September 1, 2014
Dear Special Friends ,
Albania – During the times of Communism this country was known as one of the most ‘atheistic’ countries in the world. Being a Christian generally meant persecution or prison.
Since the fall of Communism in 1991 many churches have sprung up in the major cities of towns of this nation of more than 3 million people.
Historically Albania has a strong Muslim history. So most people even today would call themselves Muslim. In fact statistics say about 75% of the population claim to be Muslim. But few go to a mosque or follow this religion.
We began to help start churches in Albania in 2001 in the capital city of Tirana. Tirana at that time was a city of more than a million people with less than 20 Christian churches in it.
Since that time in 2001 when we helped to start that first church in Albania we have seen nine more churches started in there.
That first church was started by a young couple who had come to Christ in the 1990’s. Hervin was a Muslim that gave his life to Christ in 1993. He ended up going to Bible School in Germany then returned to Albania in 2001 to start a church. We were so thrilled to help him start this church. Hervin and Sedika (his wife) have since become great friends and we have been to visit them many times. Even this year we are looking to help Hervin start another church in an area of Tirana that has no church in it.
Hervin is just one of more than twenty key leaders that we work with throughout the countries of Eastern Europe from Poland to the far north to Bulgaria, and Albania in the south.
Since 1999 we have seen over 230 churches started here. You have helped to make this happen. Even this year we will see at least another fifteen churches started. Many of these have already started this year.
We continue to invest $4,000 in each of these new churches. We never ceased to be amazed by the impact these churches are making upon their towns and cities.
Serving Him in Budapest,
Jim and Brenda