Albania Project

About the Albania Project

Where is Albania?

Albania is a country in the region of Europe which is known as the Balkans. It is surrounded by Greece on the south, Serbia-Montenegro on the north and Kosovo and Macedonia on the east and the Adriatic Sea on the west. It is directly east, across the Adriatic from the ‘bootheal’ of Italy. It has a Mediterranean climate and is mountainous with a large plain that sweeps down to the sea.

What is Albania?

Albania is a former Communist country that freed itself from Communism in 1991. It was ruled by a dictator who had complete control over the nation and its people for over 40 years. He declared that ‘there is no God’ and went so far as to break relations with Russia and China because their brand of communism was not pure enough. The country was completely shut off from the rest of the world. Most people in Albania were non-religious before 1991 because of government coercion, but the heritage of people there is about 70% Muslim, 20% Orthodox Christian and 10% Roman Catholic. Muslim and Orthodox organizations have begun to go into Albania and build national organizations. The Evangelical or Protestant Christian movement is somewhat small but having a large impact on the people of this beautiful country. Albanian people are fairly well educated and western in their lifestyle, though poor because of years of neglect to infrastructure and political upheaval.

Why are we there?

In 1991 Simi Covenant’s own Andy Lay was with an organization working in Eastern Europe and visited Albania. He ‘fell in love’ with the country and established an organization to bring the good news of Jesus to the people by distributing Christian literature to every home. Over the years many of us have heard about Albania and had a desire to see it first hand. We have visited twice, once in 2003 and once in 2004. We who have been there have been blessed by making friends and creating relationships with people in Albania and, indeed, fallen in love with this country and its people.

What are we doing in Albania?

Many of you have met, or heard about, our dear friend Eli Mema. Eli was the national director of the organization Andy Lay established. She has been our hostess on our visits and has visited here in Simi Valley. Eli and her brother Memli have become dear friends of Simi Covenant. Memli is an elder in the Disciples of Jesus church in Tirana, the capital city. Memli and his wife Luiza have a ministry in a small, very poor Muslim village outside the capital where they minister to the shut-ins, conduct classes and activities for the children of the village and generally share the love of Jesus with people who have been isolated and forgotten for a long time. Memli also is involved in church planting in the southern part of Albania. We are helping Memli with a small amount of financial help. prayer support and encouragement. We are and exploring ways to to further help him so that he may devote all of his time sharing the love of Jesus with people who have not been able to hear it for over three generations.