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Albanians find Jesus in Greece

Greece | OM International

New believersThe OM Greece team has organised Albanian camps in Greece for the past 10 years, and as of next year, they will be handing over the work to local Albanians to organise and manage.

As always, the OM team leader’s telephone rang a lot during the days of preparation, and the numbers of people announcing that they would come grew by the day. It promised to be one of the best-attended camps ever.

For the first time this year, many Albanians joined the camp from the first evening onwards. As cars drove into the campsite, Gezim (whose name means joy), the Albanian organiser of the camp who will take over leadership soon, approached the OM team leader with a great smile. 

Instead of the two families he had hoped for, seven families from Katerini, his hometown, had announced they would attend the camp. They all shared the same grandparents, Ylli and his wife, and were related to each other. Will we have places for so many? Gezim wondered, as the camp was almost full already. 

Never have so many openly responded to the gospel during the camp.

God worked in a very special way in this family, as at least six of them—amongst them Ylli, his wife and other adult family members—decided to become followers of Jesus during one of the meetings.

“Never have so many openly responded to the gospel during the camp,” reported the OM team leader. “As we gave our farewell speech, we could not hold back our tears. This is worth all the effort over all these years, seeing God working in the lives of our Albanian friends.” 

Ylli showed that he was serious about his new faith when he and his son asked about buying a Bible just before leaving the camp.

“While embracing Ylli, I thanked God,” said Gezim. “Although our ministry here has stopped, [God] will continue to work in ways greater than we could ever imagine!”

Credit: OM International
© 2011 OM International email

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