- Camrose Baptist Church
- Camrose Avenue
- Edgware
- Middlesex
- HA8 6BZ
020 8952 6792
David and Fiona Lea
David and Fiona Lea are members of Kenton Baptist Church and are serving with BMS World Mission in Albania. Along with other churches we provide support for David and Fiona.
If you want to link to their page on the BMS website - which will allow you access to their latest prayer letter click here.
If you want to read their latest email update - keep reading!
Life in Albania - 5 February 2010
Dear all,
Thought we'd let you know how life is going for us - it's all good !!
School
School is fine. I (Fiona) am a lot less stressed than I was when I was on my final teaching practice placement in Taunton and am enjoying teaching - :) This week Grade 5 (my class) had a visitor !!! An owl had somehow managed to get trapped in one of the boilers in the classroom - we're still not completely sure how it got there. It caused a bit of a stir and most of the class were asking if we could keep him!! I think they've read a bit too much Harry Potter!!
Dave is being useful in the science department, doing the technician's role and in some lessons taking on the role of teaching assistant, especially when they are doing investigations. He is also beginning to have science inquiries from the lower school teachers regarding equipment & experiment ideas. In addition to this he is playing a greater part in general school life with break duties etc & helping out at after-school football practice (not much of a surprise I guess).
Life
General life here is going ok. We're are now more comfortable going to the shops and market for food and are starting to explore a bit further afield with the variety of shops we are trying out. There are 3 main supermarkets chains (Big Market, Euromax & Conad) each selling slightly different things. Different items are also sold within each chain so an item found in one Euromax store will not automatically be in the rest of the Euromax stores !!! Basic items are generally fairly cheap - a loaf of bread is about 70 lek (50p) however western items are more expensive such as a jar of peanut butter is about 600 lek (£4). Dave doesn't work Fridays so it is really useful having him able to go and get most of the shopping & bits of washing or housework during the day whilst I'm at school, we still have to go at least one other evening a week. We still have similar temperatures as mentioned in the previous email but we now have a heating/air-con unit installed into our flat which is more effective at warming up the living room than the radiators were. Mornings are very cold outside but its warming up during the daytime.
Church
We are currently going to Udha e Shpresa (Way of Hope). Often the sermons are translated by a member of the church, although this hasn't happened much recently as Gary who usually sets it up is currently in the UK. At some point we will hopefully visit a few other churches in the area. Dave is planning on joining with a group of guys from the church tomorrow to play football - I think they use this time for fellowship and outreach. We also may go along to the Youth Group at some point to see if we can help out with that.
Prayer points
- Please pray that we will get all our documents sorted and won't have too many hassles when trying to sort out our Leja Qendrimi (Residents permit) - we are currently having issues trying to get a new marriage certificate issued in the UK
- Pray that we will make the right decisions regarding church to attend and the activities to get involved in
- You may be aware of the recent flooding in Shkoder in the north of Albania, we have not been affected by this but please pray for those who have and those who are trying to help the many people who have lost their homes there (more info on the BMS website) especially as the temperature has dropped recently & there is snow in the mountains & areas further out of Tirana
Thanks for all your support
Fiona & Dave Lea