ECIKS - News and analysis about Kosovo Economy in English

ECIKS - News and analysis about Kosovo Economy in English.

 Prishtinë, June 29, 2006 - The South Eastern Europe Transport Observatory (SEETO) will allocate € 154 million to Kosovo. Shefki Ukaj, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunication (MTT) said that €120 million would be used for the construction of the Pristina-Durrës highway, while the rest for upgrading Pristina International Airport (PIA).

This is good news.  Having traveled through all of the former Yugoslave states, I’m always amazed at how under-developed the infrastructure of Kosovo seems to be.  I hope ever cent of this project money goes where it’s intended.

Vacation in Bulgaria P. II

*** Why I’m writing this: I’m writing this short little series to give you a window into the awesome blessing of a life of service.  When people think of a “missionary” sometimes they think of people serving diligently, under harsh conditions, dutifully suffering for their Master.  And that is true…sometimes life is like that.  But other times we are privileged to experience the unimaginable richness of life that comes from a life of stumbling obedience.  That is what I want to share with you in this little vacation chronicle.  I want you not to think of missionary life as foot-dragging resignation of life lived in difficulty, nor as a life of leisure in exotic locals, but rather of a life of beauty and ugliness, pain and pleasure, awesome contrasts which make missionary life a dance.***

We took off from Bansko this morning at about 9:30 with Patrick, Julie and clans…only an hour and a half past our goal.  Not too back for a Balkan vacation.  We’re ultimately heading for the city of Nessabar today, but we’d be having lunch in Plovdiv, a town about a two-hour drive from Bansko.  And off we went through the twisty, two-lane mountain road. 

We drove through many, many little Bulgarian towns and villages on the way.  Some seemed quite modern, others were typified by old women in heads carves pitching hay, horse drawn carts and fairy-tale scenery.  Plovdiv is picturesque little town that is apparently home to the oldest human settlement in the Balkans.  It’s also home to an old Roman amphitheater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These places always kind of pole-axe me.  When I think of all the feet that have trod the stairs and bodies that have filled places like these I’m always touched by a profound sense of our “recentness.”  That is,Western culture such as it exists now is so very, very new.  This theater above was built in the early second century AD, during the reign of Emporer Trajan and is still used today for theater productions.  That is, it is about nine-hundred years old and still serves its original  purpose today. 

And while Plovdiv is home to the very old, it is also home to the new.  All the traffic lights in the town, whether on the main streets or back alleys, have count-down timers to let you know how much time remains until the light changes.  I love this feature! 

Being around old stuff like this always challenges me with this simple question: How can I make a “ten-thousand year” difference in how my life is spent.  I get that line from the old hymn, Amazing Grace which says:

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun

we’ll have no less days to sing his praise than when we’ve first begun.

As a Christian I believe that I will live on and that ten thousand years from now the way I have lived my life will matter.  I wrestle every day to live up to that challenge.  The great thing about the challenge is that your life circumstances are irrelevant.  From the poorest slave-laborer to the designer of the theater above, each person played a part in its construction.  It wasn’t a highly paid official who cut the stone steps above; it was a lower-middle class stone cutter.  But his work remains.  The same is true for us.  Whether we are an unemployed executive, a stay-at-home mom, a recovering alcoholic or a preacher each of us has the opportunity to affect the people around us in ways that are eternal.  I love the Gospel for this…for the hope that it gives all people at all times for significance that lasts the tests of time.

Vacation in Bulgaria P. I

*** Why I’m writing this: I’m writing this short little series to give you a window into the awesome blessing of a life of service.  When people think of a “missionary” sometimes they think of people serving diligently, under harsh conditions, dutifully suffering for their Master.  And that is true…sometimes life is like that.  But other times we are privileged to experience the unimaginable richness of life that comes from a life of stumbling obedience.  That is what I want to share with you in this little vacation chronicle.  I want you not to think of missionary life as foot-dragging resignation of life lived in difficulty, nor as a life of leisure in exotic locals, but rather of a life of beauty and ugliness, pain and pleasure, awesome contrasts which make missionary life a dance.***

 

Missionaries don’t often get to talk about the great vacations they get to take.  Oh, it’s not because we make a lot of money…far from it.  But we tend to live close to interesting places and many of those places are really, really inexpensive.

Before we head home for our one-year “home assignment” next month, before the “big push” of a final short-term team, final packing, etc., we thought we take a week of vacation .  So we’re taking some time away this week with some good friends, Julie and Patrick and their two kids Koen and Kacja at the Bulgaria coast o the Black Sea.  Since we’re not in a rush we’d make the trip in a couple of days, spending two nights in a favorite haunt, Bansko, Bulgaria.

We’ve been there several times and enjoyed the hosptality of the Hotel Tanne.  The hotel is one many, many in this burgeoning little ski town.  Actually, some colleagues stayed here at our recommendation a couple of weeks ago and didn’t like it because of all the construction traffic and noise…something I’d have to agree with during this stay.  But it was still well worth it.  We got in a little late, about 8PM but completely enjoyed the following day.  The best part about the hotel, besides its location, is the price.  We booked a two-room apartment for $70, which included breakfast and the use of their indoor pool and health-center (sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, weight room, etc).

The last two times we’ve stayed in Bansko, we’ve taken a day trip up to the Rila Monestary (my Flickr pics), which is a beautiful tenth century Orthodox monastery.  This time, however, we just contented ourselves with a hike in the mountains.  We actually laughed a little because we were enjoying the hike without any concern for landmines.  While we don’t have many, if any, landmines in our part of Kosovo, it’s still a regular consideration when hiking in the mountains.  But not so in Bulgaria.  War has not come here recently.  After a long hike we headed back for the hotel for lunch and a rest.

Our kids love this hotel, with it’s beautiful walled garden, complete with running gazebo, greenery and land gnomes, or as my daughter calls them, “Orves.”

Good hike, good time laughing and playing with the kids.  What more can you ask for? 

Law on Religion Entering its final phase

I’ve mentioned the new Law on Religion several times over the past couple of years.  The Contact Group (USA, Germany, Russia, Italy, France and England)  have made July 1 the deadline for the Kosovar parliament to approve the new law.  The original law, was pretty decent…not great, but decent.

Today Norways’s Forum 18 picked up the news

Amid pressure from the international community to adopt a religion law ahead of talks on Kosovo's final status, changes continue to be made to drafts of the Law Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Discussion of the Prime Minister's draft and two other drafts has been postponed until Wednesday 21 June, when they will be considered as amendments. "I am concerned that there are so many changes each time," Artur Krasniqi, a Protestant representing a coalition of Protestant Churches, told Forum 18. "We fear there will be pressure to insert new discriminatory provisions on registration." Alfons Lentze, a legal advisor to the Assembly, told Forum 18 that "This has been a very difficult issue. We want to see a religious freedom law as soon as possible in accordance with the Plan on Standards."

The problem is that the law being proposed is changing rapidly.  First there were secret meetings in Vienna, to which the protestant community was not invited.  Now the current lasw is not being publically disimenated and there is little likelyhood that the public will actually see the draft-law’s language before it’s actually signed into law.

There are additional concerns as well.  The dominant faith community is apparently pressing for more changes.  According to someone I know close to the process, those requests include:

• Religion in public schools
• Imams to be paid by government
• Property to be free for mosques
• To have strong ties between state and religion
• The right to promote religion in public institutions
• Special criminal trial concerning religious ministers

We’re all looking for justice and equality here.  Please be praying for that.

Decision on Kosovo’s Status to Be Announced November 15th

According to “Focus English News,” a Bulgarian outlet, the future status of Kosovo will be announced on November 15th, 2006.

     Belgrade. The international community reached an agreement the decision on Kosovo’s final status to be announced at the UN Security Council session on November 15th 2006, Serbian newspaper Glas Javnosti reads today citing diplomatic source.
     According to the source it is very possible Kosovo not to receive full independence on November 15th but everything will be formulated in such a way so that in fact the Balkan country will be independent, the newspaper notes.

I haven’t seen this reported in the local news this morning, or in other international news, but I’ll post more as it develops.  That date would be well after Ramadan and well into the cold winter months, which would make lengthy protests unlikely.

Oh, for the difference a preposition makes

I’d seen this story in the different paper so I knew what the headline meant, but this is what I saw this morning:

What is missing is the “at.”  That is, “Two British tourists shot at in Kosovo”  It seems a couple of brits were wandering around western Kosovo in a car with Belgrade license plates on it.  Their car got shot at, but they were unhurt.

I too “condemn” the shooting, but somewhere there is a friend or tour guide that needs a good thrashing.  They sent these two out into the wild country with a big sign saying, “Shoot me first” plastered across their car.   Dumb.

It’s the little things in life that make the difference…like a missing preposition or the wrong license plate in the wrong place.

 

Doing it their way

Sometimes it’s challenging being an American.  We’re almost hard-wired to think we know the best way to do everything.

In a couple of weeks we’re going to  have some visitors, a group of 15 high-school students and their adult leaders.  While here they’re going to be doing a children’s program, an high-school cultural exchange thing and they’re going to be serving the community by helping to clean a stretch of trash-filled river.

I’ve never cleaned a river in my life, and I’ve never been a professional trash-picker-upper…but I’ve seen a lot of them on TV and hence my confidence about what kind of tools are necessary.  And so I issued forth instructions to my faithful friend and co-worker, Kadir, a very faithful, but very poor man from a village near-by.

I explained to Kadir exactly what I wanted…the classic wooden stick with a nail on one end whereby trash may be spike and bagged without bending over.  Kadir looked around town, but couldn’t find anything.  He suggested he find some re-bar, cut it to length and bend a hook on one end.  Then he’d put some hose over the hook to protect the sensitive American hands and grind a sharp point on the other end for the easy impalement of garbage.

I was skeptical about this design.  Re-bar?  A hook on one end?  But, after some thought I leaned back on my instincts and thought to myself, “I’ve delegated the job to him, he knows what we’re trying to do…let him do it his way.”

I’m really glad I did.  As he cranked out 15 of these pieces it occurred to me that the design is simple genius.  We’re going to be working in a river bank.  A hook is going to be perfect, not only as an aid to climbing in and out of said river, but also for grabbing trash, tires and junk just out of reach.

I’m a little embarrassed that I was resistant…and am glad I let him do it his way.  Quite often I discover that my national co-workers know far better than I do exactly what will work and what won’t. 

 

Orthodox Pentacost Celebrated in Graçanica

While on our way to Church in Prishtina Sunday we passed throught the Serbian town of Graçanica.  As we drove through we were stopped by large procession bearing banners, icons, flowers and happy looking people.  We didn’t know what it was at the time.  Unforunately, unlike our colleagues in the Slavic countries, we have little interaction with the Serbian Orthodox minority in Kosovo.

It turned out last Sunday was Orthodox Pentacost and these happy worshippers where on their way to the 14th Century church and monestary that is the focal point of the city.

Congratulations and God bless!

Second Founding Meeting of the Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church

Today I spent several hours at the founding meeting of to Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church. For several years the national evangelical believers have attempted to come together and form a national church organization. All of these attempts have largely failed for one reason or another. Everyone here has felt a keen sense of failure to live up to the biblical ideals of unity.  But today was different.

Today’s meeting was encouraging because after a couple of years of wrestling and significant attempts at reconciliation, we ratified statutes and by-laws for it new organization. Twenty-eight Evangelical churches and organizations gathered in Prishtina today.

We’re all hoping that a new day is dawning for the Protestant Community in Kosovo.  Today was a major step in that direction.  As far as I know, never before have as many evangelical, both national and international, come together with the same vision and hope for unified national church effort.

 

God working among Albanian Muslims in Macedonia

My good friend David posts up a great story about how God used our Macedonian national church partner to free a young Muslim Albanian from spiritual bondage.  Check it out here.  God is sovereign over his creation, he’s still powerful, he still responds to the prayers of his people.  Praise God that the walls of ethnic hostility are falling…so great is the love of God on one side, so great is the desperation on another.