Day Two: Sunday, Celebration

Its Easter Sunday !
Christ is Risen Hallelujah he is risen indeed!

And we are in Tirana our adopted home for 5 years of our life !
I can't describe how it felt walking across Tirana for the first time in two and half years.
Yes the roads are bad and the driving dangerous, Yes the pavements have all been dug up and there's a general air of chaos everywhere, But its so real and alive and interesting, people stop and greet each other , but they stop! No one is in a hurry.

The Lana - the river that runs through the centre of the city was brown and swollen with muddy dirty water from the mountains - they have been experiencing really wet weather here like in England!.
When we lied here there was an new inner ring road planned . On both side of the houses were smooth dual carriageway roads yet but a few houses stood in the middle of the road. We were told it was all political. But now the road was open making it quick and easy to walk from the Lana to Fusha Ali Demi where we take the bus to Shkoze.

As soon as we stepped through the doors at Drita e Botes we were overcome with hugs and greetings by our old church - everyone looking slightly older and grown up but so good to see them all.

What was even better though was seeing the church building full of people and so full of life. In the last two years the church has grown especially with the children and youth now so involved in the life of the church.

The service was a showcase of Easter celebrations, videos,films, powerpoints, songs, dramas, most of which led by the youth of the church. Loud raucous worship, slightly tuneless but with no doubting the spirit even if the tune was somewhat questionable at times.

The most moving part of  the service must have been the excellent youth drama capturing how Jesus can free people from addictions, abuse and other challenges of life. The drama itself was excellent but also seeing how the youth were taking such a lead and such initiative. This church doesn't need a youth pastor fighting their cause. this church is effectively being led and shaped by their youth, who all have a great practical and real understanding of what Jesus' death and resurrection means to them.

It was a great service but it was also a long service and it was after 90 minutes I was invited to preach. Now, however good the service is no one wants a sermon after 90 minutes so I kept message short and to the point! (I know that many Upton Vale people will find that hard to believe)

Preaching with a translator is such a difference experience, learning to he pause and let translator catch up. Thankfully I had Lejda translating for me,  We've known Lejda since our second day in Albania, she came to look after Ellie and Gemma when we had first arrived in Vlora, and had worked with us ever since. I've never known a translator like Lejda, she seems to know what I'm going to say before I've said it!

The rest of the team arrived  during the time after the service while we were being served a cocktail of drinks and biscuits and chocolate. Sam, Tom, Ellen & George arrived looking tired but excited to be here and slightly overawed walking into all that was happening in the building.

Sam, being Sam wanted to jump straight into things so I took him for a tour of shkoze. Within minutes we'd been invited in for a drink with Denis, the café owner. This is how it is in Albania.

At 4 we shared our Easter Meal; Meat, chicken, Pilaf ( Rice) Salad absolutely delicious! Nearly 100 people came to eat with us. What a great way to celebrate the greatest day in human history, Jesus risen from the dead.

We left this church over two years ago wondering whether the church would survive. Today we celebrated Easter Sunday with  a thriving young church that seems to be outgrowing its premises. Even better than that we shared the day with friends from our current church. Past Present and Future


all together. The Team is here and the mission can now begin.

Day One: Saturday, Arrival!

Its early Saturday and the five McBain'

s are finally sitting in the departure lounge awaiting our call to board the plane.

 

So far the journey has been very efficient and very English: We were met at the drop off point by the car parking service, after unloading our bags laptops and guitars we were soon checked in and sampling perfumes, aftershaves and baileys in the duty free shop. So far so good .. Until the call was made for passengers who wanted th check in hand luggage to approach the check in desk. Suddenly the Albanian crowd instinct kicked in and the crowd en masse stormed the desk. The clerk made a plaintive plea ' We are not ready to board please return to your seats but the Albanian crowd refused to sit down.

 

A little later the call for passengers with children to board but the gathered crowd would not move turning the usually sedate British Departure gate into an Albanian maelstrom of chaotic energy.

Albanians just don't have any concept of how to form an orderly queue!

 

As the plane began its descent into Mother Theresa Airport the excitement rose, Albanians may not queue but its great to hear them applaud when the Plane touched down.

 

Another interesting factor of arriving in Albania is how many 'imigrants' have British passports. Imigrants are Albanians who have left the country but return for holidays and festivals like Easter.

The Albanian Citizens passport control had a few people waiting whilst the foreign citizens desk was again full of Albanians with British passports.

 

We were met at the Airport but old friend, Roger Pearce from BMS and Endri and Emilijano from Drita e Botes.  Driving in to Tirana it felt like coming home again; the new buildings, the traffic. Skendenberg Square has been covered in grass and re designed, Tirana has changed, more statues more lights - it looks cleaner than it used  to but it still has that buzz that no other city can capture.

 

Our first night back, staying in the city centre  we went to sleep accompanied by the sound of the loud Albanian music from the local café - It's good to be back.

 

Coffee Time!

 Recently I was asked by BMS world Mission to write a few words for an article on the differences between being a Pastor in the UK and abroad. Having learned lots of good time management techniques I noted the deadline date in my diary put reminders on my phone and made sure I allocated myself plenty of time to write my piece.

However, even with this careful in place I still ran out of time which struck me as appropriate as I wanted to write about how time challenged and time poor people in the UK seem to be. The problem seems to be there’s just not enough of it, people are busy; churches are busy places and appointments to see people have to be scheduled in weeks in advance. Invites for dinner or Sunday lunch often have to be submitted at the start of the year. My conclusion is that we seem to be so good (or bad) at time management that we’ve lost something of time wisdom.  

Let me explain what I mean by time wisdom...

My friend Qerim used to laugh at me when I would say I was too busy to stop and drink a coffee with him, ‘How can you be too busy to stop? ‘he used to say. You see Albanians generally put a high value on people and so value time with people so an unplanned house visit could quickly become an impromptu celebration.

A couple of weeks ago two friends popped into our house to quickly drop something off for us. That ‘drop off’ became one of the best evenings we’ve had for a long time as we enjoyed some wine and ate snacks and laughed together – all totally spontaneous, totally unplanned and such a welcome relief from having to book people weeks in advance.  I wonder whether putting people first is a wiser use of time that many UK churches could benefit from.  I lose count of how many emails and phone calls and visits start with ‘I know you’re busy but........ ‘

Qerim used to say, ‘But Graham I’m your friend – come and drink a coffee with me’

And with that time with people came an openness to talk about important things like what we believe and why we believe it. Now I’ve found that harder to get to with people in the UK and I wonder whether it’s because we don’t give people the time they deserve.

Being busy is a very British thing. I’ve heard variations of these phrases over the last two years:

‘A successful person is a busy person’ or ‘The best people are always the busiest’

And I’ve found myself starting to subscribe to this thinking: I must appear to be busy at all times otherwise............. what will people think?

Yet in Albania being too busy to see people was rude and disrespectful.

Another pastor friend of mine takes great delight in the incredulity on people’s faces when he says, ‘Actually I’m not very busy at the moment,’ he is determined to challenge the myth that we must all be busy and overloaded with things to do.

I think my old car washing friend, Qerim, may be wiser than he realised when he taught me the importance of people over appointments and 30 minutes drinking a coffee might be the best use of 30 minutes that day.

So if you ring me this week the answer is ‘Yes – I’m free for a coffee – shall we go now?’

Anger Management

‘Anger Management’ was a 2003 Film starring Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler as an anger therapist and his client.

Adam Sandler’s character (Dave) is sent to anger therapy sessions after a mistaken incident on a plane.  Jack Nicholson plays Buddy the unconventional therapist who eventually helps Dave to accept that he has anger issues and how to deal with them.  If that sounds a bit dull, it isn’t – it’s a very funny film that has you squirming with awkwardness and laughing out loud at the frankly unlikely situations Dave and Buddy find themselves in. The famous quote of the film is

‘Temper's the one thing you can't get rid of by losing it.’

Apart from having a strange appreciation of Adam Sandler films dating back to the ‘Wedding Singer’ I mention anger management because it picks up nicely the theme of last Sunday’s (03 Feb) sermon and links us to our contemporary mission evening this coming Sunday (10^th Feb).

The Sermon challenged us about how we deal with anger in our lives.  Everyone gets angry, it’s a natural thing, a warning that something is not well with us.   Anger can be used to positive or negative effect.

Un-channelled and unchecked anger can cause great damage and injure and scar people deeply. We’ve all been at the receiving end of someone’s anger – when there’s been an explosion in writing, text, email, phone call or face to face, even with violence either to us or in front of us. Often harmful or hurtful things are said; words that wound deeply and are hard to recover from.

We can tiptoe around a person aware that the wrong word could make them explode, some are never confronted about their behaviour and so continue to behave in a deplorable way.  People use their temper as a form of bullying.But bullies need to be confronted,  especially anger bullies who often justify their outbursts by explaining they are ‘passionate’ or’ fired up’ about  an issue.

Anger bullies make me angry, but righteous anger can lead to amazing actions.

I believe in a God of love but I don’t have any conflict or contradiction in believing God gets angry about issues of discrimination and injustice. The Bible makes this clear throughout both the old and new testaments.

God got angry about abuses of power, mistreatment of the socially challenged, social injustice and needless poverty.

When God gets angry he often raises in us a passion to do something about it.

Since coming to Torquay two years ago I believe God has consistently led me to encounters with street people in Torquay. I say street people as a clumsy way of referring to the homeless, the drug addicts, the sofa surfers, the alcoholics. The undesirable groups that used to hang around the town hall, some of them used to come to our church.

I can’t get away from the deep held conviction that I/we/churches/ decent people with a conscience should be prepared to do something to help these people. I try and talk to them, learn their names and give them some dignity. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

I believe that church buildings in Torquay which have unused rooms and halls for 6 days of the week, could be used as drop in or help centres. But maybe we need to get more ‘angry’ about this situation and realise it’s just not right that people live life in this way and let that anger drive us to do something positive and good, and dare I say it, ‘God like’.

St Mary Magdalene Church in Torquay town centre opened up previously unused doors into their main building as a drop in café that caters for street people to holidays makers: a place where people can come for a coffee, bacon roll and a chat. They call it ‘The Living Room’ – you should pop in there for a drink if you have time. Customers from all walks of life are treated with dignity and respect. The people of the church channelled anger at the injustice of poverty and anger at the injustice of unused locked buildings to turn their building into a place of healing and integration. They work with the Police and Street Wardens and other public services; and through this project lives are being improved and bettered and people are finding God.

This Sunday evening (10^th Feb, 7pm) Mark Searle, the Vicar of St Mary Magdalene, is speaking at our contemporary mission evening service about ‘The Living Room’. My hope and prayer is that people who also feel that sense of righteous anger will come and hear Mark and then channel their anger into volunteering to help ‘The Living Room’.  

John Lydon from the band ‘Public Image Limited’ once sang the line, ‘Anger is an energy’.

He’s right – it’s an energy that if used for good can achieve incredible things.

Andrew Green & Kevin Bacon

 What do Upton Vale’s Senior Pastor, Andrew Green, and Hollywood heart throb actor, Kevin Bacon, have in common?

Apart from rugged good looks it’s the theme of being connected.

Kevin Bacon has earned a small fortune from his EE mobile phone network adverts while Andrew Green has probably not earned a fortune, but none the less has been preaching on this theme as recently as last Sunday.

Revd Andrew Green

Kevin Bacon

The EE ad sees Kevin Bacon show how he’s linked to people from all over the world - from Tom Hanks to Ken Barlow in Coronation Street – and informs viewers how they can become just like him by joining a connected network. This is inspired by the six degrees of Kevin Bacon internet concept where you try to connect any actor to Kevin Bacon through six degrees, links or stages – google it, it’s great fun.

Both Andrew and Kevin agree that there is great strength to be drawn from being well connected with the people around us, Kevin suggests the best way is through EE, Andrew would prefer us to be connected through our faith in Jesus and commitment to our local church.

You don’t have to wander far in Torquay to see the dire consequences of shops ‘disconnecting’ locally: Jessops has just closed; Blockbuster and HMV are in administration; in fact if I start to list the shops that have closed in our two short years in Torquay, the list gets worryingly long.

Why are shops closing - because their sales are no longer enough to keep them open?  People prefer to shop online, ironically using networks such as EE that encourage ‘connectiveness’ (if that’s a word); yet in doing so they are disconnecting with the community around them.

Last week I bought a game from ‘Game’ on Union Street. It was great.  My son and I spent a long time looking around at the latest releases, we compared prices, we dreamed about buying new wii u’s and xbox connects. And after a chat with the sales assistant, who also signed us up for a new loyalty card, we paid for our new game and took it home.  

Our sales assistant was cheerful and friendly, he made us feel special for being in his shop; he made us feel like he really valued the money we spent there- in a way that an online sale e-mail confirmation of an order can never do.  

We connected with him and it was a good experience.

I’m sorry to admit that recently I’ve fallen into the habit of buying things online ‘for convenience’. In fact it’s frightening how much time I seem to spend with the laptop open, TV on in the background, scouring the pages of Amazon or EBay or other sites trying to find the best bargain. And while I’m doing that, I’m  not connecting  with the people in the same room as me, I’m just looking at text and pixels on a screen.  Plus when I buy things on line I have to wait days for my purchases to arrive and then inevitably have to collect them from the sorting office as I always seem to miss that split second when the goods are being delivered.

My background is retail, so I will always prefer real shops to online shops and it upsets me when I see shops closing.  I also think there are great parallels we can draw about Christians being connected with the community around them.

There’s a danger of becoming ‘Online shopper Christians’, where our faith is largely a private matter conducted in the confines of our own personal space. We access it when it suits through a media that matches our taste. 

We connect only as it helps or fits in with our lifestyle.  We even begin to question the value of regularly meeting together. Why do we need to after all?  We podcast our sermons and when appropriate can always enjoy a bit of you tube worship.

But just as shops are closing and have a detrimental effect on the surrounding high street, so our convenient Christianity can impact our church and the surrounding community.  

Belonging to a church isn’t just about attendance and it’s about more than just ‘what I can get out of it’. Church involves connecting with people; helping people and being helped.

And so just as I’d always encourage people to visit a real shop over an online one, I want to encourage people to belong to a church: your church, my church, our church, their church, any church – it doesn’t matter which one because through church you give and receive, contribute and take, serve and be served.  

It’s all about connections and being connected.

 

Next week I’ll be asking, ‘What do Martin Harris and Liam Neeson have in common?’

Liam Neeson

Martin Harris