{"id":10677,"date":"2022-04-27T11:06:16","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T11:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=10677"},"modified":"2022-04-27T11:14:06","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T11:14:06","slug":"albanian-church-celebrates-30th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/albanian-church-celebrates-30th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Albanian Church Celebrates 30th Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>27 April 2022 | Tirana, Albania [Andreas Mazza with <em>ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n<p>Saturday April 23 was a big day of celebration for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Albania as hundreds gathered in Tirana to praise God for the 30<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the church. Leaders from the Albanian Mission and the Adriatic Union were present, and many international guests joined digitally as well.<\/p>\n<p>Among the prominent guest speakers was Audrey Andersson, executive secretary of the Trans-European Division (TED), who thanked the church in Albania for its commitment to mission and delivered the best wishes of Raafat Kamal, TED president. \u201cWe\u2019ll soon celebrate in heaven, as Jesus is coming back soon,\u201d Andersson remarked. Officers of the Adriatic Union Conference (AUC) also took time to thank church members for their commitment and resilience.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Delmar Reis, Albanian Mission president and event organiser, shared a glimpse into the future of the Albanian church pointing out that much will be done in the fields of communication and mission. \u201cWe are here, not only to celebrate the past, but also to look into the future!\u201d, said Reis.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10684\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10684\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Testimonies-630.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10684 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Testimonies-630.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Testimonies-630.jpg 630w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Testimonies-630-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Testimonies-630-500x280.jpg 500w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Testimonies-630-350x197.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10684\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Touching testimonies were shared throughout the programme [Photos: Andreas Mazza \/ CC BY 4.0]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Touching testimonies, inspiring songs, and heartfelt prayers were shared throughout the programme. Former Albanian President and Prime Minister Sali Berisha sent a congratulatory video. In his message, Berisha expressed his esteem for the Adventist Church, recalling its great work in supporting the Albanian people. &#8220;Thousands of Albanians have been helped by the Adventist Church and by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)\u201d. Former president Berisha, who saw the birth of the Adventist Church in Albania during his tenure, said that &#8220;Adventists are like the Good Samaritan in the Gospel,&#8221; always ready to rescue and help.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Berisha recalled how former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, a good friend of his, repeatedly asked him to help and support the mission of Adventists in Albania. &#8220;Jimmy Carter visited Albania two times in the 90s. On those occasions, but also through letters that I\u2019ve keep, he asked me to [keep] an eye out for the Adventists,&#8221; Berisha said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_32882\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"  data-origwidth=\"800\" data-origheight=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KtdSakC_vmc?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/ted.adventist.org&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&rel=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Albanian Church Celebrates 30th Anniversary\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Sali Berisha and Religious Liberty<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sali Berisha served as the second president of Albania from 1992 to 1997 and as Prime Minister from 2005 to 2013. In 2012, Berisha was commended by the Religious Liberty Association for the outstanding and exemplary level of religious liberty and the peaceful coexistence among religions in Albania. The same year, the then president of the TED, Bertil Wiklander, <a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/adventist-church-leaders-meet-albania-s-prime-minister\/\">presented Berisha a plaque<\/a> in recognition of his unique contribution to religious liberty and the promotion of humanitarian values for the Albanian people.<\/p>\n<p><strong>History of the Adventist Church in Albania<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Meropi-630.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10688 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Meropi-630.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Meropi-630.jpg 630w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Meropi-630-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Meropi-630-500x280.jpg 500w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Meropi-630-350x197.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a>Adventism in Albania has much older roots, reaching as far as a hundred years ago.\u00a0Albania\u2019s Adventist martyr of faith, Daniel Lewis, a pharmacist from Boston, returned to his native Albania in the 1930s to share the Advent message in the Land of Eagles. Following World War II and the instalment of a repressive communist regime, Daniel Lewis was later imprisoned and tortured, and he died in prison because of his Scripture-based religious beliefs, including keeping the Sabbath day holy. <a href=\"https:\/\/adventist.news\/fr\/news\/volunteerism-history-and-perseverance-words-of-hope-14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Meropi Gjika<\/a>, after studying the Bible with Daniel Lewis in the 1940s, accepted the Seventh-day Adventist message of Christian hope. When Christian churches were banished from the country by the post-World War II communist government, Gjika endured more than four decades of religious repression.\u00a0Despite having no contact with a larger Adventist community, she continued, for 46 years, to <a href=\"https:\/\/stewardship.adventist.org\/the-isolated-tither.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">put aside tithe and offerings<\/a> from her small income.\u00a0 In 2001, Ray Dabrowski, communication director at the time for the Adventist Church worldwide, called Gjika a \u201csymbol of faith, hope, love, and obedience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more information about the church in Albania and ADRA Albania, please visit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.adventist.al\/\">www.adventist.al<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter repeatedly asked me to support the Adventist Church in Albania,&#8221; said Sali Berisha, former Albanian President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1577],"tags":[267,561,771,345,1083,1082],"class_list":["post-10677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-organisational-updates","tag-albania","tag-albanian-mission","tag-anniversary","tag-church","tag-meropi-gjika","tag-sali-berisha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10677"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10694,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10677\/revisions\/10694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}