October 13, 1999

A NEW ROOF was the gift of Waco volunteers to a Kosovar family whose home was nearly destroyed by Serbian aggressors.

Waco volunteers among first
repair crews in Kosovo
___By George Henson
___Staff writer
___Eight members of First Baptist Church in Waco recently returned from helping a number of Kosovar families prepare to have a warmer winter but found their hearts warmed instead.
___The eight were the first Cooperative Baptist Fellowship volunteers to go to Kosovo.
___The war-torn nation saw many homes burned and fields go unplanted this year. That is a lethal combination with the savage winter approaching. To compound the problem, many of the men are either dead or missing, and Kosovar familes typically have six to eight children.
___Baptist missionary couples Tony and Rickie Buesing and Earl and Sheila Arville told the team members that the lack of adequate food and shelter is expected to reduce the Kosovo population by as much as 40 percent over the harsh winter.
___"The devastation those people are living under--it's hard to describe. It's hard to

THIS HASTILY MADE GRAVEYARD became a resting place for victims of this summer's atrocities.

describe the inhumanity of man to man," _said team member Oscar Hoffmeyer.
___The thing that struck him most was the resilience of the Kosovar people, Hoffmeyer said. "I was impressed with their ability to bounce back. They are trying to rebuild. We added some hope, fed some people."
___Hoffmeyer and five other members of the group tried to help families at least get the roof of one room covered so there would be a way to escape the heavy snows coming this winter. The other two volunteers put together and delivered food parcels that consisted of one sack each of potatoes and onions, pasta, canned meat and vegetables, flour, cooking oil, sugar, salt and other items. Each family also was given soap, both for bathing and laundry, plastic buckets, toilet tissue and other household items.
___Books of children's Bible stories and other religious material also were offered, though not forced on the people, who primarily were Muslim. However, only one family declined to take the Christian materials.
___The food and other materials were taken to about 60 families each day. The families selected were those who were 10 to 15 miles away from town, thus keeping them from making the long walk in and back home. The team was unable to enter several villages because they were so heavily mined.
___The appreciation of the people there was overwhelming, Hoffmeyer said.
___"We needed to get out of there before we got the bighead. They were so appreciative. They attribute their freedom to the NATO bombing. They were elated. To them, we Americans are lifesavers."
___Betty Maddox, another member of the team, said working so closely with the people

HOWARD ROLF (right) uses a chainsaw to prepare lumber for use as roofing beams.

also left her with a bit of a heartache.
___"It was a very rewarding, successful trip, but it was also heart-rending as well," she said. "Every family was a story. Every family had at least one family member missing. Some families have five men missing, and up to 30 people were living in what were left of their homes."
___One day Maddox and others were looking for someone in particular to take a food parcel to. A local woman got in their truck to help them in their search, and her story particularly struck Maddox.
___"She had the clearest blue eyes. All the men in her family were missing. One son had been told by Serb soldiers he could leave, but when he got on his motorbike to do so, they shot his legs off with machine guns," Maddow related.
___She also remembered an Albanian man who asked her into the living room to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes with him. She explained through an interpreter she did not smoke, but then they began to talk.
___"He asked me about my family, and I told him I had six children and seven grandchildren. He said, 'You Albanian woman, but I not Albanian man. I have only one son.' That one son, only 18 years old, was missing, but he brought out his picture to show me."
___Maddox agreed with Hoffmeyer about the popularity of Americans.
___"Their opinion is, 'We'd rather die from NATO bombs than from the Serbs,'" she said. "They love Americans. I had my hands kissed on the streets. The children would ask us our names, and after we told them they would call out our names and say, 'Thank you, thank you.'"
___The important thing to remember, Maddox said, is that while Kosovo is open to Christians right now, that probably won't be the long-term circumstance. "After they are back on their feet, the Muslims probably won't allow it."
___Other Waco team members were Gail Pryor, Rochelle Pearce, Jay Pearce, Wayne Fergason, Howard Rolf and Chris Shepherd.
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