{"id":26669,"date":"2026-09-28T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=26669"},"modified":"2026-09-24T11:13:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T11:13:20","slug":"two-pastors-baptise-family-members-in-albania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/two-pastors-baptise-family-members-in-albania\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Pastors Baptise Family Members in Albania"},"content":{"rendered":"

24 September 2026 | Durr\u00ebs, Albania [Sarah Henke]<\/p>\n

This summer, baptisms in Albania carried special meaning for two pastoral families. One pastor baptised his 12-year-old son and another baptised his father, nearly three years after baptising his mother.<\/p>\n

On 23 August, Petrit Frash\u00ebri was baptised in Kor\u00e7\u00eb by his son, Pastor Markelian Frash\u00ebri. For Markelian, the moment was connected to a prayer he had carried for many years.<\/p>\n

About 15 years ago, Markelian had a dream about the second coming of Jesus. In it, he remembers asking, \u201cWhere is my mother?\u201d He later had a similar dream and asked, \u201cWhere is my father?\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, he told no one about the dreams. Years later, while living outside Albania, his mother, Mirela Frash\u00ebri, began reading the Bible and attending church. When she moved near Markelian\u00a0in 2021, they started studying the Bible together, and in September 2023, Markelian baptised his mother.<\/p>\n

Markelian invited his family to witness his mother\u2019s baptism, including his father, Petrit. After watching, Petrit told his son that he wanted to be next.
\nFather and son began studying the Bible together, and over time, Petrit started attending church and keeping the Sabbath. This August, they entered the baptismal waters together.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, baptising my father is a dream fulfilled,\u201d Markelian said. \u201cBoth my parents have chosen Jesus, and that is something I prayed for many years ago.\u201d
\nPetrit described being baptised by his son as \u201ca special moment, full of emotion and thankfulness to God.\u201d<\/p>\n

A son\u2019s decision in Pogradec<\/h2>\n
\"Pastor
Pastor Gentian Thomollari with his son, Mateo, moments before baptising him in Pogradec, Albania<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On 4 July, members of Tirana East Seventh-day Adventist Church gathered in Pogradec as Pastor Gentian Thomollari baptised his 12-year-old son, Mateo Thomollari.<\/p>\n

For Gentian, the day marked the beginning of a new phase of Mateo\u2019s journey of faith, for which the family had been preparing throughout his life. During the previous year in particular, father and son spent their Sabbath afternoons studying the Bible together.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus had sacrificed so much for me, and Jesus loves me,\u201d Mateo said. He wanted to remember that truth.<\/p>\n

For Mateo, baptism was his own public decision to follow Jesus. For his father, it was the privilege of stepping into the water both as a pastor and as a dad who had spent years helping his son discover faith for himself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

[Photos: Couresty of the Albanian Mission Communication Department]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A young son and an older father choose Jesus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":26672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26669","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\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26669"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26681,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26669\/revisions\/26681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}