It was so wonderful to be back in Albania as well as with the other EE leaders. The time crawled by in some ways, flew by in others. I don't want to repeat what I'll share in my next newsletter, but here are some impressions after my second trip now to Albania, with a third one in the works.
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| Tirana Skyline |
As I wrote in my post in April, the country is a fascinating blend of cultures—Greek, Arabic, Balkan. Last time what impressed me was the mix of mosques and churches. On the one hand, the people are mostly secular or nominal in whatever religion they identify themselves with; on the other, there seems to be an openness based on conversations from our outreaches.
I learned a bit more this time when I got to meet our new board, which in and of itself is a huge praise! We weren't even sure we'd have a full-time worker last April, and now we have the beginning stages of a team, wow! To give some background, the Communist regime fell in 1989 during the nation's revolution, making today's believers there first-generation believers. And also opening doors to a very large harvest field.
While Christianity is accepted, the church is small. We were able to visit an evangelical church which meets in a small room Saturday evening. They'd like to be trained in EE. I imagine that most evangelical churches meet in similar locations as there are no church buildings I saw other than the large Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church, which bring in many tourists and host events. The new mosque is just as welcome as these churches, though bigger than both.
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| Greek Orthodox Church |
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| New Mosque Being Built |
It will be exciting to see what will happen by the time we return next summer. Please be praying for the new EE team in its beginning stages as they are trained and train others and especially as they share the Good News with their fellow Albanians, which is their and our heart's desires.
