{"id":23509,"date":"2025-06-05T13:40:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T13:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=23509"},"modified":"2025-06-05T14:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:27:21","slug":"paper-and-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/paper-and-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Paper and Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

5 June 2025 | Tirana, Albania [Sara Henke]<\/p>\n

In an age of social media, QR codes and instant messages, walking around with paper flyers might seem outdated. But the Tirana East Seventh-day Adventist Church in Albania is demonstrating that, when paired with prayer, purpose and a warm smile, printed materials can still open both doors and hearts.<\/p>\n

Led by Pastor Gentian Thomollari, Publishing Ministries Director for the Albanian Mission (AM), the church has embraced print-based evangelism as a powerful outreach tool. As part of their Easter outreach, they printed 4,000 invitation cards\u2014half in Albanian and half in English. The goal was simple: to invite people to join prayer groups and Bible studies. But the choice of the method was intentional and deeply spiritual.<\/p>\n

\"Albania<\/a>
Pastor Gentian Thomollari, handing invitations in Tirana, Albania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOur message is one of warmth and inclusion,\u201d explains Thomollari. \u201cWe want every person, regardless of their background, to know they are welcome.\u201d According to him, the method also helps local members to grow in faith \u201cby sharing these invitations with everyone they meet\u2014whether locals or foreigners.\u201d<\/p>\n

When an invitation becomes a personal ministry<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than just a church strategy, this outreach has become a personal ministry for many members. Some go out several times a week to distribute invitations, while others leave them on caf\u00e9 tables, park benches or in mailboxes\u2014always with prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very shy,\u201d shared Veresa Rabili, a church member. \u201cBut whenever I go for tea, I leave an invitation on the table. If I see a bench, I place one there. If I pass a mailbox, I leave one there too, and I pray for each invitation. Even though I\u2019m introverted, God is using me. And that makes me so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Vladimir Solodovnikov, another member, personally distributes 300 to 400 invitations every month. \u201cEach invitation is a chance for someone to discover God\u2019s love,\u201d he says. \u201cIf they say no, I pray that next time, they\u2019ll say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building bridges with paper, books and faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to the invitations, church members also distribute printed materials such as leaflets from the SCORE (Supplying Contextualised, Open-access Resources for Evangelism) project, an initiative of the General Conference designed especially for secular or Muslim audiences, as well as books like Steps to Christ<\/em> and The Great Controversy<\/em>, both authored by church pioneer Ellen White, along with health-focused literature. These resources are handed out in person, creating meaningful moments of connection and conversation.<\/p>\n

Zamira Berati, a volunteer, shared, \u201cI want everyone to know that the doors of our church are open. I found spiritual nourishment here, and I want others to find healing for their souls too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paper, digital… or both?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, does handing out flyers and physical books still make sense in today\u2019s digital world? \u201cMaybe not for the majority of people,\u201d answers Pastor Thomollari, \u201cbut every nation has book lovers and people who still read flyers.\u201d While Thomollari affirms that digital evangelism matters and has its place, he believes that \u201cthose who love reading are one step closer to finding the truth of the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n

This strategy is already bearing fruit. For example, a young American woman recently began attending the women\u2019s support group after receiving one of these invitations\u2014an encouraging first step in what could become a deeper spiritual journey.<\/p>\n

\n

[Photos: courtesy of Sara Henke]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albanian Church Finds Power in Print Evangelism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1580,1570,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albania-croatia-slovenia","category-discipleship-spiritual-growth","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23509","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=23509"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23537,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23509\/revisions\/23537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}