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Matt 28:18-20
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
NIV
John 20:10-16
10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside
the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and
saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the
head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they
have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,
but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him
away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means
Teacher).
NIV
Learn More
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Bledar Valca
Rruga Maliq Muca, Nr 37
Tirana, Albania
E-mail: bvalca@yahoo.com or
bvalca@kishaekrishtit.com
Tel: + 355 42 228099
Cel: + 355 69 40 96622
Erik Qirjaqi
WEI Director
Tirana, Albania
Europe
cell: 069-2077079 (15 Aug 04)
Website
www.kishaekrishtit.com
http://www.kishaekrishtit.blogspot.com/ WORLD
ENGLISH INSTITUTE
Rr. Maliq Muca
Nr. 37
Tirana, Albania
Phone local: 228-099
Phone: 355-42-280-99
WEITIRANA@albmail.com
Secretary: Sadete Hoxha
9 - 5 o'clock
Tirana = PST + 9 hr
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The church in Tirana grows consistently by teaching Bible to
students who are at first interested in English. Quickly, the student's
interest turns to the Bible. WEI's school in Tirana, managed by
Erik, provides a place for teaching daily. The future of the church in
Tirana looks bright. Older family members are now increasing in numbers.
Erik Qirjaqi,
the director of WEI's school in Tirana, and his colleagues report their
work in Tirana here.
The long term missionary from
America is Ellen Walker.
For some time, Artan and Rumira
Xhaferi served as one of the Albanian leaders. Bledar Valca served Tirana
and Elbasan while doing his studies with IBIA school of preaching there.
Bledar is now in Tirana full time. Artan is in America.
Ellen Walker
Maliq Muça, 37
Tirana, Albania
Phone: 0355-426-2741
Cell: 069-20-77087
lnwalker@albaniaonline.net
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July-Aug 2009
Sept-Oct 2009
Nov-Dec 2009
Jan-Feb 2010
Mar-Apr 2010
May-Jun 2010
Ellen's report
April 2010
Archive
PHOTOS
Photo Gallery
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BLEDAR VALCA’S ACTIVITY REPORT
JULY –AUGUST 2009
To the Maryville Church Family
Greetings of love in the precious and wonderful name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We thank God for your partnership in the gospel and for enabling
us to do this work. Your prayers, words of encouragement and financial
support provide for us what we need to move on.
Back in the track
This is a lovely return to the work of ministry. Having worked for the
Albanian government and an international organization now I am back to
what many people coin as “full-time ministry.” This is certainly a
misunderstanding of ministry in the first place. If ministry is our
service to God, and we are to serve Him always then everything we do is
full-time ministry. The language betrays us when we use this term because
we seem to be compartmentalizing our time between service to God and
secular things (such as work, school, entertainment, etc). The Bible calls
us to offer our entire lives as “living sacrifices to God”, and calls this
“our spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1).
During this couple of years I have done my best to model Christ-like walk,
preach, teach, evangelize, follow up, and encourage Christians to service.
However, this has been with much expense to my personal and family time. I
am privileged to be serving in this position now, because it will allow me
to have more concerted efforts helping me be more effective and efficient
in the work of the Lord.
Working harder, by working smarter
I believe that ministry is more effective as a team effort than a lone
ranger pursuit. Since we all are called to declare the wonders of God’s
grace, we are all priests in the Kingdom of God. To this end I have spent
significant time trying to design ways to get people involved and be able
to do more. This is what I refer to when I say “working harder, by working
smarter.”
The first plan that I have prepared relates to following up on those
members who need restoration (at the time of this writing this has been
discussed in the Education and Evangelism Committee). I am working to have
some concepts for our youth ministry, and we will discuss them with the
Youth Committee in our first meeting.
Restoration
The Tirana Church of Christ has a membership roll of over 400 people. It
is interesting to note that a significant part of them is out of the
country (they either went for studies, or immigrated) and yet many of them
are in Tirana and have been pushed away by the demands of life and other
things competing for their lives. I went through the list and came up with
over 80 names of people that I have known and become associated with
throughout my eleven and half years involvement with the Tirana
Congregation. The list consists of people who vary in their attendance
from monthly, to several times per year or who have not been here in
years. I have started to make contacts with some of them already. I
believe that before I can ask others to join me in the effort, I need to
model it myself (I hope that in the next newsletter I will have some more
to share of what we have been doing congregationally). During this two
months I have worked with 10 different individuals.
Youth Ministry
An important part of my ministry focus is the work with our youth. We
refer to ourselves often as “young in age and young in heart” to reflect
that we don’t have the traditional understanding of youth ministry as the
ministry to/with teenagers. Our group consists of some teenagers, and a
lot of young adults and adults. They have been in vacations and exams.
However, we have done our best to coordinate our activities with
activities for the students that were part of the WEI Summer Session. Now
that they are back from their holidays, I will sit with the youth
leadership to lay some foundation work for what we will do in this
ministry.
Preaching and Teaching
My preaching and teaching has gone as usual. In our Sunday Morning Bible
Class we are studying the life and the teachings of Christ. To this end
for four weeks I taught the Sermon on the Mount. As you can easily imagine
this has been a very basic study, not anything very deep. I told the class
that we can take the whole year to study from the Sermon on the Mount to
do justice to its study. In regard to preaching, I have tried to bring
more evangelistic sermons since we were in the middle of our Summer
Session.
Summer Session
During our Summer Session we have had 12 teachers, 38 students and 5
baptisms. Our waiting list had 100 students ready to take classes. For
those of you who have not yet experienced our campaigns, I would like to
tell you that every day we start with devotion where we try to focus on
God. I was asked to do the devotion on the first day and I told the
teachers that we are here to preach the Word of God. We are here to plant
and water the God’s word in the lives of the students, but remember that
it is not about us it is about God and He is the one to give the increase.
Ellen Walker (our American missionary) and I were talking together to have
our newly baptized into our schedules as well as to have those who show
potential among the students we had this summer. I am trying to get a
balance in my schedules between studying, one-on-one teaching, visitations
and discipleship and therefore I try to be careful who I involve in my
schedules. I just want to be sure that they are effective Kingdom hours.
As a matter of prayer:
· Our newly baptized members.
· Our program to restore to God and fellowship erring brethren.
· Our youth ministry as we are trying to build it.
Bledar
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BLEDAR VALCA’S ACTIVITY REPORT
September - October 2009
To the Maryville Church Family
In the conclusion of the Corinthian Correspondence, Paul wished and
blessed them with the words: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2
Corinthians 13:14). Grace, love and fellowship flow from our relationship
with God and are manifested in togetherness of the saints! While all need
them, we are blessed to have them in our partnership with you. Thank you!
This indeed has been a very difficult and emotional time for us. Bona’s
father had a brain attack on September 8th and was in intensive care
therapy for three weeks before he passed away. This called for the family
to take turns and monitor him night and day. I spent a few nights there
and did my best to allow my mother-in-law to rest during the night by
keeping vigil on him. There were times where he was faring well and making
progress, and other times when he was regressing. Difficult as it was for
the family, the inevitable came and he passed away. However, this time
also served for the family to become prepared. We were blessed to have
members of our congregation stand by us in those days and come and visit
the family. We also were blessed to have post cards signed by the members
of Maryville church be delivered to us. They have certainly made a
positive impact on our families and hopefully planted some seeds. Most of
all, they have gifted us with the comfort that we needed.
Kukes Follow-Up
When, you cannot send a full-time person in an area you can still work at
reaching that area through correspondence. WEI Correspondence Ministry is
very close to my heart, because it was the method that reached me. In
September, I made a trip to visit a correspondence student in Northern
part of the country in the town of Kukes. There we met with Majlinda Rata,
a student of Anna Hutson, who has requested baptism as a result of her
correspondence studies. We had a very nice trip to Kukes with Ellen Walker
and Sokol Thanati. It was a good time to strengthen friendship and work
together.
We stopped in Reps to encourage one member of the church who still lives
in Reps. We also took my cousin Ervin on the church's van to travel with
us to Kukes. I have exposed Ervin to the church in Tirana, worship
services and my relationships hoping to have an impact on his
spirituality. Currently, he can be defined as a "confused" person when it
comes to battling between Catholicism and Agnosticism, but continues to
remain open. It is my hope that if we ever get something going in Shkodra,
he can be a great asset for us in forming the initial nucleus (he did both
High School and University in Shkodra and is looking for employment as a
nurse there).
We had already talked on the phone to Majlinda Rata prior to going and
made sure that she is there. We did locate her easily and had over two
hours of conversation together, trying to assess her understanding and
commitment to becoming a Christian. She is definitely convinced and
prepared to face some family persecution coming as a result of her
changing religion from Islam to Christianity. It was a cold rainy day in
Kukes and for this reason we invited her to come to Tirana for the
baptism. The second and main reason for her to come to Tirana was to meet
with the church family in Tirana and sense a feeling of belonging.
Speaking from my own experience as a former correspondence student this
was proved to be very important for me. I don't know where would I have
been spiritually had I not spent those days with Artan and Rumira at their
home between the Thursday of my baptism and Sunday at worship, and having
been invited by both Artan’s to come and worship every Sunday at Tirana.
At this point, she has not come to Tirana for the baptism. However, I have
been in contact with her through phone calls and she seems to have a
difficult time with her family and her boss (He has her work seven days a
week and would not give her a day off.) Her teacher is encouraging her to
continue with her studies and maybe invite family members to enroll on
WEI. This way she will keep her sparkle go on and they will come to
understand the things she understands as well.
In the same time, Majlinda has done some contacting with another name that
Anna Hutson gave (a student from Shishtavec). He is a teacher of English
at the Shishtavec High School and has enrolled 20 of his students on the
WEI courses. I am daydreaming and out loud speaking of the potential to
revitalize the Prizren Church and having them do outreach in Kukes (with
the stop at the border point, the distance between Prizren and Kukes is
only 40 minutes). I have already made some contacts with Wes Dingman who
at one point was working in Prizren for an organization and serving the
church there. Just a thought and a prayer.
Training to Preach /Teach
The Tirana congregation has always been keen on allowing room for the
members to be trained in the ministry of the Word. Toward this end, we
have allowed our Sunday Night Worship to be a time and place where they
can practice preaching in friendlier and welcoming environment. This
practice allowed me to discover a passion and gift for preaching.
Because it has blessed me, it’s honor to bless others in the same way. In
coordinating the Sunday Evening Preaching I had eight different men preach
on Sunday Nights during September and October. Besides me (I preached only
one Sunday Night), we had seven other man who took turns, of whom two had
never preached before. I worked with the last two in person in sermonizing
their ideas and giving some basics of preaching. At the same time, I have
offered some help to some who have preached in the past and are doing some
teaching now.
Restoration of Former Members
On our September Meeting of the Education and Evangelism Group, we focused
our attention of the restoration of former members. Our strategy is
simple. Every one of the eight members of the EEG will ‘adopt’ a few names
from the list and be in prayer for them and find ways to make contacts
with them. We also declared September 12 as a day of fasting and prayer,
and I was asked to precede it with a sermon on fasting on September 6.
I know of several who are participating through prayers and visitation. At
the same time, in close collaboration with Bona we have contacted nine
different individuals. The means have been different: phone calls,
facebook messages, e-mails and crossing them on streets (yes, in a city
where most people walk or use public transportation it is easy to come
across people). Please pray for our efforts.
Eastern European Missions
During the Cold War, the Eastern European Missions smuggled Bibles behind
the Iron Curtain from their base in Vienna, Austria. In the last twenty
years, they have explored ways to work with the native church and support
their work, particular in relation to Media/Publications.
To explore the ways EEM can help the work in Albania, Bart Bybinski a
native of Poland and Vice President for European’s Operations of EEM
visited Albania. Bart stayed with my family for the two days he was here,
taught for us on our Mid-Week Service and had meetings with several
leaders in the Albanian church. Rather than speak authoritatively for the
Albanian church, I scheduled several meetings for Bart so he can get a
better grasp of the work in Albania. The comments I have heard from Bart
and those with whom he met are positive and I believe we have already
embarked into some good work for Christ in Albania.
Aid paid forward
Our church was able recently to get from my former employee, World Vision
Albania, a large supply of aid in clothes (or GIK: Gift-in-Kind, as World
Vision refers to it). We took these clothes and passed them along to four
other congregations: Kucova, Magjat, Adriatik and Elbasan. In delivering
the clothes to Kucova and Magjat, a group of us drove the church van and
hired another one to be able to take all the clothes. Along the way we
sang and had spiritual talks, had devotion with the brethren in Kucova and
took some of the members for coffee at Kucova. I was asked to give the
devotion and convey to the church that they should not see us as saviors,
but as fellow-servants. We were simply blessing them with what we were
blessed by God through others.
Artan Xhaferaj’s Mother
We have not been the only one affected by disease and death in this
period. Artan Xhaferaj, both a brother and a friend, with his family had
to schedule a quick trip to Albania because his mother was very sick and
not expected to live for long.
During his brief time here, Artan and I met several times and he was
concerned about the state of her salvation. In collaboration to his sister
he was able to convince his mother of the need for salvation. He called me
to find for him a portable baptistery and take it to his house. At this
time, her health had deteriorated at the stage that she could not come at
the church building for the baptism. Artan baptized her on Saturday, and
on Thursday (the same day that his family flew out of the country) she
passed away. He had indicated to his brother that he wanted someone from
the church to speak at her funeral. At the graveside funeral I was able to
talk freely and hopefully of the fact that she had entrusted her life to a
faithful Friend, Jesus Christ. The message was well-received and God was
gracious to stop the rain and the wind that seemed to be rounding us.
Albanian Men’s Day
Around the year the churches of Christ in Albania try to host and enable
opportunities to meet together. Some of these opportunities are Youth
Rally, Ladies’ Day, Men’s Day, Bible Bowl, somewhat periodic meetings of
church leaders and Christian Camp.
Our congregation has specialized on the Youth Rally and rotates the other
opportunities. On October 31st, we hosted the Men’s Day. We asked Tom
Bonner (missionary in Lushnja) to speak on theme of “Growing As a Body
Toward Christ.” Our thoughts were centered on a key passage such as
Ephesians 4:11-16, specifically on “Leaders Who Produce Growth” and
“Members Who Do their part.” Tom’s messages were very pointed and needed.
Under the old aphorism “Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way” we were
encouraged to ask the hard question if we were of leader or follower
“material” and trust Christ’s headship for us. Sokol Haxhiu of Tirana led
the participants in a forum of discussion over what each congregation was
doing to mature and involve their members in service. Arjan Hyka, known by
those who come on Summer Sessions as the waiter of the place we have lunch
opened his own restaurant on that same day. He wanted us to be his first
customers and offered a good deal. In the end we rounded ourselves and
prayed for the success of his business. 50 men, from 11 congregations
participated in the Men’s Day.
Thank you for keeping us in prayers. We know that the matters we have
written about will bring both petitions and thanksgivings to God.
Beldar
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November – December 2009
To the Maryville Church Family
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love
Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28). Before
we could get a grasp of 2009, it was surprisingly gone. This by all means
has been a quick and loaded year. Many of you are aware of the changes
that we have gone through. We had a new addition to our family, two
departures on Bona’s family (her father and grandfather on her mother’s
side), my brother was involved in a car accident, and, yes, a career
transition. While the psychologists would tell us that each of those
events would be ground for serious counseling we have undergone all of
those within 6 months period. That is why to us this passage of Scripture
has taken added meaning. God has worked all things for good in our lives,
because we have had the loving support of all of you. We thank you from
the bottom of our hearts for your prayers, letters and financial support.
You will have some stars on your crowns for this.
Leadership Appointment
Every other year our church goes through election and/or confirmation of
leadership. On November we went through this process. In preparation I
preached on the Sunday before on the leadership we read in the Bible
pointing to the servant leadership that Jesus seeks of leaders who are
integrated in the work of the church with special faith, character and
family qualities. The week of the elections, Brother Erik preached on the
need to be committed to our task of serving.
We have six ministry teams: Education and Evangelism, Youth, Benevolence,
Fellowship, Worship and Finance. I will be serving on the Education and
Evangelism Ministry, and will chair the Youth Ministry. A few brethren
asked me to serve under Finances (given that I have a bachelors in
Economics), but I declined. I told them that we have others who can do the
same or better job with finances, and I don’t won’t to take from them the
opportunity to serve in this capacity. Besides, I want to focus my
service.
The Ministry of Restoration
I have adopted a theme passage for this ministry. It reads as follows:
“And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid,
help the weak, be patient with everyone.” (1 Thessalonians 5:14). This is
a much needed ministry to our church family. We are doing our best to
encourage people to get involved and model it for them. But, it requires
patience with everyone, including our own selves. So, we try not to lose
heart as well as to warn, encourage and help.
Each time we went to visit Bona’s grandparents we used public
transportation. As you go about half way there you stop to have a snack
and rest. Because this coffee shop and restaurant has very few sitting
places you get to sit with other people that you don’t know, usually those
you happen to travel with. Up to that point, you don’t get a word out of
people. But, after you have sat and eaten together the next half of the
trip everybody is taking to everybody. When people in a sense “have broken
bread together” there is a bond of fellowship created. Having seen its
impact we take people for breakfast or lunch to spend time with them.
During the month of December we decided on something different. Instead of
inviting them to restaurants, we decided to gather them at home. In the
same time, we wanted to bring together faithful members with those less
faithful ones. This way we will build some bridges for others and give
them a taste and sense of mission. It is a sort of on-the-job training. We
had four dinners where we had over 25 people in our small apartment. Of
these 25, almost half are members in need of restoration. We had planned
to have all the church come over before 2009 was over, but seasonal flues
for Bona, Lemuel and I caused us to slow down. We have seen success in
this way of outreach, so we plan to continue. Please pray for this way of
doing things.
Also, in collaboration with Sadete Hoxha (who serves WEI and the Church as
a secretary) we sat with the list of members who are not coming and called
them at home or on their mobiles to come for the Christmas program.
Several of them came. But the most encouraging one was my former student
(who goes back by 10 years since we initially studied together) whom we
talked on the phone and came to the program. It had been 7 years since I
saw her last. She came with her 13 year old son, and we are going to meet
again soon.
Christmas Program
Christmas is one of those times when people’s minds are centered at God.
That is why we try to use this time to reach out to people. In the above
paragraph I mentioned one way we used this time. But, in addition we had
members of the church invite others to come. We invited Bona’s mom and
sister to come. I also encouraged Bona’s sister to invite two friends of
hers and had three of my students come. Many did come and we were
encouraged by it.
Brother Sokol Haxhiu had an evangelistic message with Christ as the Light
of the World, but made frequent mentions of our times of meetings and
invitations to come and be with us beyond the Christmas day. In addition,
children from the children’s class acted a short version of the Christmas
story, with other things for entertainment. Many were involved in the
program and if I start mentioning names, I am afraid I will forget any of
them so I will only commend them to the Lord for their service.
IBIA Graduation
On December 19, the International Bible Institute of Albania had the
ceremony for its second graduating class. Six people (5 brothers and a
sister) were part of the second graduating class. Each one has already
made plans to be involved in ministry in different capacities.
On the night before, along with my two classmates from the first
graduating class, we came together for a special moment as a reminder of
the servant leadership we are called by Jesus. The new class of students
is to start on January 25.
Preaching, Teaching and Training
My preaching schedule has been tight at this time of the year. With Artan
Xhaferi moving to the States we are left at three to rotate our Sunday
Morning preaching. That means that the rotations comes faster, but also if
the other two brothers have to go somewhere, I have to preach more. During
November-December I have preached more than half of the time, plus
teaching on Sunday Morning for five weeks. In our study of the Life and
Teachings of Jesus I taught some of the cardinal themes of our faith such
as the Promise of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, The Unjust Trial of
Jesus, Jesus’ Sacrificial Death and the Resurrection of Jesus. We did a
thorough study of the John’s Gospel texts on these issues coupled with
Christian Evidences.
On Sunday Nights we have continued with our plan to have different people
rotate and get a chance to be trained. The two new preachers I mentioned
in my previous activity report did preach again during this period and we
had a new acquisition on the pool of servants of the Word. In addition to
spending time with these brothers, I am lending them my books to read. I
know I don’t have a lot of books, but those I have are good reading
material. This way training is happening “by word of mouth, letter and
example.”
Eastern European Missions
I mentioned in the last newsletter that EEM has renewed its interest in
the Albanian work. Through them we were able to buy Bibles for several
congregations in Albania. This large supply of Bibles included complete
Bibles (Old and New Testament), New Testament Bibles and two types of
children Bibles. So, all the churches that made a request and benefited
from the project have plenty of Bibles for their educative and
evangelistic programs. Our congregation was on the beneficiaries.
In addition, EEM is working to make available in Albanian Mike Armour’s
book and workbook “Newcomers Guide to the Bible.” Having literature in
Albanian is one of the things the Albanian church misses. So we glad that
EEM is partnering with us in this way. I am serving as the managing editor
for Mike’s book. They are also working on Ed Wharton’s “Church of Christ”
to be made available in Albanian.
Plus, in our camp work, EEM has agreed to help us in coming up with a
curriculum for the camp as well as an advisory role. They have gained a
lot of experience in their camp work in Ukraine. We are thankful of their
partnership.
Kukes follow-up and need for prayers
In the last newsletter I made mention of one WEI correspondence student
who has requested baptism. I have been in contact with her and she is
facing some persecution from her family and another person she does not
identify. Her teacher, Ellen Walker and I are trying to encourage her to
continue her studies no matter what. She has promised and she is
continuing her studies. Please pray for her.
At the same time, the plans to have the church in Prizren, Kosovo join
hands with us have not been successful. It appears that the members have
gone abroad and they are no longer meeting. I know of 2-3 members who are
still there and need prayers.
A Special Study
Bona and I have enjoyed meeting during the week and studying with
Valentina Samara. She is the mother to our brother Artan and sister
Matilda. We have studied the gospel of Mark together and went on to Acts.
At this point she knows what she needs to do, but we have yet to see her
step in obedience to the Good News. Please pray for her.
However, now Valentina has gone to spend some time with her daughter in
Hague, Netherlands. Her daughter and son-in-law are both graduates of the
British Bible School. They will continue to study with her during her stay
with them.
This report has things to praise God for and things to pray about. Please
keep us in your prayers.
In His service,
Bledi.
|
JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2010
To the Maryville Church Family
The Albanian word for the month of February is literally “short.” This
seems to speak very much to the way this two-month period has gone by.
While it has been very fast, it is our hope that we have accomplished some
good work for the Master. It also my prayer that you will be encouraged by
what is happening and will continue to lift us up in prayers.
Baptism of WEI Correspondence Student
In the last two newsletters I have written about the visit to Kukes to
meet a WEI student who had requested baptism. I also told you about the
persecution she has been facing. In any case, I would be happy to let you
know that she traveled to Tirana and was baptized on February 14. We have
tried to encourage her to consider the cost of her decision. We didn’t try
to put her right under the water (and I mean for more than two months),
but to take it slowly so she is persuaded and prepared to face squarely
her decision.
By the time of her baptism, she was convinced and we are happy about. The
Sunday she was here, we were having what we refer as Friend’s Day. This
way, many of our friends were able to witness her baptism. This was an
additional “sermon” they saw. Before taking her confession of faith, I
reminded her and those present that the baptism is a re-enactment of the
death, burial, resurrection and baptism of Jesus Christ. Please keep her
in your prayers.
She has also put me in contact with another WEI student for that area.
This student teaches English at High School and has enrolled most (if not
all of his students) on WEI studies. She found me a phone number for him.
I called him and if I go that way again (very difficult at this time
because of the winter weather) or he comes down to Tirana we will meet.
Please keep this opportunity in your prayers.
Meet My Students
An important part of my time is focused on teaching the gospel using the
WEI material. I have six students who study with me.
One of them teaches Art History at the Academy of Fine Arts and interior
design at a trade school. He is of Greek Orthodox background and was
“baptized” as an infant prior to the banning of religion in Albania
(Dictator Hoxha officially banned religion from Albania in 1967). Right
now we are studying “The New Birth.” He has come to understand the gospel
plan, baptism as a burial and the history of sprinkling and pouring as
substitute for immersion. In the next few lessons we will study the
history of infant baptism. Please pray that he will understand the truth
on this matter. I have high hopes for him at this point. He has visited
several of our services, come to gospel meetings, and brought his children
and now his wife to study with us.
Another student I have was brought to me by one of the church members. He
is clearly more interested in learning English than the Bible. He has
knowledge of religion and is considered to be an expert when it comes to
the relationship of religion and national security. He is open-minded and
we have deep-seated discussions when it comes to classes. Again, pray for
him.
“The four girls,” as I constantly refer to them, have come to me as former
students of Artan Xhaferi. All of them are in the third year of High
School, and are classmates two by two. One of them particularly at one
point was very involved with our youth and church related activities. The
school keeps them busy and they are not able to come all the time, but we
enjoy our studies when they come. They have expressed interest in being
part of our Friday Youth Class, but have not done so at this point. Please
pray for them.
In addition to them, we have several non-official students. They are
Valbona’s mom, sister, two of her sisters’ friends and my cousin Ervin. We
work with them on continuous basis. At this point we have higher hopes for
Valbona’s sister, but are confident that her influence will extend to her
friends and mom.
Family-Based Ministry
God knows that we need people and relationships. This is why the concept
of family, nation and church are important in the Scriptures. Before there
was the nation or the church, God had the family. In the economy of God,
the family is very important because it provides a taste of God’s people,
a lab to learn to lead. I believe this is one of the main reasons why God
looks at married fathers for elders and deacons. In the practical side,
when you have a family in Christ is easier for all of them to follow God.
So, because of both theological and practical principles I try to use a
family-approach to ministry any time I can. For example, I have worked
with two fathers to influence them to bring the whole family to church. As
you recognize their role and lift their esteem, they are stimulated to
serve more. In both cases, this has served to reconnect all of them to the
church. Also, I talked to a single mother (who was my student in the
Summer of 1999) to come back to services. She has come along with her teen
son. The youth has been very good in welcoming him in our midst. Please
pray for all of them.
Another person I have utilized in ministry is a retired physics teacher. I
took him to visit an older member and his wife. It was easier for them to
connect with each other than it was for me. I felt like a fish outside the
water, but they did enjoy it. This gave a sense of purpose and mission to
the brother who went with me. Since then, he has brought to church his
wife and grandson.
Visit of Wayne and Brenda Speer
Wayne and Brenda Speers were missionaries in Tirana between 1997 and 1999.
Though they have moved quite a lot in the last 11 years, for five years in
a row they have come and spent 3-4 weeks each year with us. During their
stay, Wayne taught and preached all the lessons/sermons. In Sunday
Mornings Wayne preached on the fact that it matters what you believe and
practice; he taught on Christian Evidences on the Bible Class; preached on
Old Testament characters on Sunday Nights and taught a survey of the book
of Exodus on Wednesday Nights. Brenda taught the Ladies Class on Tuesdays.
Her classes were on the Book of James. Since Wayne uses PowerPoint
Presentations for his lessons, I translated them in Albanian and worked
hard to keep the special features he had on his presentations.
As always, Wayne and Brenda stayed with Ellen Walker (our American
Missionary). During their stay, Brenda who is superb cook prepared dinners
for over 60 people at different times during their stay. This was a way
for them to connect with church members and former friends they know from
their time here. One Friday Night they had the whole Youth Group to their
place.
While Wayne was here, he and I made a plan and visited one of his former
students. Riza Aleti is a church member and teaches Geology in University.
He chairs one of the Departments at the Faculty of Geology and Mines. We
hired a taxi, went to his Lab and did not find him there. So, instead we
left him a note and a number. We had stopped for coffee, while he called.
We met with him and he came for two Sundays while Wayne was here. We also
carved a whole day to visit Shkodra in Northern Albania. The Shkodra visit
“hid” our mission of spending time with him and getting to talk to him. We
enjoyed his time with him, and we hope that this time has served his
restoration to God.
Family News
Our son is doing well. He is over nine months now. He has had only one
tooth come out so far. However, he has made some progress in hanging on
the sofa and getting up. We have opened a facebook page for him where we
put recent pictures and news of him (some of you are already his “fans”).
People around us say that he looks more and more like me. But, one thing
that has been happening because of him is that he is a draw factor. He is
like a magnet in attracting people. If you can read beyond the parental
pride, you will note that he is a joy to us as a son because he breaks
barriers with people, build bridges with them and serves as an encourager
(and isn’t it amazing that he speaks no word, yet he is a source of
strength for many). There are times when people don’t want words, they
need presence.
Bona has been doing well generally. We all have fought with seasonal
flues. In addition, I had a surgery to remove a wisdom tooth in January.
It left me homebound for 4 days. The day I decided to get out of home, I
was still not feeling well and my instrument (my mouth, was sore) was
still not at its best. However, I decided to go since otherwise I would be
home for longer than I would want to. Now, I am feeling very well.
As a matter of prayer remember:
- The baptism in
Kukes
- The work
with the students in that area
- My students
The work
with families
- The people I have
been able to reconnect with
In His service,
Bledi.
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MARCH - APRIL 2010
To The Maryville Church Family
Greetings of love in the precious name of Jesus. It is our prayer that
everything is well with you and your souls. We thank God for the blessing
of co-working in God’s field with you. This report has several things to
praise God for and ask you to shower it in prayers. I don’t know if he
coined or if he heard it from somebody else, but I heard Steve Stamatis
the dean and main instructor of International Bible Institute of Albania
(the preaching school I went to) use the term “building redemptive
relationships.” Since everything we have is stewardship from God, then we
are to go through life making the most of every opportunity to influence
our relationships for eternity. We should ask ourselves often how much
eternity is in what we are doing. I have used this time period
intentionally to build redemptive relationships. You will read a lot of
this in the following words
Library Enlargement
I simply love books. Actually, my wife gets scared when I stop at a
library. She knows that if I stop, I will not come out empty-handed.
Recently, I went to my prior employer (World Vision Albania) to get some
books from them. They have what they call “GIK” or “Gift-In-Kind”. Through
them we were able to get over 500 books and over 35 volumes. I gave many
of those books to church leaders and members, since many of them had
several copies. In addition, World Evangelism (the publishing company that
is related to the work of Brother J. C. Choate) sent me a box full of
books. They had more than 30 books sent.
I gave the books to Sadete, our secretary who catalogued them according to
the Dewey Decimal system that we use for our library. Now they are all in
the library and are available for use by anyone.
Rocking the Campus – Evangelism
I have always been impressed by the ministry done on campus by different
religious groups and I have always wanted to have something go on Campus.
We have several members who are studying at the University of Tirana, and
most of them are part of three faculties. So, every Tuesday at 1 PM we
meet on the campus and we have coffee together. In these discussions I
insert a biblical message. Rather than have a Bible Study with Bibles open
and “book, chapter and verse” I try to teach a Biblical principle each
week. My thoughts are coming from the Gospel of Mark.
The good part is that every week we have several non-Christian attending.
If the people are not willing to come to a church setting, at least they
would be more comfortable to come to a coffee shop and study a biblical
principle. So far we have had anywhere from 1 to 3 non-Christians
attending. I know that our members also feel at ease inviting their
friends. We will see how this develops.
Building a Youth Ministry Base
One thing that has happened through the years is the fact that our
teenagers have grown up into adulthood. Those members, who were 14-15
years old ten years ago, now are 24-25. They could hardly be considered
“youth” in the traditional use of the word. At the same time, we have not
been able to substitute this base in the recent years. So, how would we go
about this?
Well, using the current base as leaders, we intentionally are working to
form a base of youth. For this reason, we formed a list of all the teenage
students from last summer’s session. We did call them on their phones and
organized a special event for them. We cooked apple pie, played games and
had one of our church leaders bring an evangelistic message.
Also, Sadete, our secretary has several English Classes where she teaches
Basic English. Sadete and I talked about how we can incorporate these
young people into our youth group. In one class she has 26 students ages
14-16. We invited them to this cooking event and many of them did come. In
addition to that I went for crepes with them one day, and another day
Sadete invited me in to teach about prayer.
We made four points of emphasis. First, that we meet every week at 6 PM
and they were welcome to come (next week many of them came, some even
brought friends). Second, that we were going to organize a National Youth
Rally on May 1. Third, that we considered them to be our primary choice
for students in our Summer Session. And fourth, that we were going to
organize a Christian Camp in the Southern part of Albania during the
summer. In this meeting we had 40 show up, and since then every week we
have anywhere from 15-25. Please keep this in your prayers.
Christian Camp
In the past, the Albanian church has organized a Christian Camp in the
Southern part of Albania. This summer we are going to have the camp again
and it will take place between July 20 – August 10. The first week will be
for ages 10-14, the second for the ages 15-18 and the last week for ages
18+. I have agreed to write the curriculum for the camp and plan to sit
down in the later part of this month to write it. I believe that the
life-changing experience of camp will help us build our work better and
stronger.
Teaching and Preaching
My teaching and preaching ministry has been busy as always. On Wednesdays
I have been teaching the Book of Judges. I have preached on Sunday
Mornings as per rotation and I went to help Brother Alfred Zike at the
Adriatik Congregation on Sunday. Alfred was in the States to visit and
meet with his supporters and I agreed to help him on one Sunday by
substituting for him.
Annual National Youth Day
Our congregation organizes every year a national youth rally. Some of you
may recall that Tom Langley came to Tirana last year for this event. This
year’s theme was taken from the words of John the Baptist who told his
overly concerned disciples: “Christ Must Increase, I Must Decrease.” I was
chosen to be this year’s speaker. I brought two messages. The first
message was “John Pointed to Christ,” and the second was “But Jesus
Emptied Himself.” I worked from the idea that while John in humility
pointed us to Christ, Christ himself emptied himself giving us an even
greater example of humility. In addition to this we had one girl read a
poem (she is one of those who has been coming on Fridays) as sort of
intermezzo. Flori Pollo directed us in congregational singing. He designed
a key chain to be given to each participant. Ellen Walker worked with a
crew to bring three powerful skits, which were intertwined with the
messages I shared. A team from our church worked with four grills to
prepare the food for the participants. We had 163 in attendance, which led
us into a food crisis since we were expecting some 130 participants. But,
this was a nice crisis. We were able to solve it quickly. Of the total
number of participants 54 were either members of our congregation or
invited by our members to come. Again, I want to emphasize that of our
number consisted of many of those who we have been reaching out through
our Friday Youth Fellowship.
Teaching Physics for God
Some of you may know in person Tom Panidha. He is a retired High School
physics teacher. Recently Tom offered to do teach physics for free to high
school students. While this is a nice service to the community, it is also
a way to get people come into our doors. We don’t know what will develop
from this. But, in any case it is a matter worth of prayers.
As a matter of prayer:
· Our campus small group
· The building of our youth ministry base
· Our Christian Camp this summer
· Tom’s physics students.
In His service,
Bledi.
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MAY-JUNE 2010
To the Maryville Church Family
We pray showers of blessing from our Lord Jesus Christ! It has been a
wonderful year. We cannot believe that it is already one year that we have
worked with your support in this ministry. God is good and we are blessed
to partner with you in this. It was such a joy to have Lee Allen here for
two weeks to review the work and look forward into the future. I believe
we are able to accomplish much during his stay. As always, I do keep
myself very busy and I am looking forward to share what God has been doing
through us. It is He who deserves all the glory and honor for anything
good that we have been able to accomplish.
Youth Ministry
In the last report, I shared of our intentional efforts to build a youth
ministry base. It is with great pleasure to continue in those lines and
share that God has been good to us. Our work with the young people is
continuing very well. We acquired recently a curriculum written by youth
workers and will look forward to its use.
After the Youth Rally, we took the opportunity to spend one full day with
the youth leadership team. My purpose was for us to get away, celebrate
and refocus. Due to the weather change we had to alter our plans, but it
turned out very well. I shared a devotional thought, we got to talk about
the ministry on a more relaxed tone over coffee, and then enjoy each other
over a very nice meal. It was my way of getting away to have a
mini-retreat or workshop.
Our numbers have grown steadily in the last few months. We have had
anywhere from 15 to 32 on any given Friday. Each week we have 5 to 15
non-members coming. That can count for half of the youth present. One
thing that we do is that every first Friday of the month we have a focus
on evangelism. That Friday we bring the youth together to participate in
cooking event and we bring an evangelistic message. The youth take
ownership of the process and feel they are welcomed and belong to the
group. In such an environment, it is easy for them to invite their friends
to come. Then we follow up with a short series of lessons on things that
are of interest to them. So far, we have talked about identity, integrity
and friendships. More interesting themes will unfold in the months to
come.
Our target of youth has been simple: 1) young students from last WEI
Summer Session; 2) students studying with Sadete (Tirana’s WEI Secretary);
and, 3) word-of-mouth publicity. So far it is proving successful. We are
looking forward to the event transpiring this summer to build on the
momentum. We have exciting things coming up for this summer such as the
Summer Session, Christian Camp and carefully planned Friday Fellowships.
Please keep our youth ministry in your prayers. Summer is going to be busy
and we hope that we will build momentum to carry on for the rest of the
year. Albanian kids love education and when it starts we want to be sure
that they will keep this friendships close to their hearts and lives. We
hope that God will use us to cause them to “seek first the Kingdom of God
and His righteousness.” The challenge of the spiritual over the physical
is a challenge for old and new Christians as well as non-Christians.
Wedding and Follow-up
On May 30th I officiated at the wedding of Jorida Guda and Kriton Zhezha.
Jorida was baptized at the Tirana Church of Christ on the Summer of 1998
and wanted her wedding to take place in the same congregation that she was
baptized at. It was certainly a new experience for me (this is the first
wedding I officiated ever), but it went very well.
We had a group from church sing some songs and a lot of others helping on
the backstage. They had invited family, relatives and friends who stepped
on a church building for the first time in their life. This caused a great
crowd in the front of our church building and grabbed the attention of
people passing by. Of particular interest were a lady advanced in years
and a young adult. They wanted to find out about us and I managed to take
a few minutes to share with them what we do on regular basis. Next Sunday
Night they were both at our Worship Service. Ever since, she has not
missed one Sunday and the boy has come along with her a couple of times.
We are getting to know them and develop relationships with them, which are
very rewarding. We hope and pray that the ultimate good will come from
this.
In addition to them, we have had another visitor come to our assemblies
since then. Mirgen was impressed by the orderliness of how everything was
done, the message shared and songs sung. He said that he wanted to check
us out and would be coming to the next Worship Service. He has had an
experience in the past with some denomination group and refers to himself
as a believer, but it would take huge leap of assumption to refer to him
as a Christian. However, I am enjoying seeing him come and we also have
had coffee together (Albanian way of getting to know and spend time with
someone). Please keep Mirgen in your prayers.
Ministry of the Word
As most of you know, I love teaching and preaching God’s Word. I love the
challenge of studying challenging topics and share them with hungry souls.
Recently, I had the opportunity to teach a course in Apologetics at the
International Bible Institute of Albania. You may recall that this is the
Training School that I went through. It is a joy to be able to pay forward
what I was given. As I was preparing to teach, I had the opportunity to go
back to my notes while in school as well as read some new material. It was
a rewarding time for me as a personal evangelist to re-order in my mind
the rational of our faith and be ready to give and answer for the hope
that is in us. Not only that, but every day I would be at the school for
chapel and get to be encouraged in the Word. The school has started a new
‘tradition’ that I particularly enjoyed. Every Wednesday they pray for the
graduates of the school and their ministry by name. It is a joy to hear
that your life and service is lifted up to God in prayer.
In addition to that, I keep ministering the Word to our young people on
Fridays, I have taught on 1 Peter on the Mid-week Bible Study, taught on
Acts on Sunday Mornings and preached as per rotation. The term “rotation”
is a key word here. I do share the pulpit with two other brothers when it
comes to preaching and to two more when it comes to teaching. On Sunday
Nights we continue to have different brothers preach the Word. As you may
recall, as I assign Sunday Night Preaching to others, I try to give an
opportunity to as many as there are able and challenge newer ones to rise
to the task.
Denis Zotaj Baptized into Christ
On Sunday Night, June the 20th I had the privilege of baptizing Denis
Zotaj into Christ. Denis studied during last year’s Summer Session and
started to come again at this time. He was coming on Wednesday Nights as
well as on Sunday Mornings. As I was teaching on Wednesday Nights he would
nod his head in approval or understanding of what was being studied. Then
that Sunday, Lee Allen told me that Denis wanted to talk to me about
baptism. When he shared his intent, I told him that his willingness was
what was needed, because we could have the baptistery ready in about one
hour. To that he replied: “I live close by, I will come in one hour.” Wow!
That reminded me of the Ethiopian Eunuch and I used that Scripture during
his baptism.
His mother was there to witness the event and both of them were in tears.
She set it up with Lee to come and study the Bible. Lee took her to
several passages, but when she had to run to work offered instead for me
to study with her. Denis has confirmed his desire to be united with her
mother in the spirit and is eager for her to study. I am looking forward
to where I can continue the studies with her. Please keep both Denis and
his mom in your prayers. Denis lost his father six months ago.
Christian Camp
I finished writing the material that is going to be used at Camp this
year. Our theme for this year is going to be: “God’s Plan for My Life!” I
designed the material carefully to be on a conversational format. It will
be such that the teachers insert biblical principles as well as open up
for discussions with the students.
As of Wednesday, we had over 210 people register for Camp either as
campers or staff. The last count was: 50 for week one (ages 10-14), 60 for
week two (ages 15-18), and over 100 for week four (ages 18+ including
families). The number keeps rising. The Camp has a capacity of 100 campers
and staff per week and we need prayers. We may need to move some young
adults on week two to be able to accommodate more of those who would like
to come.
I have encouraged our youth leadership team to sign up as staff for week
two. This would allow us to build stronger ties with our current group who
comes on Friday Nights. It is our understanding on one side that younger
kids love to hang out with older ones. On the other side, this is
beneficial to nurture relationships and have positive role models to
follow. So, this is a win-win situation for both sides, but most
importantly God is the big Winner.
Fasting and Prayer for Camp and Summer Session
We declared June 23 as a day of fasting and prayer for our congregation.
We fasted all day and then we came together for Bible Class on that
evening and continued on with prayers for another hour. We wanted to be
tuned to God over two opportunities coming up for us. The two
opportunities were: The Christian Camp and the Summer Session.
Sokol Haxhiu talked to us about how the camp work was going and Erik
Qirjaqi about the WEI Summer Session. They laid in front of us specific
challenges and prayer requests. Then, all the male present took turns to
pray and the whole thing lasted for one additional hour. This time not
only served to be tuned to God, but also to remember that without Him we
can do nothing.
As I write, Art Hitt who serves as an elder for the Peninsula Church of
Christ (Portland, OR) has been teaching for 7 weeks. In the last four
weeks he is joined by his minister Steve Merrymen. In the last few years,
they have been coming before the official beginning of the Summer Session.
They are teaching 18 students on daily basis. In addition to that, Art
always does a lot of visiting and follow up with former students that he
has taught either in Tirana or in Fier.
New Contacts
This has been a time of making new contacts. I have mentioned to you
already the three contacts that we made due to the wedding we had here.
Besides, we were visited by an Albanian family that lives in the States
and Art Hitt drives to church every Sunday. I invited the man to have
coffee with me the other day not only to encourage him, but also to deepen
relationships. He has a lot of family living in Tirana. I got to meet him
and his relatives two years ago for the first time. Denis Zotaj’s mother,
our newest member is a new contact that we have now. In addition to the
above, when Lee Allen was here, he and Erik Qirjaqi befriended a man in
the street using the magnolias he was holding. He has come to worship and
we have had coffee together. I have also handed him a copy of the book
“How to Become a Faithful Christian,” which is written by the staff of
Truth for Today, a ministry of the churches of Christ. The book has 20
lessons on the first part and the New Testament in the second. Our own,
Sokol Haxhiu, translated the book into Albanian when he was going to
Harding University. It was encouraging to hear from Sokol that he had
accepted a lower salary from TFT, so he could be doing something to help
the Lord’s Church in Albania. Copies of that book were delivered recently
at the Juvenile Prison here in Tirana, and at the Women’s Prison earlier
this year. We also had a couple come by and wanted to know about our
worship times and promised to come this Sunday. I cannot help but be
excited about these opportunities and do nothing else but solicit your
prayers.
To His glory,
Bledi.
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