Mission articles
The recent history of Albania has been bleak. At the commencement of the Second World War, missionaries began to be squeezed out. The Italians had invaded. During the war itself the German army walked through. The cruellest blow however was wielded in 1946 by the communist hammer of Enver Hoxha. The country became one the most hostile places on earth for the Christian to be. It has all left its mark.
The impression is of a state not far above the level of a third world country. There are however encouraging signs of a renewal in the infrastructure. New roads are being built that are not so vulnerable to being washed away by every storm. The electricity supply sometimes stays on all day. Most of all, the churches of Jesus Christ are at liberty.
On 11th September Trevor Baker and I crossed the northern Greek border into the once forbidden land. We were greeted with some enthusiasm by the border guards mainly due to our UK passports and then driven to Korce in a BMW – a make of car that seems to be as common in Albania as Escorts are in Britain.
The wonder at meeting Christians in this mountainous country really lay in the fact that none of the nationals could be spiritually more than 11 years old. Of course, most were a lot less than that. Here is a church elder, perhaps in his sixties but converted only in 1996. Here is a man in his early twenties who has already witnessed extraordinary blessing as a church planter and evangelist. But there are many Christians whose husband or wife is not converted - a cause of concern for the future of the churches
The missionaries by and large began to arrive eleven years ago. Some stayed put during the1997 troubles when their embassies instructed them to leave. Their role is to see churches strong and flourishing in the hands of an indigenous leadership.
I was invited to Albania to take part in a conference for pastors and church workers at Sarande, a seaside town opposite Corfu in the south west of the country. This was organised by the Albanian Evangelical Mission. However, I accompanied Trevor in his role as an encourager of the work connected to the Mission in the southern half of the country. From Korce in the south east we visited Erseka where a church has been planted with a publishing company, a conference centre and a children’s home which is expected to open soon.
On our way round to the conference we stopped off at Gjirokaster where Shaun and Jennifer Thompson have gathered a church around them including a good number of students in term time. I preached to a small group of believers on the Sunday. A bright young man translated for me and possibly commentated as well, but helpfully I was assured!
The purpose of the conference itself was to encourage preachers to consider the process of constructing a sermon. I preached through 1 Thessalonians in five sessions. I took chapter one to outline the marks of true conversion. In chapters 2 and 3 I tried to enter the mind of Paul and his experiences in being a church planter and pastor underlining his struggles that are so much like our own. We looked at Paul’s straightforward view of the Lord’s return that features in the letter. It is a subject that has suffered so much at the hands of dispensationalists over the years. My final talk was on the subject of sanctification, from chapter five. Trevor spoke three times on sermon preparation and delivery.
There was a great enthusiasm for all they heard. Interestingly the comment most expressed was that they had never heard a series of sermons on the same book.
After three days at Sarande, Trevor and I travelled north to the ancient city of Berat. There we visited a children’s home run by an Albanian couple. The next day we continued the along the dusty, winding roads to Elbason where Mike and Judy Smith are coming to the end of their time as parents to 30 orphaned children. Their heroic stand to remain during the dangerous days of 1997 became headline news in Britain at the time.
Mine was a mere glimpse of the whole picture. But remembering meeting with an American couple who have buried themselves in a mountain town and pursue a quiet but ever upward work of evangelism, church maturation and encouraging the country’s young men into leadership, lifts the spirits. The excitement of a young man who preached in a village where the occult healer confessed that he had lost his powers since the gospel had come and was a turning point in the work, still makes me smile. The brother whose faithfulness in church planting means personal sacrifice in financially restrictive circumstances is a spur to me.
What of the future? Will the materialism that is sweeping in wash over into church life as it has here? Will that rather laid back Islam assert itself? We cannot tell , but the Lord has rekindled the flame and it cannot be for nothing.
Fifty years without the gospel. Why did the Lord allow such suppression of the truth to last so long? We do not know. But it happens. We must take to heart those words in Amos 8:12 where the Lord threatens a spiritual famine in the land and says, Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it. The Lord blesses the church that does not sleep while it is still day.