Today while travelling in the van taking out aid to poor families in the outlying parts of Gkakove I was able to chat with one of the local pastors, Pastor Faton. He leads a church in Gjakove and works closely with SMILE. During the war the women and girls in his family fled to Albania to escape the marauding Serbs. He and his brothers fled to the mountains for safety, hiding in burnt-out and deserted homes and getting food wherever they could, eating only every other day. One evening Faton read a verse in his Bible promising that even if an army surrounded they would not be harmed. The next morning in the house where they were taking refuge, they were awoken by Serb militia brandishing machine guns and told to get up and go with them. They asked if they should put their shoes on but were told that they would not need them! They were lined up against a wall, and the machine gun magazines were loaded in front of them. The wagon which collected dead bodies drew up outside the house. As they stood against the wall Faton's brothers began to cry, but Faton was reminded of the verse which the Lord had given him the previous evening. At that moment the soldiers were distracted, perhaps by some passing UN soldiers, and Faton and his brothers were able to run for their lives. He knows that God preserved them from death, and testifies to the power of God's promise and protection. We are truly humbled by stories such as this.

Ian