THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411110335
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 139 lines
ON A SPRAWLING, 160-acre farm dotted with horses, flower gardens and berry patches, James and Mary Bergey have lived a happy, simple life.
They've raised seven children and a few hundred calves, operating a successful dairy and leading tours of their farm to a constant flow of visitors.
But now they've given it all up to move to Albania for a year.
The Bergeys, Chesapeake natives and owners of Bergey's Dairy on Mount Pleasant Road, left the country earlier this month to embark on a yearlong mission for the Mennonite Church to Albania, a small, mountainous country in the Balkan peninsula of southeastern Europe.
During the mission, the Bergeys will assist the Albanians as they grapple with their country's conversion from communist rule. They'll offer their expertise to the country's dairy industry and establish a new Mennonite church there.
``We're going to help them celebrate their first Christmas,'' said Mary Bergey, who will be the church's Sunday school teacher for music and ministry.
On Nov. 3, their last day in Chesapeake, the couple sat around their kitchen table, anticipating their departure and describing what they remembered of a recent four-month Albanian mission with a group called Volunteers for Overseas Cooperative Assistance.
``There's a lot of hospitality,'' Mary Bergey said of Albanian culture. ``They greet you at the door with a kiss on each cheek. They take off their shoes when they go in their houses, and they always offer you strong espresso coffee with something sweet to eat.''
But, until recently, all forms of religion were outlawed in Albania, the couple explained. From World War II until 1985, the small country, which borders Yugoslavia, was ruled by one of history's most ruthless Stalinist dictators, Enver Hoxha.
Like other Eastern European countries, an ever-worsening economic situation pushed Hoxha's successor into introducing reforms, which eventually led to the fall of communism in Albania, according to a pamphlet published by the Virginia Board of Missions.
``Now that the doors have finally opened, the scale of repression is all too evident,'' one missionary wrote in a newsletter about the Albanian mission. ``Tens of thousands are on the verge of starvation. Hospitals are lacking basic equipment. The economic infrastructure of the entire country is totally destroyed. Many homeless and penniless families are emerging from prison and labor camps, where they have been locked away for as long as 47 years.''
From their cozy four-bedroom Chesapeake home, the couple described the small third-floor apartment, with no running water in the kitchen, that will be their home in Lezhe, Albania.
``It is the only place where I've seen Catholics, Baptists, Mennonites and all the groups working together,'' James Bergey said.
The Bergeys said they were prepared to bring with them bottles of medicine and aspirin, commodities commonly requested by missionaries already there.
Although life in Albania is austere by American standards, it bears some similarities to the Bergeys' simple Mennonite lifestyle.
``As we go along, we just get what we need,'' said Mary Bergey, 66.
Bergey's Dairy is well-known throughout Hampton Roads as one of only two area dairies that still deliver milk to customers' doorsteps in glass bottles.
When James Bergey's father, Titus Bergey, started the dairy farm in 1931, he had one cow and one mule. The milking was done by hand until 1941.
Today, the Bergeys own 115 cows and make 1,500 home deliveries each week to residents of Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Norfolk. The popular Bergey's Dairy Country Store was built in 1978. Now there are two stores - one on North Battlefield Boulevard in Chespeake and another on Landstown Road in Virginia Beach.
``We had home delivery then, but more and more people came out here so we thought we might build one,'' James Bergey said.
As the family grew, the farm grew, said Mary Bergey. The couple would improve the farm by adding things that their seven children would enjoy, such as planting corn, strawberries and cotton. The children would suggest ideas of their own as well.
Now with the couple's children all grown, the farm's activities draw not only the grandchildren's attention but the affection of children from across Hampton Roads.
``It's an open farm. There are people out here all the time,'' James Bergey said.
In addition to the 5,000 school children who visit the farm each year in groups from as far as Williamsburg, people come all the time to stroll around as if it were a park. They come to see Princess and Petunia, the farm's two Belgian horses, who pull hayrides across the road to the pumpkin patch. They come and swat flies away from their faces as they wave to the cows that mill about, feed the calves at 4 p.m., see chickens waddle freely about or watch the goat munch on peanut shucks.
A tour of the dairy, the only one in Virginia that sees milk from the cow to the bottle, can show you how butter and ice cream are made, how milk is pasteurized and even how it is turned into chocolate shakes.
``In Albania, there's no cooling of the milk and no pasteurization of the milk. The milk they drink comes straight from the cow,'' James Bergey said. ``They need a good, safe supply of milk.''
The Bergeys, who left their Chesapeake dairy under the management of their sons, Floyd and Leonard, dream of opening a dairy in Albania. During his last visit, James Bergey said he began talks with banks and agricultural reform groups overseas.
``When communism fell, everything fell apart. Everyone took a cow. They even took the roofs off some dairies,'' he said. ``Under communism, it was so strict that if you went to the store looking for potatoes and didn't see any, and you said, `What? You have no potatoes?' you could be put in jail.''
Missionaries familiar with the homemade cookies, pastries and cinnamon rolls that Mary Bergey bakes and sells in the farm's country store, have urged her to open a bakery in Albania.
She rolls her eyes, thinking all of the raw ingredients she would have to bring with her to the country, where such treats are rare. ``There's yeast and spices, and they don't even have brown sugar!'' she said.
But the Albanians would enjoy it, she said. So maybe she will. ILLUSTRATION: Photos on cover by L. Todd Spencer
Albania is austere by American standards, but it bears similarities
to the simple Mennonite lifestyle that James and Mary Bergey
uphold.
Josiah Nicely, 15, pets one of 115 cows...
Photos by L. TODD SPENCER
Bergey's is the only dairy in Virginia that sees milk from the cow
to the bottle.
Alexi Skye VanKevich is one of about 5,000 children who visit the
Bergey farm each year. A favorite event is the 4 p.m. feeding of the
calves.
Leonard Bergey and his brother Floyd will manage the dairy while
their parents are in Albania .
Princess and Petunia, the farm's two Belgian horses, pull the
hayrides that are so popular with visitors touring the dairy.
by CNB