September 2019 update

Hello and greetings from Albania!
After two months spent in the U.S., we are settling back into our life at home. We had a great time visiting family and friends, even meeting some we hadn’t seen in over a decade! The trip saw five states, multiple cities and (probably) hundreds of faces. One of the dearest was Sean’s grandmother, turning 98 in a few months and still doing great! (We loved seeing all the wildlife too; it’s so sparse in Albania, even sighting a chipmunk made us excited!) We always want to meet more people than we do, and we always wish we had more time to spend with everybody. We should know better by know. So if we didn’t see you (or see you enough), please know we wished we could. This time, we were also making new connections and looking for churches to partner with our Korca church. We had some good conversations with old and new friends, and are hopeful for what the future holds! It’s good to be back though, and see that the church has been doing great in our absence. During the English camp called Ice and Spice, eight youth became believers and continue spending time with the church youth. Please pray that their faith will grow and they’ll remain steadfast in it! In just over a week, the school year starts, and Eva and Oliver will be off to 4th grade and 2nd grade. We are also anticipating some exciting new things happening this fall, but we will keep that a secret for now! To everybody who we got to see – thanks for making the time, and to everybody who we didn’t – thanks for reading and staying connected!  The Masons P.S. we realize we are a little bit behind the times, but we have finally created a Facebook group where you can learn more about our ministry and Albania. We hope it’ll help us stay connected even better! It can be found by searching for “Masons in Albania” or by following this link and requesting to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1002500776766113/?ref=group_browse

What do you know about Albania?!?

Dear friends and family,

I wanted to ask a favor of you. We will be coming back from Albania for some break time in the States for a portion of the summer. Primarily we will be in the State Oregon.

While we are back we are hoping to make new partnerships specifically for the church (https://www.facebook.com/kishaemanuel/) we lead here in Korce, Albania.

If you know of a church and/or individual that would be interested to learn more about the work we are involved with in Albania would you send me a message or get them in contact with me?!? (feel free to share this post as well)

Thanks & much love!

The latest (news)!

	Hello!
	Even though you haven’t heard from us for a while – we are alive and well! At times, life flows like a slow river and there’s not much to tell, other times the currents of life carry us too fast to even remember the outside world exists… In mid-September, the school year started with Eva in 3rd and Oliver in 1st grade. Oliver still misses the fun he had in kindergarten, yet he’s excelling in school. Eva started having English classes, and there’s something new even for her, as they are taught British, not American, English. Eleonora (almost 4) still mixes all three languages in one sentence, and Zigmas (17 mos), who has become quite vocal in the past few months, entertains us with his Zigmish. For quite a few years now our church has participated in Operation Christmas Child by Samaritan’s Purse. We see the shoe boxes, which perhaps many of you joyfully and prayerfully have packed full with gifts, being received by gleeful kids in Albania. This year, we had the joy of distributing 400 boxes. Although proselytizing of any religion is illegal in Albanian schools, we were invited and accepted very warmly in 3 village schools in our region, even met with thankfulness for spreading the Good Christmas News in Muslim villages. The visit that stands out the most is to a school higher in the mountains, which has 3 teachers and 11 students in total! The school building stands above the village, yet it’s future is clear – soon it will be closed and students transferred to a bigger school in a nearby village. In Albania, there are many abandoned villages, because people have moved to bigger villages or cities in the lowlands. So we get surprised to still discover communities tucked deeper in the mountains. Last year, we rented a building for gatherings in the village of Goskova, and the Korca church youth have started regular meetings there. Now our presence is more noticeable and opportunities for spreading the Gospel are greater. To celebrate Christmas, three separate events were organized – for the children, for the youth, and for the adults – all seeing the building fill up! Our church youth leader Vilson has taken on the responsibility to lead the ministry in Goskova, and has been doing it with obvious dedication. We are praying – and ask you to join us – for a team that would work in the village exclusively, so that nobody would be stretched too thin while wearing too many hats.   And now the cherry to top off the cake… You might remember that a few years back we arranged for The Jesus Storybook Bible by S. Lloyd-Jones to be translated in Albanian. Even more so, I, Vita, have always dreamt of seeing it in my mother tongue, Lithuanian. With many years of translating experience up my sleeve, I initiated the project and translated this amazing children’s Bible. The dream of 8 years came true this January, when the translation reached the bookstores. I’m extremely excited (and proud too), and have been hearing great reports from fellow Lithuanians!    Thank you for reading – and partnering with us! Sean, Vita, Eva, Oliver, Eleonora, and Zigmas Mason

Listen to a message Sean just shared at New Life Foursquare Church in Canby Oregon!

Just click this link to hear about some of the great things happening in Albania:

https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/store/8c7e56f0-eefc-4254-aab0-c9c6cc0bc9db/b01e98ea04/audio.mp4

Our latest news

  Mason 2016 August Newsletter

March 2016 Newsletter

  March 2016 Mason Newsletter by Sean Mason

She's here!

Dear loved ones! 

We are happy to announce that our little girl was born on April 8th, here in Vita's homeland, Lithuania! 

Eleonora Louise is healthy and doing very well as it Vita.  Eva & Oliver are crazy about their little sister and enjoy helping take care of her and giving her plenty of hugs and kisses! 

Our love and greetings to you! 

Sean, Vita, Eva, Oliver & Eleonora

Eva & Oliver meeting Eleornora for the first time!

Did we say they are crazy about her?!?

5 is better than 4!

Our latest news!

a recap of the last year (latest news)

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Mason Newsletter April 2014 by Sean Mason

a little late, but still our heart wish for you!

We had a wonderful CHRISTmas with Eva & Oliver as well as with our church family.  Celebrating Christmas in a nation that knew no religion (or practiced no religion) for nearly half a decade during the communist era, is always special.  This year more than before we saw fellow believers realize that Christmas is truly a bigger celebration than New Year's (the largest for most here).  Without Jesus we would not have a new year!

May 2014 be a year of deeper understanding of Jesus' love for you!

Perfection or Honesty You Cannot Buy

We have two kids – a girl and a boy. So in the eyes of many we have reached the perfection, and should stop having children. When I was pregnant with Eva, everybody wished me a boy. When I was expecting Oliver – everybody still wished a boy. To attain the perfect duo, I suppose. And here we are – raising both a girl and a boy. Now, Albanians love sharing their opinions; with friends and strangers alike. So I should really stop getting surprised when some grandma on our first encounter honestly advises, “Be careful now. Don’t make more babies.” I love to tease them by expressing my liking of big families. In response they shake their heads with a confident, “Two is enough.” And maybe they are right, after all. If we had a third child and brought our perfect status quo to an end, there’d be no way back.

What Is Your Address?

Our address is boring; street name (Pandeli Cale was one of the signers of Albania's Declaration of Independence in 1912) and house number. Yet apart from the post office, barely anyone knows it. Street name signs reappeared throughout Albania only last year. So no wonder we had earlier rented a house "at Piro's square accross from the professor's" (Piro was a certain dissident, executed right there by the communism regime, thus the unofficial name, and the professor is still living there).

The other day I was browsing through an advertisement paper and amusing myself reading the addresses of some major appliances' stores throughout the country. A few of my favorites read: "Main avenue, "Xhevdet Neprevishta" neighbourhood" (in Lushnje), or in Elbasan: "Qemal Stafa" str., apartment building next to the former military base." (Mind you, these are large cities.) More often than not an address is "somewhere close to something former." So learning an address for a newcomer like me the enlightenment is double: I learn both where a certain store, office etc. is and, for instance, where a flour factory used to be.

With the advent of democracy in 1990, city planning in Albania went off the hook. Years later (some) illegally built structures were demolished, and some cities regained their shapes, yet others (like the capital Tirana) remain a maze.

The street name signs are in place, but if you want to find us in Korca, forget our address. You'll have more luck looking straight above the cinema (former cinema, to be more accurate), just below the water depot, and behind a tall green house. Alternatively, ask where a known writer Vangjush Ziko used to live or mention our neighbour's from across the street name.

April 2013 Newsletter!

  Mason April 2013 Newsletter by Sean Mason

our latest news! (year-end 2012)

the 4 of us!

it's a boy!

it's our pleasure to introduce to you the newest member of our the Mason family

Oliver Kostas, born February 11, 2012 in Vilnius, Lithuania:

4.1kg, 54cm

Eva meeting her brother for the first time!

Eva is smitten with her brother!

soon, very soon!

we are in Lithuania (Vita's homeland) counting down the days until baby #2 is born.  within the next week or two, we should be welcoming our newest son or daughter to our side of the world!  we will keep you posted...

November 2011 Newsletter

(click on each of the page images for a readable size)

The Concept of Queuing

It’s been three years since I, Vita, moved to Albania, and still every time before making a trip to the post office or to pay bills I must make a resolution not to educate people on waiting in queue. As I am often taking Eva with me, being with a huge stroller I stand at a respective (in the eyes of a north-European) distance. More often than not people think that I am just lingering there for the fun of it…

Recently, as I’ve complained to a lady about jumping the line in front of me, she apologized explaining, “I thought men were waiting on the right, and the women on the left.” (Whereas I was lost somewhere in between.) How strange, thought I, and quickly started recollecting my recent queuing experiences. To my surprise, in most cases I could picture men crowding on one side, and women – on the other. Could it be yet another sign of Muslim-rooted gender separation? I inquired a friend of this phenomenon. And yes indeed, she confirmed that during the communist times women and men would form two separate queues. And at that time there was a lot of waiting in lines.

Now who would have thought that there is some logic in the absence of a queue (despite the wide-spread queue jumping)!

May Newsletter 2011

please click on each page to view them in a readable size!