Helping Children in Albania
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The following is an email I received from an OLF church member who was deployed to Kosovo a few months back. We are jumping on board to help! More information will be given in Sunday's service. If you are not a part of our church please do what you can and directly to them, but mention OLF. Thanks!
Hi Timmy and Co,
Well, my friend, God works in mysterious ways: first I found out that Clint Barney (another OLF member) was part of the group deploying to Kosovo with us. Before I knew it, I was moved into his section and he is one of my staff now. We are just starting out mission, and things are pretty busy. I did want to raise one subject with you though – our section has inherited an adopted Albanian school. They were taken care of by the previous rotation, and now that we are here, we will be taking over their care.
Even though I grew up in Russia under the worst of circumstances, I never saw the kind of poverty I saw at that school. It is nothing more than a shell of a building with 3 classrooms inside. There are ancient desks and chairs in each classroom and a single blackboard. There is also a wood-burning heating stove in each classroom, but the school is too poor to buy the wood needed to warm the classrooms up. Even though they have electricity, they do not have the money to buy electric oil heaters or space heaters. The students study in shifts. They teach grades K-8 there if I am not mistaken.
To make a long story short, if Olathe Life Fellowship is interested in a humanitarian project, I can not think of a better one. These guys could use anything – from second hand clothes to ANY kind of school supplies to include simple chalk, pens, pencils and the like. The good news is: you can ship to us in Kosovo via USPS and pay the normal inside the United States rates – mail gets forwarded to us later on, and does not cost anything additional. Should you want to share this need with the congregation, here is our address in Kosovo:
CPT Gleb Gluhovsky or SPC Clint Barney
KFOR 9, MNTF(E)
HQ TF Falcon
Camp Bondsteel
APO AE 09340
These little guys are not spoiled – any warm clothes will do – it is below freezing here already, and many of them have no boots or shoes for the winter – they wear socks and flip flops! We in the U.S. throw stuff away if it is not in perfect condition. Well, these people here are not prideful and will gladly accept ANYTHING we can offer them.
I’m sorry that my first e-mail from Kosovo starts out with begging for stuff, but I just can’t not ask when I know the generosity of Americans and especially American Christians. This will be a great message and witness to these people – we are not restricted from telling them who sent the help and why.
I miss home something terrible and am looking forward to returning soon. God willing, this year will fly by fast. In the meantime, I will continue mentoring Clint and hopefully growing in the Lord myself as well. Blessings and please say hello to Jana and your lovely kids.
Later my friend,
Gleb
P.S. This is truly one of the few countries that love Americans – feels weird after being in Europe for a while.
Well, my friend, God works in mysterious ways: first I found out that Clint Barney (another OLF member) was part of the group deploying to Kosovo with us. Before I knew it, I was moved into his section and he is one of my staff now. We are just starting out mission, and things are pretty busy. I did want to raise one subject with you though – our section has inherited an adopted Albanian school. They were taken care of by the previous rotation, and now that we are here, we will be taking over their care.
Even though I grew up in Russia under the worst of circumstances, I never saw the kind of poverty I saw at that school. It is nothing more than a shell of a building with 3 classrooms inside. There are ancient desks and chairs in each classroom and a single blackboard. There is also a wood-burning heating stove in each classroom, but the school is too poor to buy the wood needed to warm the classrooms up. Even though they have electricity, they do not have the money to buy electric oil heaters or space heaters. The students study in shifts. They teach grades K-8 there if I am not mistaken.
To make a long story short, if Olathe Life Fellowship is interested in a humanitarian project, I can not think of a better one. These guys could use anything – from second hand clothes to ANY kind of school supplies to include simple chalk, pens, pencils and the like. The good news is: you can ship to us in Kosovo via USPS and pay the normal inside the United States rates – mail gets forwarded to us later on, and does not cost anything additional. Should you want to share this need with the congregation, here is our address in Kosovo:
CPT Gleb Gluhovsky or SPC Clint Barney
KFOR 9, MNTF(E)
HQ TF Falcon
Camp Bondsteel
APO AE 09340
These little guys are not spoiled – any warm clothes will do – it is below freezing here already, and many of them have no boots or shoes for the winter – they wear socks and flip flops! We in the U.S. throw stuff away if it is not in perfect condition. Well, these people here are not prideful and will gladly accept ANYTHING we can offer them.
I’m sorry that my first e-mail from Kosovo starts out with begging for stuff, but I just can’t not ask when I know the generosity of Americans and especially American Christians. This will be a great message and witness to these people – we are not restricted from telling them who sent the help and why.
I miss home something terrible and am looking forward to returning soon. God willing, this year will fly by fast. In the meantime, I will continue mentoring Clint and hopefully growing in the Lord myself as well. Blessings and please say hello to Jana and your lovely kids.
Later my friend,
Gleb
P.S. This is truly one of the few countries that love Americans – feels weird after being in Europe for a while.
