Neighborhood

Published by the Orthodox Christian Mission Center, December 5, 2004

Touching the Neighborhood & Looking Beyond the Surface

by Lynette Hoppe, OCMC Missionary in Albania

Four years ago we moved into our present house, a simple structure just two-minutes’ walk from the cathedral and three-minutes’ walk from the church offices – an ideal location for us. After we moved in, I noticed that there were many young men who hung about in the alley not far from our door, or blared rap music from a car parked outside our gate. Neighbors in the house next door screamed at each other continuously, while their ferocious German shepherd raged at every passerby. Three elementary school boys hurled insults at us and whacked our stroller with sticks. Another group of children gleefully rang our doorbell and ran away and hid just before we answered the door. Shortly thereafter, a drunken neighbor threatened to kill Nathan.

That was the final stroke for me. “We cannot live in such a neighborhood,” I said. Nathan assured me that Albanians deal with conflict differently than us, sometimes shouting and threatening, but usually drop their quarrel quickly. We would have to learn to look beyond the surface.

We didn’t move from that house. Instead we made every effort to bring peace to the conflicts that erupted so easily around us. For example, several years ago, when we were losing our power for eight hours a day, we were given a generator and began to use it daily, sometimes up to four hours a day. The noise level of the generator (which was considerable, I must say) caused terrible conflicts with our closest neighbor – a single woman in her 50’s, whose apartment window faces out onto our courtyard.

Our neighbor, Lumi, wouldn’t confront us directly, but resorted instead to throwing things into our courtyard from her window, or setting her radio in the window and blasting out static noise. To our eyes, her behavior was irrational. At the height of our conflict, I decided to go and visit her to see if we could resolve the issue. When Lumi met me at her gate, she greeted me kindly and invited me in. Her eagerness to entertain me with what food and drink she had in the house was touching.

For more than an hour I listened to her tell about her background and family history, her loneliness, and her ongoing battles in the law courts where she is struggling to regain her family’s properties that were confiscated by the Communists. Her own cousins are opposing her bitterly in this conflict. “I come home from fighting all day in the courts where there is no justice and want peace,” she said. “But then I hear the noise of the generator, and it makes my head ache.”

“It makes my head ache too” I said, and resolved to adjust our use of the generator. Lumi then went on to tell me that she was delighted to have us as neighbors because she felt safe with us. I went home bewildered by the complete turnabout in our relationship. Lumi joined us for Christmas dinner this past December and was delightful company.

Our other neighbors who fought all the time were actually twins, a brother and sister in their sixties, who were devoted to each other. We never could figure out the quarrelling aspect of their relationship. The brother, Kosma, died suddenly and his sister, Mara, who was crippled by polio years ago and cannot walk, has been wracked by grief. It has been so painful to see her suffer as she weeps for a brother who, she says, “has gone and left me all alone.” We’ve tried to help bear her burden by having her visit to express her grief over coffee. We’ve been to her home to hear it all over again. We’ve tried to give her our love, medicines to relieve her physical pain, and food to sustain her body. She also had flooding in her kitchen every time it rained, so we replaced her window and patched the wall. Mara has become a dear friend.

One of those wild elementary school boys, Renis, has turned out to be a polite and thoughtful boy. Who would have guessed it? He comes over to visit Tristan, our six-year old. He and Tristan play well together and Tristan’s Albanian is good enough so that the two of them can communicate freely. We’re glad to have him over.

And as to those young men that just hung about; well, they still hang around but now they always greet us politely and, somehow, the music from their car stereo doesn’t seem to occur as frequently or as loudly as before. We often wonder how we can touch them with Christ’s message of love and forgiveness.

For the past few Christmases, we’ve baked cookies and distributed them to the families in our neighborhood. We’ve involved our children in the whole process of baking, decorating and distributing the cookies, thus teaching them the importance of reaching out in kindness to those around us. The power of cookies to sweeten neighborhood relationships is incredible. This year I want to include even more families in the cookie giveaway.

This past summer, we opened an outdoor theater in our courtyard so the neighborhood children could watch a film and eat popcorn with us. It was a big hit with the kids and even the adults and adolescents enjoyed dropping in. In early September we hosted a week-long Bible school program for these same kids, offering a Bible story each day, plus crafts, games and refreshments. At the conclusion we held a little festival complete with puppet show, clowns, songs, and balloons. The day after our camp concluded, the children came to ask when the next camp would be held. The camp touched not only the kids but also their parents, who now greet us warmly in the street.

It is our prayer that, through healing the conflicts and hurts in our neighborhood, we will be able to introduce our neighbors to the Prince of Peace.

Lynette Hoppe, a graphic designer, assists with Church publications, trains Albanians in graphic design, and works with the Church's summer camp programs. Nathan Hoppe, a graduate of Holy Cross School of Theology, teaches at the Resurrection of Christ Orthodox Seminary, in addition to many other varied duties. In teaching at the Seminary, Nathan is directly involved with training future leaders of the Church in Albania. They have two children, Tristan and Katherine, and grew up as "missionary kids" themselves. To help support the Hoppes, checks can be sent to the Orthodox Christian Mission Center, PO Box 4319, St. Augustine, FL, 32085-4319.

Please note “Hoppe” in the memo section. To contact the Mission Center call 1-877-GO-FORTH (463-6784) or email at missions@ocmc.org.

The Orthodox Christian Mission Center: Helping Orthodox Christians respond to Christ's call to preach, teach, baptize, minister to the poor and make disciples of all nations as the official international mission agency of SCOBA.



Volume 6 Number 49 - Tuesday, December 7th, 2004	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY