Acts 29 – The Balkans
“Gaining a Foothold for Christ!”
Recently Kim and I had the privilege of teaching our Management for Church Leaders™ training in two Balkan countries – Albania & Kosovo. What we discovered was a church hungry for leadership and management training and eager to learn how they can more effectively grow their churches. We also visited Skopje, Macedonia and met with a pastor there who expressed great interest in our training for their country as well. And our hosts in Albania indicated that they have contacts in Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia too for our training. So there is great interest in this type of training for the Balkans, an area that we had not previously considered for our training due to their higher education and economic level when compared with nations in Africa and Asia. But what makes this region strategically important is that it is predominantly Muslim and the church is only 20 years old in these countries at best! It is like having the opportunity of training the early church leaders in the book of Acts! We sometimes say that we are an Acts 29 church, continuing the work that ended in Acts chapter 28 of the Bible.
In Albania, for example, the church there began just 20 years ago when this nation became independent and democratic after 50 years of communist rule. Albania was not part of the Soviet Union, but was the only nation to outlaw religion of any kind during those years. Prior to 1990 a citizen could be arrested and thrown in jail simply for having a Bible. We read where some evangelists put Bibles in the Albanian language into watertight bags and sent them over the Adriatic Sea from the island of Corfu to reach Albania during the prohibition of religion. There were some Albanians who found these Bibles and, at great risk, kept them, and became some of the earliest Christians in that nation! So God was at work preparing the harvest field in Albania even before missionaries were allowed in! Most of Albania is Muslim as well, making it a strategic nation to win for Christ. Today, there are close to 500,000 Christians in Albania, of which about 200,000 are Protestant. And they are raising up the next generation of Christians now. So they need our training to effectively continue the growth that has already begun!
Kosovo is a different story, however. They were part of Serbia and the former Yugoslavia during communist rule and only got their independence in 1999 after the Kosovo War, which many Americans remember because of the violence and atrocities that were committed. Our host, pastor Petrit Lleshi, grew up under communism in a little village in Albania no more than 25 miles from Kosovo and never thought he would ever be allowed into that country! And now, a little over 10 years later, we crossed the border on a new highway and trained 35 pastors and leaders in Pristina, the capital city. Kosovo is predominantly Muslim as well and has a negative attitude towards Christians because of their Serbian occupiers who were Orthodox. The church in Kosovo is still small with only perhaps 50 churches and 3,000 Christians. But that has happened in just over 10 years! Walls are coming down and God is moving in this nation! And we were privileged to meet and train these 35 leaders and help them continue to expand God’s Kingdom in Kosovo.
We also visited the city of Skopje, Macedonia where the church is small but growing as well. We met with pastor Sasha Vuletic, someone who is working to plant more churches and expand the Kingdom there, and he also expressed great interest in our training for his nation and said it was much needed. The same situation is true for Bosnia, Montenegro and Croatia where the opportunity exists to plant and develop a strong foothold for Christ in the Balkans. So we are excited and honored to be part of what God is doing in this part of Europe to establish His church!
Although this region was not part of the target area for our training, it has become evident to us that God is leading us there and it is important, necessary and strategic for us to provide our training to them. We will not change our vision of reaching 100 nations, but will include Eastern Europe now in some of our planning. We are already talking about going to Macedonia and Bosnia in 2015 to train and will also look to find potential MCL Trainers in the Balkans region to continue our work and train others there in the future.
Please keep the Balkans and our ministry in your prayers as we seek to do God’s will and assist the church in its growth in this region.
Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!