European Mission Trip - Romania, Albania, and Macedonia

On September 12, I left on a missionary trip to Europe, together with my colleague Ethan. We arrived in Istanbul, Turkey on the 13 th and left on the morning of the 14 th for Budapest, Hungary. We rented a car from Budapest for the period of my stay in Romania. We drove for 3 hours in torrential rain and on a road full of potholes. It was quite an adventure.

We arrived in Oradea, Romania on September 14 th at 6:55 pm, just in time for a 7 o’clock meeting with pastors and workers from Cihei, Bihor, to study the Models for Discipleship. From September 14 th to September 25 th , I had meetings with the pastors and leaders of the Baptist churches in Bihor county. I also preached in 5 churches and visited friends and colleagues, encouraging each other in the work of God.

On September 26 th , I left for Budapest, Hungary, to take the flight to Tirana, Albania. I was accompanied on this part of the journey by Endry Matracu, who is an Albanian citizen and one of the students who is going through our ordination training with Ethan. Endry is a young man I have known since he was a student in Oradea, Romania. He is willing to translate the Models for Discipleship into Albanian. Thus, God willing, ETM will have our material translated into a tenth language. Please pray for this project. We will need verification, correction and professional editing of the material.

The mission in Albania and Macedonia was prepared in detail in collaboration with Alesio Sema, General Secretary of Albanian Evangelical Alliance, and with Nick and Debora Tanesescu, missionaries in Albania. They prepared the meetings and trips for us. Nick and Debora were missionaries for 10 years in Macedonia before they felt the call to Albania. They are on my discipleship team. This was my first time on mission in Albania and Macedonia, and our goal was to observe the needs of churches, pastors, mission agencies and biblical schools. Every day I had meetings with presidents of denominations, pastors and presidents of organizations and schools. I have listed them below for you. Through these meetings, the interest of our brothers in discipleship was evident. They were pleasantly impressed by the vision and spiritual resources we have at ETM, and they requested our urgent help.

Hervin Fushekati is the pastor of the Church of God in Tirana and also runs a Bible School called the International School of Theology and Leadership. Ylli Doci is former President of Albanian Evangelical Alliance and former director of CRU, Campus Crusade for Christ in Albania. He still serves with CRU in Albania and is the leader for an organization called the International Leadership Foundation. He now leads all their ministries for Europe.

Mentor Rama, the national director of Christ for the Nations Bible School located in Pogradec, Albania. He is also the pastor of a local church there. He is a former committee member of the Albanian Evangelical Alliance. Alesio Sema, missionary with Child Evangelism Fellowship in Tirana Albania. Alesio is also the General Secretary of the Albanian Evangelical Alliance. Zefjan is a former General Secretary of the Albanian Evangelical Alliance when it started after communism. He is the director of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Albania (IFES) who is part of the InterVarsity Students Ministry in the USA. He is a church elder at Emanuel Church in Tirana and has a heart to train young people and make disciples. He is involved with Lausanne Movement, Revive Europe, European Leadership Forum and a lot of other ministries.

I also met with many pastors. Pastor Sabri Kasemi, pastor of New Life Church in Tirana Aget Hoxha, leader of OM in Albania. Albert Kona, pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Durres, also leader of a Bible school in Durres. Collaku Tray, pastor of a church plant network in the Korçë area. Plator runs churches in 9 villages around the city.

Albania is a relatively young country in terms of the emergence of Christian churches, with many planted by missionaries in the 1990s. Many of these churches were led by pastors and leaders who were not equipped and prepared to take over the churches planted. Three decades later, many churches are still weak and unequipped. In the next letter I will present the work in Macedonia and Albania that continued in October.

Ethan accompanied Vali for the first week of this international trip, staying in Oradea, Romania. There, he was given the opportunity to teach Model M - Making Godly Decisions - and Model N - The Non-negotiables. Ethan was also able to meet with local pastors and came away excited to have seen first hand the long term role ETM could potentially play in Romania helping pastors and building up local churches.