04 June 2024 | Dishnic\u00eb, Albania [Sarah Henke]<\/p>\n
In the small, predominantly Muslim village of Dishnic\u00eb, Albania, a transformative church planting project is underway. Young members from the nearby Adventist Kor\u00e7\u00eb Church, just 10 km away, in October 2023 began their heartfelt \u201cPackages of Hope\u201d mission to support 27 families facing financial struggles.<\/p>\n
The work began in Dishnic\u00eb in December 2022 with an outreach programme, welcoming young people every Sunday for a variety of engaging activities. These included singing, sports, storytelling, and interactive lessons on Bible stories. Anxhela Lakollari, a project leader, recalls, \u201cAfter witnessing the impact of our children\u2019s programme, we identified additional needs within the community. Through surveys, we pinpointed families requiring assistance and began distributing monthly food packages.\u201d But as Lakolloari went on to explain the leaders didn\u2019t stop there. \u201cWe expanded our outreach to include educational sessions for adults, addressing health and addiction-related issues, intertwined with spiritual teachings.\u201d<\/p>\n
These humanitarian grassroots endeavours have now evolved into a church planting initiative. Pastor Adriel Henke, from the Adventist Kor\u00e7\u00eb Church, explains the approach: \u201cWe are trying to copy Jesus\u2019 method of mingling with people, demonstrating compassion, meeting their needs, and earning their trust before extending the invitation to \u2018follow Jesus.\u2019 At the heart of our mission is Our mission genuine engagement, fostering trust, and living the teachings of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the monthly food distributions, weekly seminars cater to diverse groups within the village. Fatjon File, another project leader, emphasises the holistic nature of their approach: \u201cOur sessions cover a range of topics for children, adolescents, youth, women, and men, aiming to address not just physical needs but also emotional and intellectual well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n
While not everyone is immediately receptive to the Gospel, Fatjon notes, \u201cThis makes my wife Anxhela and me stronger in God because we have seen God\u2019s hand working in us as a couple and in the work we are doing in Dishnic\u00eb.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we follow Jesus\u2019 example of serving and loving the community around us, we not only become a blessing to them, but we also feel blessed,\u201d remarked Delmar Reis, president of the Albanian Mission. \u201cWe fulfil our mission when we step out of our comfort zone, beyond the walls of the church, and witness the love of God in action.\u201d<\/p>\n
[Photo: courtesy of Sarah Henke. ‘Packages of Hope’ being prepared for distribution in\u00a0Dishnic\u00eb, Albania].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Transforming Lives in Dishnic\u00eb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1580,1572,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albania-croatia-slovenia","category-evangelism-mission","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18876","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=18876"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18906,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18876\/revisions\/18906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}