Our final camp was run completely by the Albanians. Although I did some training and preparation work with the leaders, I handed all the responsibilities over to them. As far as the spiritual atmosphere, the students at this camp were very hard-hearted towards the gospel. We worked with a church planter (Genis) in an area of Tirana that many would call “New Tirana” because of its massive construction since the fall of communism, but the old roots of Bektashis (a sect of Islam) are still present there making it a very difficult community to break into with the gospel.
This camp was smaller, about 15 students. We didn’t have a team from America in for this one, so our facilities were limited, in fact for English class we used a vacant, unfinished building across the street from the church, which is only a single small room. The camp day was much like our camp in Babrru, with Chapel in the morning, followed by English and some activities. But at this camp each night we did an evening activity because it was too hot to do sports during the day.
The small group times were all led by our Albanian student leadership. It was awesome to see them leading. Although I think this camp was hard for all of us at different points, the Lord blessed it and added to his number, two girls professed Christ as their Savior. Please continue to pray for Genis (the church planter) as he labors for the gospel in this hard area. We were so grateful to be able to partner with him and come alongside him to reach the young people in this area. Please pray for fruit.
(Above): There are lots of donkeys in Albania.
(Above): Elio sharing on part of the story of God.
(Above): This is the building that we used for our english classes and some game activities.
This camp was our annual evangelistic English camp that we do with our youth group Grace Church of Tirana. I would say it was one of our best. Not only were the facilities some of the best you could find in the country, but the whole atmosphere of the camp was great the entire week. This was our only residential camp that we did this summer. We did it in a city called Pogradec down in the southeastern part of Albania, right on the Macedonian border. The facility that we used is a Christian school campus (the only one like it in the country). It had great sports fields and they converted the main classrooms into dorms so about 15 students were in a room.
For the Lakeside Bible team this was something new. The previous five or six years they came to Albania and conducted a discipleship camp, which has always been great, and is now a reproducible model that we can use on the ground on our own here. They did a great job with this camp. Their team was awesome, mixed with people who have been here before and people who have not. They started off their trip rough because as soon as they landed here one of the team members didn’t have the proper documentation (unknown to all of us) and so she was sent back to the States. Thankfully, however everything turned out great and the Lord answered many prayers along the way. The majority of the students at this camp were non-believers from an English school that is run by the mother of two of our student leaders. We had about 30 students from her school and another 10 from one of the orphanages that we work with in our church. After a week of hearing the story of God and discussing things that they have never discussed, like the ten commandments and what they really mean, I think for many it brought life to God’s Word.
In fact, in my (Justin) small group I ask my students two final questions on the last night. “How many of you before you came to camp believed that Jesus is God?” None of them raised their hands. Then I asked them, “How many of you now believe that Jesus is God?” ALL of them raised their hands, and I don’t think it was out of peer pressure either. I think for most of them they finally heard the story of God from creation to the risen savior and where able to talk through the process and everything finally made sense. The biggest challenge that we faced and still do face is that the students believe that but their identity is still Islam, that is what they were born into and what they believe they have to be. It is not just belief for them it is a way of life, more of like a nationality or ethnicity then a belief system. If you change your religion, you forsake your family. But that was a significant step for them, acknowledging that Jesus is God.
By weeks end the Lord added to His number and 8 professed faith in Jesus. We are praying that more do, so please pray for us as we follow-up with them.
(Above): The playing fields were donated by Adidas from Germany. The facility that we used is a Christian school that is run by some German missionaries.
(Above): Dancing to the theme song. We also did the Cha Cha Slide every night.
(Above): This was at the beginning of the week there were a lot of "sitters" for the dance, but by the end of the week everyone was out of their seat with exception of the few who were too cool.
(Above): Elio (Albanian student leader) was the only guy on our team who knew every dance move to the theme song from Josiah Venture.
(5 Above): English Classes
(Above): Some of the girls who got saved, pray for lasting fruit! All these girls are orphans, now they are apart of the family of God, a good story of adoption wouldn't you say?
The last time we updated our blog was the beginning of the summer, and here we are approaching the end of the summer, so there is a lot to say. As you may know when we were entering into this summer, we were praying that the Lord would give us a greater impact on this next generation throughout Albania this summer, especially through Josiah Venture (JV) English Camps. Well HE did just that!
This summer we did three JV Evangelistic English Camps. One was for our youth group at Grace Church of Tirana. The other two were in conjunction with two Albanian church planters to help them reach the young people in their neighborhoods. The theme for this year’s JV camps was called Stories. Or The Story of God. We walk from creation to redemption, telling the story of God each day. It was very powerful and very applicable to how information is passed long here in Albania – by word of mouth (story form). We asked students in small groups summarize to us the entire story that they heard for the day, and many of them could re-tell it word for word!
Here are some updates on these camps:
JV Camp 1 (July 13-18) Location: Babbru, Albania (a suburb of Tirana) Team: Grace Church of DuPage (GCD) Church: Albanian Church Planter, Astrit Allushi
Going into this camp, we had no one officially signed-up. We knew it was going to be a challenge going into this camp. We also knew that this region of Tirana has never had a church before so what we are trying to do is trailblaze.
The GCD Team got into Albania the Thursday before camp started. That Friday we all got into a van and made our way out to Babrru to start doing advertising for the camp. We did the same thing again on the Sunday evening (the day before camp was suppose to start). I think every young person was out wandering the streets at that time. We got to talk to a lot people and even parents and invited many to camp.
By the time it was Tuesday, the number of students that we had for camp was around 30, it was the perfect number for what we had to work with, and the Lord gave us students that had soft hearts towards the Gospel. This camp was a day camp, so we had the students from 8:30am—3:30pm.
The GCD team was awesome. They were super flexible and very Godly, although it was a challenge at times to drive early every morning to Babrru, and work in very poor conditions in the classrooms, and with a soccer field that was locked and would only be open to us one day, they did a great job. We told them going into camp, that for those students that would come, this would be the best week of their summer, and I believe it was.
Each morning would start with the chapel time, then there would be a small group time, where we would break everyone up into their English classes and they would have a discussion about the Story of God that they just heard. The morning chapel was actually held in a restaurant next door to the public school where we did classes and games. The restaurant owner was a Muslim (or at least he came from a Muslim family and went to a Muslim school), but each morning he heard the Good News. In fact most of the students would have come from very similar families. We actually had one student who had to walk his grandfather to the Mosque on a Friday morning (the Sunday for Muslims)to get his prayer in and then come to camp. Please pray for Babrru that the Gospel light would shine in this dark corner of the earth that few know about. Finally, just this last Sunday morning at church we had about ten students from Babrru show up at church. You can pray for us to follow-up well out in Babrru, and that by God’s grace we would see a church plant born from these efforts and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you GCD team for your service to the Kingdom work in Albania. And thank you GCD for sending them!
(Above): Astrit tells his story to the GCD team of how he became a believe in Germany and then felt the need to bring the Good News back to his people in Albania. He is the church planter that we worked along side of to do this camp.
(Above): Every Morning about 17 of us smashed into two cars to make our way over to Babrru (about a 15 minute ride)
(Above): Our first day out in Babrru before camp. We were on the roof of Astrit's house praying over the city (literally).
(Above): Advertising for camp with the neighborhood kids.
(Above): Singing and dancing to the theme song, WAKE-UP WAKE-UP!
(Above): Pastor Ray Glinski teaching and Fation translating for the daily morning chapel.
(Above): English Class
(4 Above): All the English classes
(Above): this was the gate to the field right next to the school. Some tough guy came in and put a fence around it and made it his own so no one can use it. We only got to use it once which was more than expected.
(Above): the camp photo
The team up on the Mountian for lunch after church on the final Sunday they were there.
For more pictures of camp and kids from Babrru CLICK HERE
Below: Mosque in Babrru (suburb of Tirana where our first camp will be held)
4 pictures below: Advertising for Camp in Babrru, a village of Tirana
(Above: Josiah Venture Albania Camp Team)
Hey, everyone! We haven't done a more "newsy" update in a while to let you know all the valuable ministry and events that are happening over the summer here!
The Lord continues to give us many opportunities to pour ourselves into the students' lives here, and we're grateful for that. We are reminded continually that this next generation is needed to change this country for Christ!! Life-on-life discipleship is ministry strategy we're about, and that happens in exciting and also lots of mundane ways as well. Here are some highlights that WE REALLY NEED YOUR PRAYER FOR!!
1. EVANGELISTIC CAMPS! We are doing 3 Josiah Venture evangelistic camps in July - two English camps and 1 sports camp. We've never attempted 3 in one summer, and we are excited to see how the Lord will show Himself faithful. Please pray for a great spiritual harvest this summer. And pray that we would be diligent and creative in our follow-up relationships with all of these students. One very specific prayer request regarding the first camp we are doing: we don't have any students signed up yet, and this is a camp for a church plant in a nearby village/suburb of Tirana. Please pray that students will come and that they will get plugged into the local church.
2. "Lies Young Women Believe" Girls Bible Study/Discussion Group. I (Gretchen) will be leading a 9-week evangelistic Bible study for our teenage girls and their friends. We will meet on Monday mornings throughout the summer. This is an AMAZING book/ministry, and I am really excited to lead this. We will meet as a large group on Mondays, and then each of the girls will meet in small groups with their friends for discussion/prayer at another time during the week. So I am really excited to use this as a evangelism and discipleship tool! (Check out the website by clicking on the icon in the sidebar.)
3. "Elements" Bible Studies. We will use this very effective Bible study for new believers as a follow-up tool after camps. Please pray that many students will be involved and learn how to grow in Christ! (Click on the link to find out more.)
4. Our Family. Please continue to pray for us as a family. Pray for our unity in Christ, for the protection of our marriage, for us to be godly parents, and salvation for our children! We need your prayers for our personal lives as well as our ministry. Our family is our first ministry, and the Lord uses your prayers to minister to us!! We treasure your prayers for us and could not be here without them! For more pictures than you could ever want of our family, go here.
5. Financial Support. It's no shocker (with the lagging economy and the falling value of the dollar overseas) that our personal and ministry support is down quite a bit. Please pray with us that the Lord would supply our every need and that He would shepherd our hearts while we trust in Him. If you have followed our ministry and prayed for us faithfully over the years we've been here, may we ask you to join our financial support team? We would love to hear from you, and would be happy to answer any questions you have. Send us an email or contact our home church, Grace Church of DuPage in Warrenville, IL. We need regular monthly supporters as well as one-time project support. THANK YOU!
We thank our Heavenly Father for you, for your prayers for us, and for our fellowship in Jesus. Thank you for checking the blog and come back soon!!
and on a random but fun note: HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY TO OUR MIRACLE BABY GIRL - Evangeline Sarah Hall!! We had a great day celebrating her and praising God for her life! Hop on over to our family blog to see our day. Thank you Jesus for Evangeline!!!!!
I know we are almost a month and a half into 2009, and we haven’t done anything on this blog since before Christmas! We apologize for that, life has not been as boring as our blog. We have just spent the last month with Justin’s sister visiting us here in Albania. It was a wonderful time with her and we were sad to see her leave. Enjoy some of the pictures below. As we look into this year, we have a lot ahead of us, both in the short and long run. We are thankful for all that the Lord did both personally and on the ministry level in 2008. This year we are praying that the Lord will bring us more lasting fruit among the young people here in Albania. We believe that we have finally established a lasting leadership team (by the GRACE of GOD) here that the Lord has used and will use to impact lives for Jesus all across Tirana. Although we are small in number, we are trusting God to do great things.
The Months ahead: Camps: Over the next several months we will be preparing for Josiah Venture camps with three churches in Albania. Two of those three churches are new church plants in very difficult spots in Tirana. You can pray as we work with those church leaders and in those neighborhoods to establish lasting relationships and a good foundation of trust to be able to conduct an evangelistic camp. In the months ahead I will be giving you more information about these places.
Training Young Leaders: Obviously camps are only a piece of the ministry puzzle. One of the things that we are intensely involved in are the discipling and training up of young leaders to fulfill Christ's commission. We have seen huge strides in this area, and are praising God for all that he is doing in the hearts of young men and women. We are seeing young Albanians lead small groups, bible studies, and even evangelistic services. You can pray for us as we develop a curriculum during this spring and summer for a potential school of leaders that we would like to start. This would be a school for equipping and preparing Albanians to do youth ministry that is based in the local church setting.
Youth Center (Streha): Currently we have the youth center open on Thursdays and Fridays for students to come and hang out. We have at least two or three different guys bible studies happening each week, most of which are run by students who have a passion to reach their own friends. Our open days are for what we call “bridging the gap” between getting students from the "outside" to the local church setting. Although it has started off slow, we believe God will bless these efforts.
Evangelism Service: As I mentioned before, we have this desire to “bridge the gap” between just hanging out with someone and seeing them become a follower of Jesus Christ. One way we are doing this is through a once a month Evangelism Service that we have at Streha (the youth center). Last weekend was our first one. It went well, we had about ten new people there. We watched a video that we had translated into Albanian called, “Stop and Think”. We then broke up into small group and asked questions, followed by a large group panel discussion. All of this revolving around the Gospel of Jesus. Pray for these events as they happen once a month, we are pushing students to invite friends and have intentional follow-up conversations about the gospel. Pray for conversion growth. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for the young people of this very dark country. Pray for an awakening…
