Ministry to Gerdec's victims

On Saturday, Chelle joined 12 others people from our church to minister to some of the victims of the explosion in Gerdec, Albania on March 15th. This explosion occurred during an accident when the Albanian government was trying to dispose of excess munitions from the communist era. The city of Gerdec is about 15 miles outside of Tirana and the blast shook windows in the center of Tirana. About 30 people were killed, over 300 were injured, 412 homes were destroyed, 3,800 others were damaged and artillery shells were scattered over 15 square miles.


This is a photo of a house that belonged to one of the women I met on Saturday.
The majority of the people in Gerdec had to leave their houses with all their belongings inside. Just a couple of days later, we had a few days of very heavy rain and this added to the loss of their belongings. This situation was more than just a physical tragedy. The Albanian people were shocked and dismayed when, during the investigation, it came out that there was government corruption in a grand scale that contributed to this event. One high level official resigned due to his part in the situation. The poor people of Gerdec had nothing left but what they left with on their backs. Their livelihoods are taken away and they have no money to rebuild their houses. Most of those people have not lived outside of that village all of their lives and have no idea what they will do now. Albania and other nations have helped them greatly by providing housing at some hotels in the area these past months. Our church has been going to minister to a group of these victims for the past few months. We have brought clothes, food, water, diapers, soap, detergent, and some other necessities. Of course, our ultimate desire is for to build relationships with these people and share the hope of the gospel. From what we area told our church is the ONLY one that has been ministering to these people.
Here we are getting ready to leave for the 1 hour drive. We had a sweet time of fellowship and prayer during the travel. We also saw a terrible, fatal accident on the road. It was sobering time as we remembered how our lives are but a vapor and that we need to be taking every opportunity to share the gospel and live lives of integrity in this dark land.
When we arrived at the hotel we met many women and children. Most of the men are gone trying to find work or clear the land to build housing again. They are only going to housed by the government for another month or so. I met these two wonderful women, Suzanna (in red) and Fellenxa(in brown). They don't speak any English, so it was a great opportunity for me to put into practice what I have been learning these past months in my language studies. They were very gracious as I stumbled over words and tenses. Fellenxa hardly left my side all day. The photo of the demolished house is Fellenxa's.
Elona, in the middle, is a single gal that befriended us. Bruna, in the white, is from our church and is one of my dear friends. Elona seemed very interested in why we were there and open to hearing what we had to say. Our group brought a variety of Christian women's magazines, with an evangelistic message, to hand out to the women at the hotel. They received them gratefully and many of them were starting to read them while we were there.
The children were one of the reasons that we were so warmly welcomed. They were some of the first to approach us and want to talk and play. They also wanted to take lots of pictures and then see themselves on the screen.

Here is a 49 second video of the kids singing "He's got the whole world in His hands" in Albanian. They have been learning it over the past couple of months and were quick learners. We put on a small children's program and taught them about the reality of the existence of God, even though they can not see Him. For many of these children, growing up in a post-communistic nation has left them without any concept of God. We also played games and did a small craft with them. They were so excited to have us there with them.

What a privilege for me to get to serve with my church in this way. Although I could not communicate in a way that I would like, I was encouraged that God allowed me to communicate, in Albanian, enough to make some friends and let them know that we care for them because of the love of God.

Please pray for these people that God would use this tragedy in their lives to draw them to Himself.
Pray that the relationships that we have been building over the past months would result in the opportunity to share the gospel and see these dear friends come to Christ. They have seen in us something different. I pray that they would read the material we gave them and that God would open their eyes to His majesty and their need for a Savior.
Pray for the nation of Albania. It seems that for the first time people are realizing how depraved mankind can be.
Pray that they would see themselves as sinners and not just look at those responsible for the Gerdec situation as culpable. My prayer is that is explosion would blast their view of the goodness of humanity and that they would see the reality of how desperate we all are for redemption by a holy and just God.
Pray that our church would continue to pursue these people even after they are settled in homes. There are most likely not any churches in walking distance of their village and maybe we can provide some spiritual help for them.
Pray that we, as Christians, would be reminded by this situation how vital it is that we live everyday with a kingdom mindset. God has placed us in this country, at this time, to be His hands and feet and mouth to these hope-less, desperate people. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day living that we forget to look outside of ourselves, our church, our home and see God's big picture.