Rie call them down. The youngest loves to cook and can cook eggs and pancakes at age 6!

I noted above that my Fitbit recorded less than 4 hours sleep the first night back. BUT, the second night back (night of 9 August) I set a personal record I think with almost 14 hours in bed and 12 hours 42 min of actual sleep!

Most noteworthy were the many prayers offered up for us. This trip went extremely smooth from start to finish. As I write this I am unsure of our recovery from jet lag. In retrospect, our jet lag in Japan was hardly noticeable. Thanks be to G^d for his mercy and grace, and thanks to Him for a great trip, and thanks to you for your prayers.

Thanks.

This is elusive Mt. Fuji that is mostly obscured by some clouds.

Japan 2023 Part 7

 

Our trip home involved almost 27 hours of travel. A bit after 10AM, David carried us to the bullet train station, about 20 minutes. Bre had one last rice ball, and we only had about a 15 min wait to board our train for Shinagawa. I tracked our movements on my GPS, and we got off the train right on sched. Fortunately, our baggage was much less on our return home, having dropped off a lot of USA-items at Davey’s. The walk to the exit of the Shinagawa train station was pretty long. We saw the queue for the taxi and took about a 20-min trip to Terminal 3 for 5.6k yen. We had a little trouble checking our 19-Kg suitcase, but we got it checked and had a leisurely trip through security to our gate. We spent our last few yen on a sandwich and 4 donuts and a soft serve ice cream. Once again, the service on ANA was excellent and the trip time passed unusually quickly as we slept some unknown amount.

Customs was pretty relaxed in Seattle, with no forms to fill out and not even a question about what we were bringing in. We flew Seattle to Denver, and had a long walk from Gate B6 to B67. We landed about 10 min early in BHM and Bre’s carry-on, which we checked in Seattle, along with mine, was the second bag delivered. Our other two came promptly and we had only a short wait before Andrew picked us up.

We made it into bed a bit after 11PM (1 PM Thursday in Japan). We “slept” until 1030AM Wed.—later than we can recall sleeping. My fitbit recorded less than 4 hours of total sleep from the plane and our bed combined. But, we are thrilled at the success of our trip. Thanks again for praying.

(This photo of us on the Shinkansen--bullet train is from our trip to David's, but is the only one we got.)

Japan 2023 Part 6

 

On Saturday, one of the guys who had invented a tea processing unit invited us to come to his home on Sunday for me to drive a tea harvesting machine. So, at 0930 in the AM, we trekked just under a half mile to his home. After a warm welcome and some iced coffee, he let both Davey and me drive the harvester down a row. It was interesting and extremely sensitive in the steering. Afterwards we picked some of the tender tea shoots—it is harvested 4 times per year. The friend’s wife fried up the tea leaves in tempura and served them along with cookies made of green tea. The tea processor has several acres of tea bushes—that last about 100 years. He also grows rice and strawberries. The wife served us up a sweet dessert composed of shredded frozen strawberries mixed with a little sugared milk. The farmer had eaten so many strawberries as a boy that he no longer eats them. He also showed me the very elaborate shrine to his ancestors inside his home.

For Sunday lunch we went to Jolly Pasta, a very popular local Italian restaurant. It is Nene’s choice for her birthday celebration. The cheese fondue with little toasted pieces of bread was very good. For dessert I ordered us a banana pizza with chocolate sauce and a small scoop of ice cream. It was good, but not quite as good as it sounded.

For 4 adults (Bre and I shared a meal) and 2 kids the bill was 8360 Y= just over $60! When I checked the median household income to be a bit over $39k, it shocks me what food costs.

Japan 2023 Part 5

 

Saturday was a special day in Davey’s local community. He and his young colleagues spent a few hours cleaning up their highly decorated and sophisticated cart. This was immediately followed by an all-day cook-out. Though it was pretty hot, we spent the day eating a variety of grilled foods:

Sweet garlic roasted.

Scallions dipped in miso.

Barbeque diaphragm—very good.

Chicken wings

Chicken on wooden skewers with onions between

Barbeque tongue—a bit tough, but tasty.

A variety of beverages are drunk, a few of which were non-alcoholic. The drinks included potato wine, plum wine, sake, and a variety of beers.

Especially noteworthy was that most of these young men- all under 40, mostly smoked or vaped. They were very hospitable and most of them made a point of spending some time chatting with me. Another noteworthy experience was how highly esteemed my son Davey is in this culture. More than one of these guys made a point of telling me what a fine fellow he is and how highly he is respected.

The mothers and school children were all at the Nagoya Aquarium on a field trip. They had between 4 children and two.

Japan Trip 2023 part 4

 

At 2:50 sharp we put Anna on the bus for Terminal 3 of Haneda Airport in Tokyo. As we stood waiting on the bus, I heard clear English and struck up a conversation with a young man from San Bernadino, CA who moved to his native country of Japan to teach English, just like David.

Anna’s return trip was stressful. Her bus encountered heavy traffic, which was built into the schedule, but Anna had no way to know that. Her plane was late taking off and her layover in Seattle for clearing customs was only a little under 2 hours. Her checked bag never appeared, but she, along with about 10 others were allowed to board their Denver flight despite the doors being already closed. In Denver she made a long walk to her BHM gate, but was able to grab some food, which she needed.

Bre and I and David’s family returned to Kakegawa, and the girls mourned the loss of Anna to return home. We did too!