Where in the world is.....Albania?

Last year at this time, I wouldn't have been able to tell you anything about the country of Albania. What a difference a year makes.

Last fall, I was invited to co-lead a discovery trip of Valor Christian High School students to Albania by one of my colleagues. Discovery trips are the short-term mission trips that Valor encourages its students to participate in. I think it is one of the remarkable distinctives of the school. This year, between spring break trips and summer trips, we will be sending nearly half of our 840 students on a discovery trip somewhere in the world! Our mission statement is "To Prepare Tomorrow's Leaders to Influence Their World for Christ." The Discovery program achieves this goal better than any other aspect of their education with our school.

After thinking and praying about it with my wife Denise, we both agreed to be trip leaders for a spring break trip to Albania. This was designed to be an Arts focused trip, and so the team we handpicked to go consisted of students with specific and proven abilities in the areas of dance, drama and music. We ended up with a team of 23 students and 5 adults.

Albania is a fascinating country. When communism came into power throughout eastern Europe, Albania embraced it as well, and became famous for being the most atheistic and closed country on the planet. Christianity was all but stamped out there. With the fall of communism in 1992, Albania opened its doors to the rest of the world for the first time in decades. Campus Crusade for Christ was among the first to move in with the gospel, and has done a remarkable work in evangelizing and discipling the young people of Albania ever since. Albania is a country with a deep love for America and the American culture, in spite of being 70% muslim.

The 10 days we spent in that country were some of the best ministry of our lives. Our partnership with Campus Crusade for Christ was part of their three week evangelistic campaign with high school and college students. Our students were able to participate alongside of the Campus Crusade staff in a variety of outreach opportunities. They performed three concerts in public venues, visited and performed at six different schools, performed with Albanian young musicians several times, performed on the streets and in a Roma gypsy community, and led worship for a church on Easter Sunday. But the greatest and most meaningful ministry they had was in participating with discussion groups throughout the week, meeting and sharing their faith with Albanian young people who are open to the gospel and wanting answers to the meaning of life. None of us wanted to leave when it was time to return to the USA.

We were told to expect spiritual fruit there, but we had no idea the spiritual harvest that would come as a result of our partnership in ministry with Campus Crusade. By the end of the three weeks, they had 162 who publicly accepted Christ as their personal Savior, out of approximately 900 students that were ministered to in one way or another! Some of our students were present to see some of these decisions in their discussion groups.

We all fell in love with Albania, with the Campus Crusade leaders and staff, and with the people of this delightful country. Thanks be to God for allowing us to minister in His Name on the other side of the world.

Oh, and to answer the opening question: Albania is located directly above Greece and across the sea from Italy.