What's New in Albania?

Now, Contending for the Faith. In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.

Here’s this week’s question: “Dear Dave, I notice your itinerary indicated that you will be in Albania. I’d be very interested to hear what is going on in the church over there.”

Tom: Dave, you talked a little bit about this last week, but…

Dave: I can’t remember…. Oh! (laughing) I’m not supposed to say I can’t remember!

Tom: You’re not supposed to say you can’t remember. We got a nice letter from a lady in her seventies, and she just didn’t want you complaining, Dave, that you can’t remember. You can remember, and the Holy Spirit, and so on…And I agree. Now, I have problems remembering, and when you say that, it scares me, because, you know, there’s a few years difference in our age. But let’s get past that…

Dave: Well, Tom, I can remember what I want to remember…

Tom: I know you can remember, because we got really excited when you shared what went on in Albania. You were there for—what, a week…

Dave: Oh, I can remember what went on in Albania. I just don’t remember what I said about it last week.

Tom: Oh, okay! Well, that’s short-term stuff.

Dave: Right.

Tom: But tell us, tell us about it.

Dave: Well, Albania is a unique country in many ways. It’s one country—and there may have been one or two others at the most—that never turned a Jew over to the Nazis. They protected the Jews from the Nazis, so I think God will bless them for that.

Albania was under the control of a total dictatorship—Communist dictator—I think for about 45 years, and he died, I believe, in ‘85—now, I’m not a expert on Albania history just from spending a couple weeks there, but he would not allow the practice of any religion. His successor lasted, I think, five years, and then freedom came, as it did in the other communist countries.

So, they could not practice Islam, although most of them are Muslims. They have a high percentage would be Orthodox. This is the Balkans, we’re talking about. Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and so forth. One of the most volatile parts of the world. The Turks came in…

Tom: The ethnic cleansing area…

Dave: Yeah, the Turkish Ottoman Empire came up into that area and turned everybody into Muslims. While most of the Albanians are Muslims, it’s only in name. They don’t go to the mosque—or the Orthodox don’t go to the church. Many of them are atheists. So in 1990-91, when the missionaries came in—and we were invited there by some wonderful believers—missionaries, who came in. Established many churches, assemblies of believers. I think in the time they’ve been there, they’ve established about 15 of them. And to talk to these people, Tom! It was one of the greatest thrills of my life. You’re talking to…well, I think my interpreter…well, I had several interpreters, but I think one of them had been a Christian maybe three or four years. Another one, maybe four or five, I don’t remember the details. You’re talking to people who’ve known the Lord for a year…a few months, some of them I talked with. Maybe two or three…five…the oldest one in the Lord that I talked with had been a Christian for ten years. He’s an elder in the church there, and when you see the maturity that these people already have in their Christian life and their understanding of the Word of God, and you see—it’s a very poor country, destroyed by Communism. Listeners might find this interesting. This dictator—paranoid! United States is going to attack! There was a big lake right next to Pogredec—the town where we had a number of meetings—I don’t know what’s on the other side of the lake, but it’s far from any ocean, but he built pillboxes all along this lake in preparation for the American invasion (laughing). We’re going to come across…

Tom: Like Normandie, huh?

Dave: Right! And you wouldn’t believe it. Now, I checked these statistics several times. He built 600,000 pillboxes throughout Albania. Now, that kept a lot of people from getting their bread and milk. Impoverished the country! And, Tom, you drive along the road, and here’s pillboxes popping up! There’s no strategic value in where they are. It’s absurd! It’s pitiful. But the men was whacko, you know, on pillboxes. And they’ll sell you, in the souvenir shops, they’ll sell you a little pillbox. And they were small—we’d just go around them, and an invading army wouldn’t even bother with these pillboxes. What’s the point?

So it was a very poor country, but I talked with a number of people, for example, I was talking with a military man who goes in there, well, every six months. He said, “Every six months when I come in, I see the progress.” Now the United States is helping them—We’re helping their military. We’re helping rebuild the country. And what they have accomplished, our missionary friends said when they came to Albania in 1991, I think they said there were 200 cars in the entire country. Only the KGB—they weren’t KGB—but only the secret police could have them. Now, Tom, it is so crowded you can’t make your way through this traffic. It’s unbelievable.

Well, what’s the main point I would impress upon people? We saw the power of God. We saw the power of the gospel transforming lives. Islam does not do that. Muhammad cannot do that. Jesus Christ can do it! And, sadly, the Orthodox, they don’t know Christ. You see them bowing to images and hoping to get some saint to get them into heaven—just as Catholics do. You don’t find the joy—oh, Tom, the way they sing, the joy! The love of the Lord! Wow! It was one of the most wonderful experiences Ruth and I have ever had.

Like the Apostle Paul. He went through that part of the world. It was called Pamphyllia. Albania used to be a much larger company. The allied victors of World War I—they carved it up. They made Croatia and Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Herzegovina, and so forth, out of it. But, wow! I would go back there in a heartbeat, but my schedule is too full. They are so hungry for the Word of God, Tom. You’ve got an audience that just hangs on every breath. And they are growing in the Lord. It is wonderful. Another evidence of the transforming power of the gospel and of Jesus Christ living His life in these people. And you saw that without a doubt.

Tom: And, Dave, this is Europe, right? Especially in contrast to the way the rest of Europe is going.

Dave: Yes, the rest of Europe—you’ve got state churches. They’re either Catholic, Protestant, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Calvinist, and it’s like you have the Burned Over territory in New York, you know, and they’ve heard the gospel so many times—well, they don’t even hear the gospel any more. It’s been perverted and corrupted. But this was…these people wanted to hear the truth. And they were hungry, and that was really thrilling!