Albania Trip June 2010

Tirana June 2010

It was good to return to Tirana, Albania once again to spend time with Tomor and Miranda Ajeti, pastors of Victory Church in the city.

This trip had several objectives:

• To spend time with Tomor and Miranda, supporting, encouraging and listening to some of the work they are involved in plus, on a personal front, working with them as leaders and friends.
• To visit the church and catch up with people there.
• To visit Montenegro and catch up with Bukurije Nicqi who was in Peje, Kosova.
• To meet others with whom a relationship/ friendship has been established and of course new friends. These included Enver (some of you will know him), Rachel Wilson who is working in Shengjin and Nic and Sar Wakeley
• To introduce some prophetic encouragement and training through our friend Alaric Hunt from Diss.

All of these objectives were met but there is, of course, a story to tell behind them!

First of all Tomor and Miranda.

Just to let you know that they will be visiting the UK from August 15^th to September 15^th. I will be putting an itinerary for them so you will be able to have them around for lunch, dinner or tea ... but they are also looking for space away from the scene at home. They are well and send their greetings. Tomor is taking his masters degree in Theology, which is challenging him. They both are part of a leadership team which is going through some changes as they look to step up on the fulfilment of the vision that they have for Tirana and Albania as a whole. One of the other challenges we have been working with them on is taking teams beyond their own borders to ethnic Albanians in other Balkans countries and this has come about in Montenegro where Bukurije is working.

It was also great to see Nic and Sar again. It was my first visit to Elbasan following our first ever trip to the Balkans around 12/13 years ago. The Sunday meeting was quite an emotional experience as Nic related how members of TCF have involved themselves over those years. We particularly remembered Blerina, Shpressa, the Kosova war and its effect on Elbasan and of course Opterushe. I had to make a response from TCF and at that point, Blerina stood up to say hello and I couldn’t find the words!

One of the most notable gifting in the church in Tirana is evangelism. What if you could introduce a power dimension to this work? This was where taking Alaric Hunt to Tirana proved to be the first stage of the journey. As we have found in TCF, Alaric’s ministry through his ‘Heartbeat’ teaching proved to be a watershed to Victory church. Not only did we enjoy a weekend based mainly around using the prophetic gift in its various forms but we also saw an opportunity to interpret dreams come through the local Christian radio station.

The weekend saw Victory church join with Word of Life and The International Church. Over 200 people were ministered to at these meetings and afterwards.

The radio station was so taken by Alaric’s ministry on the airwaves that he ended up praying for the entire staff.

These are just a few stories – ask me about what it’s like to go there, how you could get involved. Alaric is planning a prophetic team in the autumn, Rachel Wilson in Shengjin is looking for short term mission teams next summer to join her and her team. Nic and Sar would love people to come out and work with them, Tomor and Miranda too in either Albania or Montenegro. I’m very happy to talk to you about any of these things as is Andrea or Eddie. As with many places in the Balkans, doors of opportunity are opening.

John Peters