We met her right after we started being tutored 3 times per week. Naida and I were out for a walk, exploring the area around us and found a small school supply store near our home, and she prints documents, which is important since our tutor likes to give us homework.

She is a sweet little lady who always has a smile on her face. She doesn’t speak any English and my Italian is still quite rough, but we smile a lot to each other, and she is always so happy to help.

This last weekend I wished her a Happy Easter, “Buona Pasqua” but she said, “I’m Muslim, we don’t have Easter.”

Pray for her. I don’t know enough Italian to communicate to her she needs, as we all do, an Easter experience in our lives. I plan to give her the book, “More Than A Carpenter.”

Vanna is always working at this bakery shop. I wish I had found her earlier! They make these Cinnamon Cookies that melt in your mouth, and these little “Pigs-In-A-Blanket” that ruin my lunch EVERYTIME I go to the printer . . . by myself.

Since the two businesses are so close to each other I have to stop, right?

Vanna is this sweet young woman who speaks great English, something we have been so grateful for. Amazingly, many of the folks here speak a good amount of English and some Italian. As I give her an Albanian Tract, pray that it is well received. They haven’t all been received well here.

Thank you.

Very early on we met Ida, the owner of the restaurant we frequent. We eventually met her husband and daughter, who plans to attend a Southeastern Archictural school, starting this June.

What we have enjoyed so much, is Ida’s big heart. Everytime we walk in the door, it is on display, towards us.

We’re there a lot! She doesn’t treat others the way she treats us. When I stop and think about it I’m so humbled. This sweet, charming woman is just what my wife needed, as we have manuevered through these months.

The first time we met Simon he gave us the cold shoulder. It was pretty obvious he wasn’t interested in Americans, at least not us. But over time, he has become our “Go-To” waiter. He lights up with a HUGE smile every time he sees us, whether we go into his restaurant or not.

This last weekend (Easter Weekend) I said to him, “Simon, Naida and I are going to pray for our food, how can we pray for you?”

And immediately he said, “I need luck!” Eventually he said, I need change in my life. What a sweet opening to tell him of the importance of Easter. The end of the conversation was, “Simon, luck isn’t the answer, trusting in the One who is the reason for this Easter season, IS THE ANSWER.”

Pray for him.

When I said, not all of the tracts I’ve handed out have been received well, this is who I am thinking about.

This man has a bicycle shop, just a little hole in that wall, with no electricity, and he ekes out a living.

For the last couple months he’s been ignoring me, but recently, he looks at me and smiles, not a big smile, not like before, but it is returning.

When you think of me, pray for him.

Okay, it’s not exactly a grocery store, more like a corner market, a little corner market. Okay, a VERY LITTLE corner market. It is 2 doors down from the big supermarket, but he is there 7 days a week, selling his goods.

Everytime we walk by he gives us a big smile with a bigger, “Buongiorno.”

He too will be getting a tract from me. And, like all the tracts, on the back is the name and number of Pellumb & Elli, our Albanian missionary friends who live here in Tirana.

Pray that this hard working man accepts my tract gratefully.

We have really enjoyed our time with him in this high-end restaurant, which we only go to, when we go to the Opera.

But Mario knows the TRUTH. We see the wheels in his head turning when we introduce Scriptural Truths to him.

We have prayed for his father’s health on more than one occasion.

Pray for this young man.

Over the last few months these two women have become a very real part of our daily walks. I think they might be sisters. And they usually sit across the street from one another.

Everytime I walk by them I put my hand into my pocket and pull out whatever change is in there.

What has been fascinating to me, is to watch their faces during the times when I have had nothing to give them. Their faces still light up in gratitude.

Amazing.

Pray for me, I am hoping to see them one more time to give them a tract.

I can’t finish this without talking about holding one another’s hands when we walk.

It’s like we’re school kids. It’s really sweet.

Pray for me. My job is to gently lead my bride.

Thank you.

We can’t do any of this without you!

Your prayers are SOOOO coveted by us.

We have a number of friends who are going above and beyond, Diane, Ron, Bruce, Julie, Greg & Marie, Anthony & Francesca.

Please pray for them, and when you pray for us, let the Lord lead you.

Thank you.