Urgent Prayer Request for Whitney

Today is Sunday, August 31st. I am posting this blog so that those of you who have been so faithful to pray for our family will be able to pray with us for Whitney. Today, at church, Whitney received a pretty significant injury to her right eye. A stick fell out of a tree and hit her actual eyeball. I took her to our clinic and the doctor (a general practitioner from the states) diagnosed her with a scratched/ slightly torn cornea (the color part of the eye). The direct hit to the lower part of the cornea traumatized the iris (the center, black part of the eye that dilates and contracts with light). The trauma to the iris has caused the iris to respond very slowly and slightly to light - the iris won't contract much. The Dr. was encouraged that Whitney's eye was not cloudy inside at the time he inspected the eye. If there is cloudiness that would mean that the eye had been punctured into the center and would be very serious and mean a surgery. He is still concerned about the iris though and wants to see us first thing in the morning (9 a.m. Albania time or 2 a.m. Texas time) to see if they eye has recovered from the trauma and is healing.

* Please pray that the he will not find any cloudiness in the eye - this could cause blindness.
* Please pray for wisdom as the doctors look at her eye - the clinic is fairly well equipped but not as well as a Dr.'s office in the states. There is an Albanian eye doctor that he can send her to if he is not convinced of the diagnosis in the morning.
* Please pray for Whitney's pain. The scratch/tear is a very painful injury.
* Most of all, please pray that Kris and I would be able to use this opportunity to showcase the immense sovereignty of God. I know that NOTHING touches us unless it has first passed through the hands of my loving and gracious heavenly Father. I want to confirm in Whitney's mind, and anyone else watching, that we KNOW this to be true and that we live a life of peace and hope in light of it. I have been praying for Whitney's salvation with a more burdened heart lately and it may be that God uses this, whether just an injury or a life long eye problem, to break her heart and allow to see Him with a new spiritual vision. Her eternal state is so much more important to us, as parents, than her ability to see or see perfectly for these short years on earth. So. pray for her physical eye to be healed, Lord willing, and her spiritual eyes to be opened leading to her salvation.
* (You could also pray for her momma. It is never an easy thing to see your child in pain or dealing with an injury that can cause serious damage for life. My heart hurts for her and I am praying for more faith and peace as to respond in a way that honors God.)

Thank you for carrying us before the throne of God. I will post an update tomorrow, when we know more from the Dr.

New features on the blog

I wanted to point out to the readers of our blog some new features that I have added over the past couple of months.

* I am sure that you noticed the new header with a photo collage. Thanks to Jason and Claire Drumm for putting that together for us (as well as installing it since I am challenged in anything too technical). It was a labor of love that you gave to us and every time I open the blog I am reminded of how good God is to place you in our lives. We sure love you and miss you!

* There is a section called "Labels of Interest/Topics to Look Up" on the side bar. These are there to help you look up of the blog posts based on the topic that I have labeled it. For example, if you wanted to look up a past post, but didn't remember when it was posted, but you remember that it was about Kris teaching at a church you could look up Kris or ministry and it would pull up all the blog from the past that deal with any of those topics.

* If you are interested in what our family is reading these days, you can take a look at the "Current Reads" section on the side bar. Sometimes the book titles are there for quite a while because I (chelle) have a stack of books that are being read all at the same time. My goal this summer was to finish all the books that I was slowly going through and get on to the next group waiting with crisp pages and shiny covers. Oh, I just love to start a new book and crack open that binding. I am almost done with my stack, so you will see some changes in the list soon. (P.S. I would really love to hear what some of you are reading. It's hard to know what books are new to the Christian book stand because we don't have a Christian book store here. If you have a great book you are reading let me know and at a later date we can have it shipped here. Almost all the books I am reading right now were recommended by friends and have been really challenging to my faith.)

* Blogger has just added a new option called "Subscription" that I have added to the side bar. The purpose of this option is to allow anyone who reads the blog to have the blog posts available on your home page (Google and Yahoo to name a couple). That way you can keep up with new posts or comments. If you would like to add this feature to your home page, find the section on the side bar that says "Subscribe to Stire Testimonial" and click on either posts or comments. Then you will be able to choose which home page site you want the information sent to. I hope this is a helpful feature that makes it easier for you to keep up with us. I know that I am sporadic in my blog posts, depending on how much time I have available to blog and when I have internet connection and this may make it easier to see new posts when they come out.

My prayer is that this blog is a site that focuses on God and glorifies Him as well as helping all our dear friends and family have a connection to our lives here in Albania. I love the feedback and comments that you leave as well. Thank you all for taking such an interest in what God is doing in Albania and in our lives. We thank God for you and for your faithful prayers.

Beggars 2 - the Roma people

Matthew 25:35-36, "For I was hungry, and you gave Me someting to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me someting to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me..."

I wanted to follow up on what I wrote yesterday about the beggar boys I encountered on the street. Here is what I wrote about them, "It was his eyes that captured my attention. Those old, sad eyes that had seen too much sorrow and hardship in his 9 or 10 years of life. He sat on the sidewalk with another boy, who couldn't have been more than 8, both of them puffing on cigarettes. Neither boy wore shoes or shirts. Their pants were ragged and dirty, just like their bodies and hair. The older boy's face was lined and haggard, like an old man. I stood there, staring. I had never seen a child look so much like an old man. Even his shoulders were stooped like he had carried 70 years worth of cares on his small back."

These boys are the face of the Roma people - the modern day Gypsies. The Roma people people have made Albania their home for the past 600 years or so. They originate from north India. According to one research paper on the Roma's there are over 150,000 of this people group living in Albania. It is not an unusual thing to see these people begging on the streets - in fact, it is a normal part of life here in Tirana. As Albania, as a nation, has been growing and changing to become an economically stable country (we became part of NATO last year and are looking to become a part of the EU soon), the Roma people have been left behind.


It is estimated that the average Roma family will live on $199 a month. The majority of the income of the family is from begging. Some gypsies sell used clothing, shoes and cigarettes on the streets, and recycle metal parts. It is rare to see the Roma men begging, instead you will see women and children on the streets. These children are sometimes as young as 4 or 5 and wander by themselves into traffic to beg at car windows. They rarely wear shoes, even in the winter. Their hair is matted and their clothes filthy and torn. The women are of all ages. Most often they are pregnant. When a girls turns 12 or 13, she either married off or is passed around the community of men. In one study done by UNICEF in 2002, of 74 Roma youth (ages 11-20) 69 of them were sexually active and only 7% of them used contraception. Also 28% of them regularly traded sex for money or other favors. Therefore the abortion rate is astronomical. I had one American missionary to the Roma tell me that some women in the community will have as many as 15 abortions in her lifetime. Prostitution and trafficking of women and children is also on the rise. The men are often alcoholics who take the money that they get from the women and children to buy alcohol.

Sometimes these kids will only have food that day if they can scrounge it from a dumpster, steal it, or beg for it. Some of the mothers will drug their babies with opium so that they will appear more pathetic and people will give them more money. That is just inconceivable to me, as a mother! Some of the children will try to wash car windows at stop lights to earn a little bit of money. This is not often appreciated. I sat behind one car where the man got out of his car and beat on the young girl who was trying to to wash his window. The girl stood there crying and went on the next car. This abuse and disdain is a normal part of their lives.

The Roma people are really a people unto themselves. I have been told that they have a Gypsy king and queen and live in communities set apart from Albanian nationals. Their "homes" are a warren of ramshackled huts made of corrugated metal, plywood, tarp and other odds and ends. They usually have no running water and often no electricity. This is what one Roma woman, Shpresa said, "I live with my husband and 6 children. I have also my granddaughter; my daughter has been separated from her husband. I live without social assistance … What are our problems? We have no house or bread. Four people sleep on the couch, two on one side and two on the other. The others sleep on the other couch”. Many times the family unit is made up of a man who has many wives (I saw an interview with a man who had over 15 wives) Although I came from a country where beggars are a familiar sight at underpasses and street corners, I was unprepared for the extreme poverty of these people.

They really are in a difficult spot. In the states, there are some options for the homeless that many of the homeless ignore. In Albania, the country is still so undeveloped there is not a system set up to help this minority to begin to build a life above this kind of poverty (these are some organizations setting up programs to reverse the declining socio-economic plight of these people). They are discriminated against. They are not a part of the educational system, for the most part. In one Albanian city, Fier, out of 256 children, ages 6-15, only 36 of them were in school. One reason is that the school system in Albania is heavily dependent on the parents participation at home. The school day is only for 3-4 hours. The teachers give the students a boatload of information and then the parents are required to spend the next 3-4 hours at home going over all the information given at school, doing homework, and filling in any gaps where the kids do not understand the information taught during school. This put the gypsy children at a disadvantage from the get-go. They don't read and neither do their parents (over 50% are illiterate), so they can't do the work required because no one can help them at home. It is a vicious cycle for these people.

Sadly, the beggar children make things harder for themselves in many respects. They are very aggresive - accosting people on the street and stealing purses, cell phones and even a can of coke that is being drunk (this happened to a person on one of our mission teams). One day our family was walking down the street. Kris had just bought a pint of strawberries when a Roma girl asked for some. He gave her a couple of strawberries. All of a sudden there were two boys that literally attatched themselves to Kris. One boy was clasped onto his leg with arms and legs wrapped around Kris's leg. The other boy was trying to steal the bag of strawberries. Our girls were yelling and crying as all the children swarmed around Kris. Kris tried to gently deal with the beggar kids and give them some of the strawberries but when that did not work he ended up physically removing the boy and telling them to go away. Sometimes there are small boys that jump up onto the runner of our car and bang on the window, holding on even as we drive past through the intersection. Even if you give them money or food, they are not content with what you give them but are even more agressive or persistent in their requests for more. It is very hard to remain soft and tenter-hearted to them when they act in this manner.

Praise God that we have had some Roma, street children come to our church and get some education. They have attended our youth camps and are living in an apartment on their own. The youth pastor at our church has been actively involved in following up with these boys. Our church has also helped one of the Roma villages during a recent flood situation at the river near their homes. We went down and helped fill sandbags and build a barrier for the rising water. Our prayer is that we can build more than a sandbag barrier, but instead build a bridge into these people lives for the sake of the gospel.

There is a missionary family in our church that has moved near the Roma community and has been working with them for over 10 years. After so many years of life-on-life ministry they have only had a handful of people recieve Christ. I pray for them often as I think of the very difficult and often discouraging ministry they have committed themselves to.

I also have a friend who has started a minstry to help the women of the Roma community make some money while they interact with local Christian women. My friend, whose family are missionaries from the UK, have taught these women to make greeting cards by hand. They pay them 100 leke ($.75) for each card that they make and then sell the cards. The Roma women have loved learning this skill and have proved to be quite creative.

My purpose is sharing all of this with you is give you a broader picture of the people that live in Albania and the ministry that is going on all around us. I also wanted you to be able to pray for the Roma people.
Pray that God would do a mighty work among the men of the community. The men are heavy handed (usually abusive) with women and children and so no real change can take place in the people, as a whole, without the men being transformed and leading their families to live in a radically different way.
Pray for wisdom as we learn how to deal with the beggar children on a day to day basis.
Pray that my children's hearts would remain soft towards the plight of these people and that they would have a burden to pray and minister to them as they get older.
Pray for our church to take more opporunities to reach out to this needy people that live around us.
Pray for the missionary family that works with the Roma people, that they would be encouraged and strengthened in their work.

My heart cries out to these people the words of Christ -
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. " Mtt. 11:28-29

Beggars

It was his eyes that captured my attention. Those old, sad eyes that had seen too much sorrow and hardship in his 9 or 10 years of life. He sat on the sidewalk with another boy, who couldn't have been more than 8, both of them puffing on cigarettes. Neither boy wore shoes or shirts. Their pants were ragged and dirty, just like their bodies and hair. The older boy's face was lined and haggard, like an old man. I stood there, staring. I had never seen a child look so much like an old man. Even his shoulders were stooped like he had carried 70 years worth of cares on his small back.
My attention turned back to my own daughters. They stood next to me at the ice cream vendor. My children; happy, clean, carefree, full of hopes and a zest for life that both fills me with joy and wears me out at times. The contrast between my girls and those boys was striking. I fought for control over my emotions lest I weep on the street.
My first thought was, "I should be there, begging on the street. I am no different than those boys." Oh, the grace of God that placed me in a loving, Christian home in the Colorado Rockies, instead of in a cardboard box in the dump of Tirana. Even now, as a daughter of the King of kings who is co-inheritor of the lavish riches of God, I sometimes live like those boys. God has "granted me everything necessary for life and godliness" (II Pt. 1:3) and I have His Word, rich with spiritual food and nutrients for growth and I live like a spiritual pauper so often.
I can sit at His banquet table and drink of the Living Water till I am satisfied and yet, sometimes, I choose to eat at the trash heap of the world's comforts and entertainment.
I am clothed with the righteousness of Christ and yet, sometimes, I wallow in the filth of this world and stain that precious, blood-bought garment.
I have my feet fitted with the "preparation of the Gospel of peace" and yet, often, I kick off those shoes and put my feet up in the comfort of my own home while the world around me races to eternal damnation.
Those boys were reflecting to me what my heart looks like so often - dirty, weary, and breathing in the cancerous way of life that deadens my heart to things of God.
I should be on that street and yet God raised me up and redeemed me as His child. Why don't I live like it more?
Oh, that God would break my heart to see how unworthy I am of all that He has done for me and given to me, in Him.
Oh that God would renew my mind to be radically transformed to live for Him and run those rescue missions to people still living in the trash heap of the world.
Oh that God would open my eyes to see the glory of God and the colorless sham of this world.

Today, praise God, I saw the spiritual principle of Ephesians 2:1-7 in living color:
"And (I was) dead in (my) trespasses and sins, in which (I) formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them (I) too formerly lived in the lusts of (my) flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, (a child) of wrath, even as the rest. BUT GOD, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which he loved (me), even when (I was) dead in my transgressions, made (me) alive together with Christ (by grace (I) have been saved, and raised (me) up with Him, and seated (me) with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward (me) in Christ Jesus.

We'll see about that!

A few weeks ago Breanna, who is 5, was watching very intently as Kris and I were snuggling on the couch. A few days later Breanna told me this -
"Mommy, I don't want to get married. I don't like kisses, I only like hugs."
Well, my dear, we'll see about that. I will remind you of this in about 10 years. LOL!

Cooking lessons with Arta

I have mentioned before how wonderful the Albanian cuisine is. It is so good, in fact, that my running shoes have been beckoning to me from the dusty shelf they reside on. So far I have been able to ignore their cry. LOL! But really, the food is great. I have had the great opportunity to learn to make a couple of traditional recipes from my landlady in the year that we have lived here. My kids are always asking me to make the yummy rolls that Teta Qerime, my landlady, makes. But one thing that I have been wanting to do was to learn how to make a whole Albanian meal working alongside of an Albanian. A couple of weeks ago I finally did that. My in-laws, Arper and RoseAnn Stire, were here for a short term mission trip and I thought it would be great for them to experience real Albanian cooking as well as spend some time with my dear friend Arta and her family. So, RoseAnn and I had a wonderful cooking lesson as well as a tremendous time of fellowship in the process. Here are RoseAnn and I with our teacher, Arta.



Our menu for the night was Speca te mbushur (stuffed peppers), Patellxhan e skuq (fried eggplant), Byrek (a cheese filled phillo dish), Greek salad with white cheese, and Sheqerpare (dessert with syrup). I will give you the recipes for 4 of these dishes in case you are have a hankerin' for a good Albanian meal and want to whip one up. If you do try any of these recipes, please let me know how they turned out and what you thought of them. I hope that you enjoy the process and the food as much as we did that night. Below is a photo of Arta and RoseAnn preparing the stuffed pepper recipe. It turned out perfectly, and even though we had all enjoyed stuffed peppers in the states, RoseAnn said that these were the best she had had.



Here is the recipe for the Speca te mbushur or Stuffed Peppers:
Ingredients -
8 medium bell peppers - seeded and whole
2 onions - chopped
4 large ripe tomatoes - peeled and chopped
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked rice
1 large can of tomato sauce
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp parsely

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown the meat in large skillet. Drain fat. Add onions and let them cook for a couple of minutes. Add tomatoes and let simmer on medium low heat until the tomatoes are soft and the onions opaque (10 minutes or longer). Add the can of tomato sauce and the salt and let simmer until the mixture is reddish color. Add the uncooked rice to this moist (but not runny) mixture. Mix the rice into meat mixture but do not let the rice cook on the stove top, since it will cook in the oven with the peppers. Stuff each pepper with the meat mixture, being careful not to fill all the way so the rice has room to expand as it cooks. Place the peppers in a large, deep oven pan. Spoon any leftover meat mixture in between the peppers in the pan. Pour 5 cups of water over the peppers and meat mixture in the pan. Bake in the oven until peppers are soft and rice is done. Make sure to turn the peppers over half way through the baking time.

That's it! Enjoy this tasty main course that takes a short time to make.

I will also give you the recipe for the Patellxhan e skuq (fried eggplant) as well:
Ingredients:
Eggplant - 1/2 medium sized eggplant per person
Salt
Vegetable oil
2 cups ricotta cheese
1/2 cup feta cheese crumbled
1 egg
1 Tbsp parsely (fresh snipped if possible)

Slice the eggplant into 1/2 inch slices. Put the slices in a large bowl. Add enough water to the bowl to cover the eggplant. Add enough salt to the water and eggplant to make the water sea-salty. Let this stand for 10 minutes or so. Next, heat a large skillet with enough oil to thinly cover the bottom of the pan. Take a few slices of eggplant and squeeze out the extra water and then place them in a layer in the pan. Fry them on both sides until golden brown. Repeat this with all the slices, adding more oil if needed. In the mean time, mix the ricotta cheese, feta cheese, egg and parsley together. After all the eggplant slices have been fried, place them all back in the skillet and add the cheese mixture. Heat thoroughly over low heat being careful not the burn the cheese. Remove from heat. Serve.

This dish is one of my favorite side dishes. Yum!



Well, so far things have been pretty easy. Now, this recipe will take more time and will make some mess, but it is well worth the effort. Byrek is a pastryish/philoish dough dish that can be filled with cheese, fried onions and tomatoes, spinach, and even pumpkin. Byrek stands are all over the place and are eaten, usually, as a breakfast dish like donuts or bagels are in the states. They are best eaten right from the oven. Byrek is also common in Greece. Above is a photo of me rolling the golf size ball dough with Arta giving me some direction.




Are you ready? Here is the recipe for this really tasty treat! The picture above is what ours looked like when it was baked.

Byrek
To make the dough -
1 pound flour
1 Tbsp salt
Lukewarm water (about 1 cup)
Cornstarch
A large baking pan - larger than 9 by 13 if you have it (I used a Wilton cake pan that is extra large rectangle shaped). If you don't use 2 large pans.

Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add the lukewarm water little by little, mixing as you go, until a dough is formed. Knead until it comes together.

Remove dough from bowl and half it. Place one half back in bowl and with the other half break into golf size ball pieces. Each of these balls will need to be kneaded slightly and rolled unto a smooth ball. Barely coat each ball with a little oil. The easiest way to do this is to put some oil in your hands and then just roll each ball in your hands, just to lightly coat each one.

Lightly sprinkle the cornstarch on a flat surface for rolling out the dough. Roll out one golf-size ball until it resembles a tortilla, but a little thinner. Brush a little oil the top and set aside. Take each of the other pieces of the 1/2 part of dough and roll out, adding more cornstarch as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the pin or the flat surface. After each piece has been rolled out, brush oil on top and then layer them on top of each other. At the end of this you will have a stack of flat dough pieces. Now, take the stack of pieces and place them in the center of your flat surface that is sufficiently covered with cornstarch. Roll out this whole stack together, making sure that the pieces don't slide much apart from each other as you roll them flat. As you roll this out the layers will look like they have become one, but when they bake they will fluff up and become airy and light. The dough should be rolled out to about 1/2 inch thickness and made into a rectangle shape. You will be surprised at how large the dough will be fully rolled out.

If you are using one pan that is larger than 9 by 13 this can fit in one piece in the pan. If you have to use two pans, cut the piece in half. Pour enough vegetable oil in the bottom of your pan to cover the bottom. Now, carefully place the flat dough piece on the bottom of the pan.

Return to the 1/2 of dough that you have left in your bowl. Follow the same steps of making balls, rolling balls out separately and layering them and then rolling them out all together. Once you have finished rolling out this dough, do not place it in the pan yet, you still need to add your filling.

Filling:
Option #1 - cheese -
1 container of cottage cheese
3 oz. cream cheese
1/2 lb feta cheese, crumbled
5 eggs
1 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients together until fully mixed and moist. Spread the cheese mixture over the first layer of dough that is in your pan.

OR

Option #2 - tomato and onion -
2 onion
6 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
salt

In a small pan saute the onion, tomatoes and 1/4 tsp salt until onions are opaque and tomatoes are soft. When they are done and cooled slightly spread the mixture onto the bottom layer of dough in your pan.

NOTE: You can make a large pan with half cheese and half tomato/onion mixture. If you do that, you will need to HALF the ingredients in each filling recipe.

Once you have your filling in place, carefully put the second layer of dough on top. With your fingers gently press the edges firmly to the side of the pan to seal the filling in. Next, pour and evenly distribute enough oil over the dough to cover it. Now, use a handful of water and sprinkle it over the dough.

Bake at 350 degrees until crispy on top and sides.

After you remove from the oven, sprinkle a little bit of water on top and then cover to let the top layer of dough become a little soft.

Cut and serve hot! Enjoy a taste of Middle Eastern cuisine.



Well, here we are ready to sit down for a terrific meal, thanks to Arta. Of course, no Albanian meal would be complete without dessert and coffee to top it off. Here is a recipe for a dessert called Sheqerpare (tranlated sugar money or sugar first). This traditional Albanian dessert is made for special occasions such as the birth of a baby or for New Years. It is a very sweet dessert, so if you have a sweet tooth, this is sure to please. It is a super easy recipe to make and tastes fabulous.

Sheqerpare:
Ingredients for the cake part:
1 cup butter
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix these all together well. Once mixed the dough will be firm and not runny or too wet. Press the dough into a pan until flat. This dessert it not a thick one, so don't be concerned that it is too flat. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until it is golden brown on top and sides. Cool the cake completely! This is a very important step. I let mine cool to touch and placed it in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Ingredients for syrup:
Right before serving make the syrup.
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla

In small saucepan, mix and heat these together until it form a syrup. Be careful not to burn the syrup.

Now, remove your cool cake from the fridge and cut it, leaving it in the pan. Pour the hot syrup over the top of the cake. The syrup will look like it is pooling on top but don't worry the cake is really porous and the syrup will soak into the cake. Let the cake sit until the syrup has soaked through the whole cake. You are ready to serve your Albanian dessert. Place leftovers in the fridge. I think that this dessert tastes best cold anyhow.

Well, I hope that you have enjoyed this Albanian cooking lesson. It has been such a joy for me to learn and become a real participant in the culture that we live in. I praise God for my dear friend Arta who took her time to come and teach me how to make these dishes.