Back from Kosovo 2026

We arrived in Gjakova at about 1am on Friday morning and, after a few hours’ sleep, we were up and running. The first stop was the local supermarket for staples for us and items for 10 food parcels. Each food parcel will feed a family of 6 for about 2 weeks and costs about 30 euros.

Later we went shopping for the contents of school bags. Though schooling is free, the children need three things before they can attend. The first is a school bag with 3 different types of exercise books, pens, pencils, colouring pencils, a sharpener, a rubber, a geometry set and a pencil case. That is the easy part, at a total cost of about 8 euros. The second is shoes, which is again manageable. The third is more difficult: they need a birth certificate. Without all of these, there is no education.

We travelled out to see a family we might be able to help. Often, with a little help, a family’s situation can be transformed. This visit was to a family of 5 children, with their mum in hospital awaiting the delivery of number 6. Though there was a house, there were gaps around the windows and no working wood burner to provide heating and a means of cooking. We left a food parcel with this family and the promise of returning with bricks and the means of building a chimney. On the way back we delivered 2 more food parcels.

Saturday was for buying wood to keep the church warm during the winter. First, we needed to clear the old wood from the store and sharpen the axe. Buying the wood is a real spectator sport. Emma thoroughly enjoys the haggling, and she normally gets the price she wants. Next, the wood had to be cut to length, split if needed and packed into the wood store, with the old wood moved back in front. The church runs a children’s and youth meeting on Saturday afternoons, and John was on bus duty, picking up the children from various areas around and outside the city. After the youth meeting there is a new ministry to school-gate mothers and their children. They meet for coffee and cake in Nertili. This is growing, with up to 20 mums attending.

Afterwards we took the promised bricks and cement to the house we had visited the day before and heard the good news that mum had successfully delivered a baby boy. Later, Andy shared with Faton about Discovery Bible Study as a discipleship tool.

On Sunday there was a time of worship with Victory Church, during which Jan shared about why it is important to worship. It turned out that this was what Kajmelina had said just before, in Albanian. Andy preached on “Influencers” and Jesus being the biggest influencer ever. In the afternoon we had a meeting with the core team of Victory Church to discuss their ministry and what their desires were. Later we delivered another 3 food parcels. One of these was to a single mum who attends the school-gate group, and during the visit she became a Christian. We also put together 32 school bags before church.

Monday began with a men’s breakfast with 12 men from Victory Church, discussing the need to pray for a church building, youth work, and equipment for the fire service. Andy spoke with one person about working with youth and using the Discovery Bible Study course. The ladies went shopping for supplies for Victory Church for the coming months. Then we visited a village where a number of projects were identified. We delivered 4 food parcels and 5 school bags, with a promise to return with more food parcels and another school bag. Afterwards we went shopping once more for food parcels and a wood-burning stove.

On Tuesday we delivered 3 more food parcels and 2 school bags, as well as the new stove. John did marvels working on mains-pressure water pipes, mending 3 leaks, and installed piping to carry all types of waste water away from a house.

We arrived home at 4am on Wednesday.