On Tuesday I was taken by Mirco who leads the work here in Macedonia to a town called Kumanovo about an hour's drive away. He had an important meeting with a young man called Pastor Saso and he wanted me to meet him too.

Pastor Saso has a church in the town and a congregation of about 40 - 50 people (the first pictures are of them inside and outside the church).




However they have embarked on a building project to build a new church, which will hold up to 250 people, in another part of the town where new houses are being built. Some of the building is being done by voluntary labour. In September a trench collapsed and two men were killed. The police arrived and arrested Pastor Saso and another Christian who was the site engineer and imprisoned them Pastor Saso has been released on bail but both men are charged with manslaughter. We visited the building site and saw what had happened. As well as the deaths of two men and the criminal charges hanging over the other two, relatives of the deceased are claiming compensation from the church, the builder now says the site is "cursed" and has stopped work and the local residents are demanding that the church pays extra to get another builder in to repair damage done to the site during the rescue.


When the three of us arrived at the site a small group of people gathered around us and there was a fairly excited conversation in Macedonian which I didn't understand. Eventually Mirco appeared to have placated them and we went into their houses for more (Turkish) coffee. He told me afterwards that he had offered them another 1500 euros as compensation for the damage. he doesn't want bad feeling between the residents and the church before it's even built! Of course, now he has to find 1500 euros! Such is Christian work in Macedonia.