Each week that I read the reports from different churches in Albania I am excited and grateful for all the workers who are sacrificing to feed and help the refugees from Kosovo. Christians from Greece, Italy, Albania, Great Britain and the U. S. are working together. Brotherhood organizations are cooperating closely to share funds, supplies, workers and information. Partners in Progress, Healing Hands International, Christian Relief, World English Institute, MANNA, Bread for a Hungry World are only some that come to mind. Thousands of churches in dozens of countries have offered prayers and made financial contributions. What a great brotherhood!!
In the immediate future, we still must think of winter needs for the refugees that might stay in Albania. Many are going home more quickly than I could imagine and against the advice of the United Nations Committee for Refugees. We must also consider what we can do for those returning to Kosovo. Please continue to pray for this work.
Don't forget that some full reports from Albania are on our web site at www.wfrchurch.org.
God bless you all,
Don Yelton
White's Ferry Road Church of Christ Relief Ministries
Please note my new email address of donyelton@wfrchurch.org
Greetings,
The five ton former refrigerator truck was crammed full of people's belongings, and the 26 owners were trying to make themselves as comfortable as they could. It was going to be a very long journey overnight to Mitrovica. But the smiles on the faces showed they were not concerned about the lack of comfort, they were going home! This was the scene at one of the local centres on Saturday evening as another group of refugees began the long trip back to Kosovo. Some of these were families that we had been caring for, and others were members of the family of our sister Alma. The night before we had also said good bye to Zenun and his family. He was a giant of a man in attitude and physical build. We will miss him, but have plans to visit him in the new year.
Our numbers are now down to 216 families (1,863 individuals). This will drop even more this week as more cities are declared safe for people to reurn to. We are also glad of extra help with the work with the arrival of Steve Byrne and Becky Payne. Already they are making the load a little lighter for the team. Dulcie will be leaving for a well earned rest in the UK on Monday (12th). She will return to Albania on August 10th.
We want to thank all those who are continuing to support our werk here. Our situation seems to be that will be able to continue to fund the relief programme following the obvious departure of the large NGO's including World Vision Int. No matter how low the numbers will fall, we will continue to help those who are here.
Dear Don,
Got your e-mail. Right now we are still helping over 400 refugees, or you could say that I am. I hired some local help to do the job. Yes Dino Tzanetos and his co-worker Beni Leka is still involved although they are not here right now. The number of refugees is going down fast, and they start an air lift Monday. Most of our refugees are from Prishtina. We have names, and we have tried to build some relationships. We made deliveries Tuesday and Wednesday of this week of fresh fruits and vegetables. One thing we could really use are those shoes, but they will get here too late. In fact, we may try to hold the shipment up in Greece and divert them Kosovo. I guess starting Monday it will take about 10 days to get all the refugees out of here. At the end of last week there was about 10,000 refugees in the area. As of today, July 1, there is just a little over 6,000. They were expecting as many as 500 of these to leave today. They are all anxious to get back. You see a lot more smiles on their faces thinking about their return. Although I am not sure how many smiles will be there when they finally get back.
One thing we need to continue to think about are some things we can do for Albania as well. I know it is not as popular as the refugees, but these people opened their hearts and homes to their Kosovo brothers. Financially the Kosovo's are better off; many of them had quite a bit of money with them. Some have paid 1000 DM per person to go back to Kosovo. Now I am not minimizing the loss they have experienced, but many of the Albanian host familes face poverty everyday. It would be good to continue some sort of help for them as well. Just a thought.
David (Gooslby from Healing Hands) is coming through here sometime early this month. I will try to stay in touch a little better.
Roger (Michaels)
As we informed in the last report the number of the refugees going back home is increased so much and together with the joy to see them leaving to their homes we feel emptiness in our hearts. For these three months we shared together sadness and happiness and it is strange to admit that they are not here any more. Anyway, we Praise the Lord who made possible Peace to be agreed. We are looking forward for going and spreading the Word of God in Kosova. His Word is what they need more then anything else.
We as church continue to distribute food to the families that have decided to leave so they can have food and drinks on the way. With their request we also agreed to give to them some more food so they can have reserves. This process continues and for sure we will continue to offer our service to them in the name of our Lord till at the last refugee remained here. So actually the number of the refugees to whom we provide food is around half of those we were serving before, but still the work at the warehouse continues.
Those last days we have been talking with a Spanish relief organization, who are promising us to give another truck full of relief items, free of charge. That was arrived after they sow the good work we have been doing with delivering humanitarian goods to the refugees.
The Richard's are coming back this week hopefully with the van, and we are looking forward to their arrival. Our sisters Emily and Doris have left to Italy for some weeks. They really deserved some rest after the hard work carried over here. Brethren from WEI have already joined us for the summer campaign and we are enjoying their visit. More brethren from WEI will arrive in the next days.
For the Church of Christ in Tirana,
The Refugee Crisis Committee
Artan, Tom, Artan, and Randy
RE: Copy of: Kosovo Report July 9
Dear Friends,
The UN reports are showing that fewer then 12% of the villages in Kosovo have pure water supplies, (contaminated by human bodies in them) 60% of the schools are destroyed or damaged, 40% of the housing is destroyed and land mines are everywhere. The UN High Commission of Refugees is asking the Kosovar not to return to their villages but many are going back anyway. However our brethren in Albania are still feeding more then ten thousand and anticipate this will be necessary through the winter as there is little food in Kosovo.
We plan to go to Kosovo next month, with our Albanian co-workers, to identify sites where it will be possible to assist the Kosovar when they do return to their homes. Brethren in Albanian have acquired addresses from the kosovar they have been feeding and we will concentrate on working in their villages in order to prolong the relationships that have been established and use these as a springboard to plant churches. Church planting will be a priority as we move operations into Kosovo. Please continue to pray for the Kosovar and for our Albanian co-workers who are dealing with them on a day to day basis.
Yours for sharing Christ with all while there is yet time,
Bill McDonough, International Director of Partners In Progress
A Ministry of the 6th & Izard Church of Christ in Little Rock, Arkansas