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Matt 28:18-20
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
NIV
John 20:10-16
10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside
the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and
saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the
head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they
have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,
but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him
away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means
Teacher).
NIV
NIV
Learn More
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Erik Qirjaqi
WEI Director
Tirana, Albania
Europe
cell: 069-2077079 (15 Aug 04) |
Artan, Rumira, Sofia & Daniel Xhaferi
P.O. Box 8167
Tirana, Albania
Europe
axhaferi@albmail.com
cell: 038-223-4633 |
Sept 2006
Sept 2007
Archive
PHOTOS
Photo Gallery
Campaign 04
 Sunset
International Bible Institute, Albania
Deborah
& Steve
Stamatis |
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Ellen
Walker
Maliq Muça, 37
Tirana, Albania
Phone: 0355-426-2741
Cell: 069-20-77087
lnwalker@albaniaonline.net
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WORLD
ENGLISH INSTITUTE
Rr. Maliq Muca
Nr. 37
Tirana, Albania
Phone local: 228-099
Phone: 355-42-280-99
WEITIRANA@albmail.com
Secretary: Sadete Hoxha
9 - 5 o'clock
Tirana = PST + 9 hr
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Ellen Walker
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| Erik Qirjaqi,
the director of WEI's school in Tirana, and his colleagues report their
work in Tirana here. The long term missionary from America is Ellen Walker. Erik and Anila Qirjaqi and
Artan and Rumira Xhaferi are Albanian leaders. Bledi Valca serves Tirana
and studies there. He is serving in Elbasan also. Bledi writes often. |
The church in Tirana grows consistently by teaching Bible to
students who are at first interested in English. Quickly, the student's interest turns to the
Bible. WEI's school in Tirana, managed by Erik, provides a place for teaching daily. The
future of the church in Tirana looks bright. Older family members are now increasing in
numbers. |
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September 2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the name of the Lord! I hope you are all well and happy in
your service today. I'm doing well. The heat of the summer has broken and
the weather is just about as near prefect as you can get.
Our lives have been hopping with activity and it seems that when we finish
one project another one or sometimes ten present themselves. Last
newsletter I wrote you that I had prepared the curriculum for camp this
year. I was blessed to teach in camp as well, and I was fairly pleased
with the way the lessons worked out. Of course I learned some things that
I'd like to do better next time, but that's to be expected.
Our camp session was a good mix of teens from all over Albania. No one
city was over represented. This accomplished one of the main goals of
Christian Camps everywhere—to help young Christians to know other young
Christians in other places. Even today some of the people that hold
special places in my heart are people with whom I went to summer camp. My
main responsibility was to teach the Bible class each day. I was very
impressed and pleased with the quality of young ladies that we had and how
well they participated in class—many showing a maturity that I had not
previously seen. They blessed me.
Before I got home from camp, I had two ladies in my home for campaigns.
The others came in soon after that. At times we had five ladies in my
house with one bathroom, but we had a good time, and each lady blessed me
in a special way. Thank you, ladies, for coming and giving of yourselves
so freely!
I was especially blessed by three special campaigners. The first two weeks
I had my dear Ervin back from Canada.
You probably remember he immigrated to Canada about a year ago. It was
wonderful to have him back and renew our close friendship. Ervin taught
two weeks in the campaign, was responsible for the youth class twice, and
preached for the church on Sunday as well. There are no words to express
the good it did me personally, but I think the church as well to have
Ervin back with us. He's a special young man that has been blessed by God
with many talents. I'm grateful that he so desires to use them for the
Lord!
The other two special campaigners came from Searcy.
My mother was back for another year of teaching despite a
broken arm, and this time she was able to convince
Charles Pittman to accompany her. Charles has been a friend
of our family for many years, and it was a great blessing to have him with
us this year. His well proven skills as a teacher were a great asset to
the campaign! It was God working in things before we knew we had the need.
Have you noticed that He does that? Charles had decided to come, and they
already had their tickets when my mom fell and broke her arm. With
Charles' help, she was able to continue with her plans to come; we know
she could never have attempted that long trip without him. Praise God they
made it okay. There were some hitches along the way, as there always are
with travel, but in the end they arrived safe and sound.
During Campaigns we had two baptisms. Our sister,
Kledia Lika, was on top of the world as
her best friend, Flavia Dhoqina, and
her sister Iris Lika were both
baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. No doubt, this is
something Kledia has been praying
about for some time. We rejoice with all these sisters.
Another exciting thing happened during campaigns. On August 1, 2006 ground
was broken for reconstruction of our building. This is something we have
been working toward and praying about for several years. With God's help
we have begun, and with His continued care we will finish the work to His
glory! Please pray with us for this work and the safety of the workers as
well.
Summer everywhere is a time of weddings and this summer was no exception
here. Our brother, Vangjel Findiku,
married our sister, Mariana Vllau,
August 5th, and on August 27th our brother, Erjon
Berberi married Juli.
Vangjel is the nephew of Kristofer Findiku,
and Mariana has long been considered the third daughter at the Findiku
household. She and Anisa Findiku have
been best friends for years. It seems it was a match made in heaven, and
truly Vangjel and Mariana's focus in planning their wedding was to glorify
Him. It was a great blessing to be present at their wedding!
Erjon Berberi, many of you remember
because of the years that he has served us at the London. Last year we
rejoiced as his good friend Arjan
baptized him into Christ. This year I rejoiced when Erjon asked me if I
would teach his fiancé. Juli is a
sweet girl, and we pray that someday this family newly united will be
united in Christ as well! Won't you pray with us?
This fall hasn't given much let-down, and that's good.
Doug and Marcia Smith are with me now.
Many of you will remember that Doug has worked in Tirana, Elbasan, Kosova,
and Fier. He and Marcia are here to meet and try to encourage many of
those that he has worked with through the years. It's a blessing to have
them in my home. In October, Mike and Diana
Folkerts are coming to teach, and I'm looking forward to
introducing another couple to the work in Albania. I met Mike and Diana
when I spoke at the Pepperdine Lectures. I made an appeal for workers and
Mike and Diana are answering the call. I know that they will be an asset
to the work here, and I look forward to their coming.
Well, that's a little bit of what's been going on in my life in addition
to the daily ups and downs of helping others to learn to live the
Christian life. My students are a blessing everyday, and I always wish I
could introduce all of you to all of them. I know you'd love them as I do.
My schedule is always a bit of a trial this time of year, so I'd like to
ask you to pray with me that I will find the times for the right
students—the ones that God most wants me to teach. I also want to thank
all of you for your support financially, spiritually, and emotionally. I
know that without your sustaining prayers, I could not continue this work.
You are a blessing, and I thank God for you!
In Christ,
Ellen |
September
2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
"May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by
his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your
hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word." 2 Thessalonians
2:16-17
I pray that you and yours are well and at peace resting in God’s grace!
How time flies when you’re having fun! Let me catch you up a bit.
Youth Activities
Since Kody Speer came earlier this
year, we in the youth steering committee have tried hard to follow the
advice and methods that he taught us. I feel that we’ve done a bit better
job than we did last year in planning the lessons and activities toward a
planned objective. I know there are things that could be improved, but we
are working toward that end. One of the things that
Kody encouraged and that we have practiced and found
beneficial is the use of calls and text messages to encourage those that
are a part of our group to be more faithful in attendance. The expense
incurred is well worth it when you see someone you invited come. One of
the fun things that we did this year is to have a Karaoke night. We all
had a great time, and it brought in people that hadn’t been there in a
while.
During our Annual Youth Day this year, we also incorporated some of the
things Kody taught us. Steve Byrne,
who moved to Albania last year to work in Fier, was a speaker for the day.
He spoke on True Freedom and True Happiness and
Sokol Haxhiu translated. I think the day went off well. We had
a talent show in which several of the youth participated, and we played
some games. We also gave out a key chain to each attendee that contained
the logos for the day, designed by our multi-talented brother,
Flori Pollo. In addition,
Lee Allen, who was visiting, had
brought enough “WWJD” bracelets for everyone as well. The event was closed
with some funny film shorts and a PowerPoint including pictures from all
the groups that submitted pictures and catered finger foods. It was a
great day!
Ladies’ Activities
The ladies’ class continues to be an encouragement for me, and I hope for
others as well. We have been talking about communication and the way we
communicate with our friends, family, Christians, and the lost. We’ve been
following a book written by Sandra Humphrey.
Mrs. Humphrey’s lessons have been a blessing. At the request of the ladies
we have also done two Bible chains designed to teach people the gospel,
and in conjunction with this several sisters learned the books of the Old
and New Testaments, and they said them for me and won a little prize.
In April the ladies of Elbasan hosted the annual Ladies’ Day.
Rumira Xhaferaj, Ruth Byrne, and I
were invited to speak for the day. The theme for the day was the
Challenges of the Christian Woman. My assigned topic was the Challenges of
the Christian Woman in the church. I took the opportunity to present the
gospel since I felt that there would be several ladies visiting with us
that day that did not know what it means to be “in the church.” After that
I talked about glorifying God with the way we talk, the way we act, and
the way we dress. The best laid plans often come to naught, however;
though I had prepared a PowerPoint for my lesson, that day the restaurant
that had been rented for the event—a beautiful historic castle—had no
electricity. These are things that cannot be controlled, so we did the
best we could. I got several good comments on my lesson, and I want to
thank Valbona Valca, Vera Kura, Darina Vorfi, and
Rezarta Ibrahimi who worked so hard for the success of the day.
I’d also like to thank those men that helped as well,
Bledi Valca, who worked tirelessly,
Steve Byrne, Tom Bonner, Flori Pollo, Sokol
Thanati, Arjan Muça, and Kristofer Findiku. I hope I didn’t
miss anyone. The ladies passed out notebooks, pens, pencils and each lady
also received a pair of sweatpants as well. These were sponsored by World
Vision Elbasan.
Guests
We’ve also had several guests come and bless us with their presence. In
April we had Lee Allen, who always comes bearing gifts and ready to teach
until he drops (which let me tell you doesn’t happen often—none of us can
keep up with him). Lee also sponsored a barbeque for us. He is a tireless
servant!
Carl and Frankie Mitchell were back
with us this year and Carl did some teaching on discipline of children. In
addition to his teaching, Carl and Frankie brought me some gluten-free
food from Italy which was much appreciated. Also thanks to
Kim Edwards who
put me on to Italy as a source of gluten-free food!
In June my dear dear friend Hannah Campbell
Troyer and her dear husband, Dan, came to work with us. Many of
you will remember that Hannah is the daughter of
Butch and Suzanne Campbell that worked here for several years.
Two of those years Hannah lived here
too, until she left to go to Harding for college. Albania still is very
close to her heart, and Dan has grown attached to it too. They hope to
come back and work in a few years on a full-time basis. We pray that they
will be able to, if that is the will of God. In addition to teaching
classes, Hannah and Dan visited some old friends and worked in the
library. Hannah had worked with her mother when she was first working to
get the library set up and catalogued, so she was able to do what needed
to be done. She worked tirelessly, it seemed to me. She also used her
special love of cooking to entertain some. We had a blessed time together.
During July we were blessed to have Greg and
LaDon Weston visit. Greg and LaDon are close friends of
Art and Dorothy Hitt, and Art
encouraged them to come over. In fact this trip was planned for last year,
and Greg had some health problems that postponed their trip. We were so
glad to have them, and have LaDon teach the ladies’ class. In addition we
had Jan Allen, Bev Hines, and Pam Richards
that guest taught the ladies’ class. We were blessed by each one.
Other Activities
One of the highlights of the year and maybe of the decade for us has been
the dedication of our new building. July twenty-first was set as the day
for the long awaited event. It was great to see our new auditorium full of
parents, friends, and Christians who haven’t been attending. It was truly
a wonderful day. Artan Xhaferi served
as master of ceremonies; Artan Samara
spoke about our history together; Flori Pollo,
our architect; talked about his inspiration in designing the building;
Erik Qirjaqi, our engineer, talked
about the process of building; and Bill Morgan
issued a challenge for us for the future. We showed a
PowerPoint that I had done about a year ago for our graduation
celebration, and Daniela Zhusti and Sokol Thanati
created a video by editing together some interviews with several of the
members and children about what the church means to them. That was the
highlight of the evening for me. Arjan Hyka
organized a potluck/barbeque/catered light supper to cap the evening off
on the terrace under the stars.
Baptisms
From the time we started building our new building with a baptistery
inside, I think we’ve all been wondering who would be the first to be
baptized in it. There had been several possibilities come to my mind, but
God has a great sense of paradox it seems to me. The Saturday before
campaigns started, many of the campaigners were already here, and
Bill Morgan was at the building doing
some studying—those of you that know Bill won’t be surprised at that.
While he was there a young man walked in and asked, “Are you
Randy?” This young man is an American,
who is working as part of the Peace Corps in Kukës. He had been dating a
Christian girl in the states, and she had been talking to him about God.
He had finally decided to be baptized, and he looked the church up on the
internet. When he found it listed there the contact person was still
listed as Randy Richards. He came down
several hours from Kukës to be baptized into Christ. Isn’t that a great
twist?
Also during the campaign we added a new sister to
our number. Diana Blaka studied with
Michael Mathews, Bev
Hines, and Mom. She was baptized into Christ on August 10th. I
have contacted her to study farther, but so far she is busy and can’t
come.
The last baptism that I want to tell you about is definitely a highlight
for us all here in Tirana. Shirli Samara
is the daughter of Artan and Beki Samara.
She is the first of our children that are growing up in the church to ask
to be baptized. It was a tearful occasion for all of us. As her father
stood before us and told about how Shirli had asked and been put off for a
little while just to ask someone from the campaign to talk to her and
teach her a bit more; how she had requested a private talk and he had
forgotten; how she came after him and told her dad that she wanted to make
things right with God before they left on their vacation the next day. As
she buried her face in her daddy’s chest hiding her tears of joy, Artan
tearfully told us all that that was the happiest day of his life. It was a
wonderful day for us all. Maybe you’d like to share this kind of
celebration next year. It’s a great way to spend your vacation!
It’s been nice to visit with you for awhile. Sometimes writing a
newsletter seems that we’ve had a nice chat. I hope you feel that way too.
I pray that God is blessing you daily. I know that he is.
May God bless and keep you!
Ellen
PS. I hope you will rejoice with us too in the birth of a baby girl,
Deliza, to Sokol and Stela Haxhiu.
          
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