| World Evangelization involves two groups of people; the goers and the senders. The Bible makes this crystal clear. "How Shall they preach except they be sent?" (Romans 10:15). To suggest that everyone ought to be a missionary on the foreign field is just as misguided as to say everyone should be in the army and be sent overseas during a war. We as soldiers of the Cross on the mission field cannot operate without faithful support from you the Soldiers of the Cross on the home front. God is blessing the united efforts of His people with dramatic increases throughout the world. |
| How we came to be missionaries in Albania. |
| Celebrating Christmas in Burgas Bugaria we hit the road on the 26th. boxing day. On December 27th.1993 as a family the four of us drove into Albania through the southern road connecting Albania & Greece in a borrowed truck containing everything we owned! As we crossed the border from Greece into Albania we drove off the blacktop road and onto a dirt road. We had absolutely no concept what Albania was like and now we were there. We soon learned that after nearly 50 years of a brutal communist dictator Albania was now FREE and poor, the poorest nation in all Europe. We went to work with Victory Christian Center and taught in their Bible school there in Tirana Albania. In May of 94 one of the translators at the Bible school started a church and asked us to join him in that work, so for about 4 1/2 years we served with Pastor Hervin in discipleship and the planting of 3 different churches 1 in Tirana, 1 in a village named Vora and 1 in a village named Marikay. At that begining of the Church Hervin was the first and only Albanian national pastor since the fall of communisim. In 1995 we began the DOHI pastors sponsorship program, Pastor Hervin was the first Albanian pastor in the program, and as the years have passed buy we have see the number grow to four. The dollar amount is small but it can really help out, so as a pastor can concentrate on his pastoral duties.. On March 9th. 1997 we left Albania for Thessoloniki Greece with friends on what was planned to be a two week holiday, however on our arrival in Thessoloniki we found that chaos reigned in Albania and the borders and airport had been closed. Albania experienced what as been explained as a coup, sending the entire nation into a tailspin of anarchy and senseless violence. The American and all other western embassies evacuated their nationals to a ship in the Adriatic sea. The Anarchy lasted for close to three months. During which time over 1000 people were killed by stray bullets. Praise God not one missionary lost their life in the senseless violence, and only a very small amount recieved minor injuries. During this time we went to Edinburg Scotland and helped in Christian Centre Ministries Church and their Christian ACE school. We spent a total of 10 weeks there and on June 5th. we left Scotland in a small Russian made Lada compact car headed for Albania. About 1500 miles and three days later we drove off the fairy boat from Italy into a very different Albania. Throughout all this time we were teaching the Word of God, basic hygiene, and living & working intensive Christian discipleship. We have been blessed to work with a wonderful group of young men and women, helping them to grow strong in their faith. In the spring of 1998 more and more ethnic Albanian refugees began to come into Albania from Kosovo. Over the previous 4 years we had developed a working relationship with Door of Hope International and even became their representatives there in Albania. So as Global attention began to focus on the plight of the refugees we channeled DOHI money to help clothe and feed them. As spring 1999 came the flood of refugees into Albania rose to over 4000 and hour, for more than three solid weeks. |
| HOME - ALBANIA PHOTOS - KOSOVO PHOTOS - BULGARIA PHOTOS - STREET KIDS - WHAT WE BELIEVE - WHY MISSIONS -NEWSLETTERS - THANKS - FRONT LINE WARFARE |
 |
|
