When Linda Ann Smith first considered accompanying a friend on a mission trip to Albania in 1996, she didn’t even know where the country was located. Now, more than ten years later, she reserves a special place in her heart for the people she met and the places she visited on that unforgettable journey.

This heartening personal memoir honors the transformative spiritual experiences of Smith and her five companions in one of the world’s poorest countries. Chronicling the volunteer boot campers’ mission to visit and help friends who had established a program to feed the children in the isolated village of Rodokal, Albania, The Gift of Walnuts is a powerful story of friendship and love.

Smith shares both the glories and the challenges of being a missionary in a former communist country, and she reflects especially warmly on the children of Rodokal, who were overpowering in their simple joys and genuine loves. And Smith includes nearly fifty pictures of the beautiful faces and places of Albania.

The Gift of Walnuts not only provides insight into the culture and living conditions in southern Albania in 1996, but shows how a formerly closed communist country opened one woman’s eyes to a fresh worldview and her heart to a faith and love she’d never known before.

When Linda Ann Smith first considered accompanying a friend on a mission trip to Albania in 1996, she didn't even know where the country was located. Now, more than ten years later, she reserves a special place in her heart for the people she met and the places she visited on that unforgettable journey.

This heartening personal memoir honors the transformative spiritual experiences of Smith and her five companions in one of the world's poorest countries. Chronicling the volunteer boot campers' mission to visit and help friends who had established a program to feed the children in the isolated village of Rodokal, Albania, "The Gift of Walnuts" is a powerful story of friendship and love.

Smith shares both the glories and the challenges of being a missionary in a former communist country, and she reflects especially warmly on the children of Rodokal, who were overpowering in their simple joys and genuine loves. And Smith includes nearly fifty pictures of the beautiful faces and places of Albania.

"The Gift of Walnuts" not only provides insight into the culture and living conditions in southern Albania in 1996, but shows how a formerly closed communist country opened one woman's eyes to a fresh worldview and her heart to a faith and love she'd never known before.