Skopje

This was Lee's first time to Skopje, so having booked into our hotel, one Ann and I had been to before, we went to the city centre.  Here there is a fantastic fountain. It beats anything I have ever seen and makes Trafalgar Square look old and tame.  Atop of a column in the middle of the fountain is a huge sculpture of Alexander the Great on a horse.

Here is Lee with Marija and Sasha. Marija has been a couple of times to REAL, our womens conference, once with her daughter Tamara who became a Christian at our church and then came to our Youth Camp in Albania.  Sasha came to the Willow Leadership DVD Conference last autumn and would like to come again this year.



The 13 arch stone bridge that crosses the Vardar river and is a symbol of the city.



Time then for a drink and lunch together before going on to see the apartment that Sasha nd Marija gutted completely and then refurbished as their Bible teaching centre.  They teach students during the week, and have staterd a new church in their part of the city with a 70,000 population.  Skopje has a pop in total of about 700,000. Marija gathers 7 women on Sunday monring and Sasha 5 men in the afternoon.  Once a month they come together with other friends at a cafe where the American University College is. This is an ideal venue for student work. 

Early, really early, the next morning Lee was up to get his flight from Skopje to Belgrade and then onto London Heathrow and home to a waiting Linda and two daughters.  I wanted to spend another day with Sasha and Marija to talk through a number of things, before going on my way now westwards by minibus to the Albanian border and onto Elbasan. It gave me opportunity to see their three children again Tamara, Luka and Naomi and catch up on the details of their family life and the state of the church in the nation and learn more about the people and thinking in the Balkans.

In practical terms the next part of my journey is the trickiest part and so I really prayed...and my prayers were answered!  I will tell you about it in the next blog. 

Now it is Thursday as I write this in an a smoke filled internet cafe (no smoking by law, but hey!) and the first time to add in my camera photos. Ann arrived in Tirana, Albania  last night on a BA flight and soon, in 30 minutes she will arrive here by furgon, so I will finish now and go to meet her.  It will be so good to see her.

All our love, Ken

Ken