Marti Denham of Lift Kosova writes…
Greetings from Kosove!
We are back home and just so pleased to be here. God is so good to us, we have been so blessed in our travels in the US and Canada. But just today, looking around the room at the familiar faces gathered together for worship, the simplicity of it all, I (Marti) had to fight back the tears as I thought how God has blessed us in bringing us back to Kosova.
We flew from Chicago on the 4th of Dec. Standing in the check-in line at LX (Swiss Air) at O_Hare Airport, we had some rather panicky thoughts on what to do with some luggage as we knew we were traveling with our bags maxed to the limit. We usually keep stuffing things into the backpack, but the sign said “All carry-on luggage will be weighed”, and the backpack was already 2x as heavy as would be allowed! Then we also had a guitar in addition to 5 other bags. We were willing to pay more, but we prayed and asked the Lord for HELP! The gal who checked us in said she didn’t need to weigh my backpack, (while the ticket agent next to us weighed all the carry-ons!) and when Don asked if we could take the guitar, she asked her supervisor who said, “No problem”! We were so relieved.
After a rather uneventful flight with “not so good Food” or service, we landed in Zurich, Switzerland, boarded a flight for Prishtina, Kosova, and were soon touching down in Kosove. We were one of three flights to arrive within 20 minutes into this very small airport where, despite 3 years of practice, it is still mass confusion! But we were here safely and thanking the Lord for that. We had a long wait to have our passports checked and stamped and to get our luggage. As we waited I heard a familiar little voice hollering, “Marti, Marti”, and running past the legs of some NATO officers, here comes our little Rrezarta (the beautiful little 3-year old girl from our house in Krushe e Madhe.) Security smiled and let her stay with us as we waited for the luggage, she wasn’t much of a security risk! Rrezarta and her daddy (babai) Ibrahim, came to meet us and we had a happy time of reunion and visiting on the way home.
Its been a busy time getting back into our routine of “non-routine” things every day! News of our arrival in the village didn’t take long to get around, so we thought we had better get busy and deliver the money we have collected for the crochet work from the widows. As we had expected to hear the harvest was very bad, “the peppers were broken” (flooded out) so most of the hours of long back-breaking labor in the fields didn’t produce much. As we have been saying, this will be a long difficult winter. We are so thankful we have continued to supply flour to these families, and we are taking on one more widow and family who are having a great struggle.
There are many more things to share with you all, but will wait for another time. We pray that you have a very blessed Christmas Season. We will be having a special Christmas program in Gjakova with the churches, and having a dinner afterward. This year when you celebrate the birth of our Savior, please remember to pray for Kosova and the many places in the world where people have no idea why anyone celebrates Christmas, unless it might be the time that someone called “Babai Dimer” comes (Father Winter, and he looks a lot like Santa Claus). Then, there are a lot of programs on the TV where people are happy and smiling and giving each other gifts, something that doesn’t present much reality here, or in many places for that matter. Pray for the truth of God’s Word to touch hearts like has never happened before!! Gezuar Kristlindjen (Merry Christmas) may God bless you greatly by drawing you ever closer to Himself!
Rejoicing!
Don & Marti Denham
