Training the Next Generation

A few weeks ago on November 21st I (Justin) had the opportunity to be the keynote speaker at a one-day conference for the Albanian Youth Network. We even got to host the conference at our youth center ‘The Refuge’ here in Tirana. The conference went from 9:00am until 5:00pm with a few breaks. There were leaders from four different cities and I also asked 10 of our young leaders from our youth group to be there. It was a full day with a lot to take home and think about and apply in our youth ministries across the country.
The material that we worked through is called “Christ’s Strategies of Ministry” and it has been developed by SonLife Ministries in America and Josiah Venture here in Europe. This conference was our first Josiah Venture Training conference that we have done in the country. My prayer is that in the next year, from doing conferences like this and from meeting with key youth leaders from across the country that we will be able to develop a ‘School of Leaders’ which will help youth leaders throughout Albania build and develop a youth ministry that is biblical, God-Centered, multiplying and driven through the local church. We believe that the potential for us to impact the nation through young people is huge. Albania has around three million people in the country, and about one million of those people are between the ages of 15-25, so the time to train up and disciple a new generation is now, and the potential to impact this generation is great. We are praying that by God’s grace he will use us as a Josiah Venture Youth team to help set the standard for youth ministry training all across the country. We are praying that through this generation of Albanians that the Church will have a solid foundation laid for generations to come.
Thank you for your prayers!

The faces of English Club

Today I (Gretchen) had the immense privilege of visiting the evangelistic English Club of one of our most dedicated student leaders, Majlinda. She has started this English Club for kids in a village of Tirana where our church is doing a church plant, and also where we had one of our evangelistic English camps last month. The Club is a great success so far. There were 19 kids there today!!

Majlinda is a university student studying English, so she is excited to serve the Lord, our church, and also be able to put her training to use! This beautiful girl is a true servant, and loves the Lord. As a result of her faithful prayers, her brother, Lorenc, trusted Christ just a few weeks ago.

English Club action shots --



Here are the precious faces of English club, with a group picture at the end! Please pray for their eyes and ears to be opened to the gospel, and for this Club to be a means of drawing families to Christ.




















The whole group --

JV Camp #3 with only Albanian team on the ground

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.

(Above): Getting ready for lunch at the church.

(Above): Camp Photo

JV Camp #2 Update Lakeside Bible Church (Houston, Texas area)

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 camp photos

For more camp pictures please CLICK HERE