Diary of the journey in Germany After having put it off for several times, finally on May 10, 2001, we left directly to Germany to visit the brethren of the local apostolic churches there, who have invited us so longingly to get to know us personally and to get fresh news about the mission in Albania. We had many slides with us, which we showed during the missionary services that were organised in all the communities, to better explain the work done so far. Linda, our indispensable help, was also with us this time. She can speak German, besides English and Italian, and she had been interpreting tirelessly all our talks. The first church to visit for us was that of Berlin, lead by pastor Klaus Schiemann. Besides the beautiful moments in the community with our brethren in the church, we had also the possibility to visit the town and its notorious wall. And this was thanks to Klaus that became our cicerone during all the time. Immediately after that, we left for Uelzen, where there is a prosperous community lead by two pastors, one of whom, Carsten, the son of Klaus. There we were guests in the house of a doctors couple, who we already knew as they co work with MNA (an organisation similar to Doctors Without Borders that is working in Pogradec) So, they have been to Albania several times to bring medicine as well as their experience here. We stayed there for two days, and after going round as tourists and "emptying" the town's shops, we left to Flensburg, a beautiful town close to Danmark. Taking the chance that we were so near to Kolding, we arranged it with Stefania to meet there. She came, together with two Italian boys that are attending the school there, Andrea Basile and Carmine Pizzigallo. The pastor Dieter Poppe, leader of the church was so kind to let us use his home for that meeting. However that meant for him having "to stand" for a whole afternoon the Italian "invasion". We had the missionary meeting that evening and the next morning we left to Hamburg. One of the church's co-worker there was Irmgard Bierwisch, the missionary secretary of the churches in Germany. We often write to her but we had never meet before. We are happy to have had the possibility to get to know her personally. There we also met our Emil Fode, the brother that has came to Albania several times and who had been a guest at our home. Our last but not least pleasant trip was to the town of Mullheim, where Pastor Emanuel Enke and his wife Karla live. Even though they live far away from the towns where there are apostolic churches, we couldn't have left Germany before meeting him. We spend two quiet days together with them, which confirmed to us how much they love the mission and the people of the villages where they have worked. But, the thing that impressed us the most with our apostolic brethren in Germany is that, even though they are not many, they still are very involved in the mission. They do not follow just Albania but they are also engaged in Spain, Romania and Hungary. Together with Linda we want to take the chance to thank them once more for their magnificent hospitality that made us feel at home, as well as for their offerings. We said goodbye with the promise that they will come to visit us next year, and we are already looking forward to that. May the Lord continue to bless greatly His church in Germany and touch the hearts of many young people in that nation. Immediately after we returned to Albania we didn't even have time to rest from the 7000 km on the van, because we had to quickly move the house. But this was not very hard on us, because the house we have moved to, whose owner is Ardi's father, our co-worker, is literally wonderful and big enough to host just in case you want to pay us a little visit. The last notice is that regarding the still unstable situation in Macedonia. So we would like to ask to pray for this nation as well as for the whole Balkans and do not forget to pray for the work in the villages and the town of Pogradec in Albania. Our new mail address is: Sandro e Luciana Sardella Qendra Nehemia Pogradec (Albania) e-mail apostolike@aep.org.al Lord Jesus bless you,

for "Chiesa Apostolica in Italia" - "Fondo Missionario" - Via del Commendone, 35/ab - 58100 Grosseto

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The Apostolic Church in Albania is member of the Albanian Evangelical Alliance, and Foundation