Përshëndetja from Tirana!  We hope you had a peaceful summer despite the many changed plans we’re sure you experienced and a backdrop of so much chaos and uncertainty in the world right now. Our church here did a sermon series in Hebrews a couple of years ago and Jeff used the picture to the right to illustrate Hebrews 6:19. It has come to mind often this year and been a poignant reminder to cling to Jesus, the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul!”

As you may recall, we had planned to be in the US this summer and fall and had a two and a half month travel itinerary planned to spend time with many of you. Throughout the summer we often stopped to think what we would be doing that day in the US in a parallel non-Covid universe. However, we also often stopped and commented how thankful we are that we did decide to extend our time in Albania despite the delay in seeing so many people we love in the US. This extra time has allowed us to provide more stability for our church, allowed some big projects with LinkAcross to move forward, and has given us some time and space at home here in Albania to rest and to process and grieve the events of the past year. 

Our current plan is to return to the States in early 2021. As we gain more clarity as to our exact timing, we will certainly let you know and be in touch. In the meanwhile, we are feeling refreshed and ready to begin another ministry season here in Tirana and ask for your continued prayers for our family and ministry. As you may remember, we are engaged in two distinct but related ministries: 1) discipleship and evangelism in and through Disciples Church, our local church here in Albania, and 2) holistic discipleship in the marketplace through LinkAcross. 

Disciples Church
As we shared last spring, Disciples Church transitioned to a new pastor, Marsel. God has been so faithful in guiding this local body of believers through a period of transition which could have caused divisions and departures. Instead, we’ve witnessed God work powerfully in a few regular attenders’ hearts resulting in a revived and renewed faith.

Food Distribution Project Because of your generous support, we’ve continued to provide food packages for about 25 families in need in our community and have decided to continue to do so as needs have continued. In total, we've distributed over 250 food packets (each packet providing food staples for a family for two weeks). Growing out of these new relationships, 25 to 30 individuals have visited our church in recent months (which for a church of 25 is significant in Albania) and 8 of those have been attending our services regularly for the last few months. God has used this ministry powerfully. Not only has it given us a tangible way to be His hands and feet in the community, but it's also given us an opportunity to very clearly share the Gospel. Thank you for your stewardship!

New Hire In July, our church was excited to rehire a dear friend of ours, Dhurata, to assist with various ministries within our church. She was a part of the original church planting team of Disciples Church and returns to us after helping plant another church here in Tirana for the past two years. It has been such a joy to have her and her two girls back with us and an immense help in restarting some ministries that have been put on hold for the past year.  

New Ministry Year Please pray for our church as we launch a new ministry year at the beginning of October. Meredith will be teaching an intermediate ESL class for Jr. High age kids in our community (a very felt need here) and will be helping Dhurata with a Friday night kids Bible club and monthly women’s meeting. Jeff will continue in his role as an elder and will be preaching a couple of times this fall. 

LinkAcross
By God’s grace, it’s been about a year and a half since Jeff led the process of expanding LinkAcross to Albania. Click on the graphic to the right for a short video we shared with you last December to learn more about how LinkAcross is pushing back against the currents working against the Gospel among the Albanian people. 

Values-led Business Project In March, we finished a 6 month values-led business project. The goal of this project was to provide Albanians with the training, mentoring, and financing needed to become successful business owners. During this project, we talked about both the WHAT and the WHY of business from a Christian worldview. We were able to develop many relationships with both believers and non-believers and financed one entrepreneur to grow her business and we plan to finance another soon. The economic opportunities available to most Albanians is very limited - especially if you don’t use bribery and/or connections to open doors. As such, this project met a felt need and gave us a platform to draw non-believers to God and to challenge Christ-followers to actively integrate their faith into their business and leverage their business for Kingdom purposes. 

Church Training This fall we intend to implement a similar (though scaled down) version of the values-led business project for a group of 12 small churches located throughout Albania. The plan is to recruit a few successful Christian Albanian businessmen to lead the training. One hope we have for this training is to be able to equip and encourage Albanian churches who are interested in becoming more financially sustainable (i.e., becoming less reliant on North American financial support) by opening a small business on the side to help support their ministry goals.

Gathering of Albanian Lawyers Last fall and spring, Jeff and his Albanian colleague led a monthly meeting of Christian Albanian lawyers with the explicit purpose of fellowship, encouragement, and prayer. While these meetings have been halted due to COVID-19, please pray that the Lord would continue to encourage and strengthen these Kingdom ambassadors in this difficult field. Practicing law in Albania as a Christian is not easy as corruption and shady deals abound. 

An Exciting New Opportunity LinkAcross was recently awarded a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement a project focused on the training, consulting, and coaching of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the agricultural, light manufacturing, and tourism sectors in Albania and North Macedonia. We beat out over 100 other applicants to win this grant award! This new project will enable us to develop close relationships with an anticipated 40 companies in Albania and North Macedonia. Our hope is that as we implement this project over the next 18 months that we will be able to develop long-term trusting relationships with the owners and managers of these influential businesses. In the context of these relationships, it is our desire that the Gospel be shared in both word and deed.  

Family Update
For the first time we will have all the kids at the same school learning in the same language!  All three will be attending a local Christian school and were eager and excited to start this past Monday. School started on-line and the kids will hopefully be allowed to return in person on September 14th. We enjoyed some refreshing time as a family this summer exploring some new corners of Albania and enjoying some R&R in nearby Turkey - one of the few countries with open borders this summer.  

As always, we are thankful for your continued prayers and support.