Protection / Albania

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A Taste of Heaven? Oh, yeah!

Albania-AERO Projekt-1998

     As I described before, I was part of the AERO Projekt for ten years. The summer project of 1998 has always been one of my favorites for a number of reasons that I shall share in future stories. But the story I want to tell now was one that has had a tremendous impact on me from that time until now.

    My team of six was made up of Dennis, Terri, Besiana, Lindita, Ari, and myself. We had a great first three days of the cycle as we showed the Jesus Film in three villages on consecutive nights. We then went back to our base camp and prepared our team to go to the village that had the best response to the Film, and then go back for three days to do follow-up with the villagers.

We spent the next two days in training and on the third morning we were to go back to our village of choice. We had decided to go back to the third village because of their enthusiasm for the Gospel of Jesus, and also because before we left they had begged us to come back to their home. Our teams schedule to leave for the village by Land Rover was to be at 8 o’clock that third morning.

     All of the teams in the base camp were buzzing and eager to get back out into the villages. Everyone was ready way early to load up at their scheduled times. Our team was to be one of the first to leave since our village was relatively close to the camp. Our time of departure came and went without any teams leaving.

     After about a half an hour past our departure time, and with no other teams leaving I began to get the sense that something was wrong. I walked across the court yard and saw the soon to be appointed national director, Dan talking with some other CCC staff. I thought, “Well there’s Dan.” I hadn’t seen Dan in the base camp since I had arrived in Albania.

     Nearly an hour late, all the internationals (Americans, some Dutch, and a Swiss) were called into the meeting shelter. No one had any idea what was going on. Dan stood before the group and informed us that the United States Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya had just been bombed, and that a threat had been made against the U.S. Embassy in Albania. Dan said that the State Department had issued a warning stating that we were in ‘grave danger’, and that they high recommended we leave Albania. Dan said that Land Rovers would take us to the airport as soon as they could arrange for us to leave. He went on to say that he and the rest of the international staff were going to stay. This decision was based on the situation a year earlier when Albania went into a state of civil war forcing all the internationals to leave for a period of time. They felt like they had abandoned their Albanian team mates and they had no intention of being run out again.

     The news of the bombings was very upsetting for all of us. After the initial shock, tears, and heartache we needed to decide what to do next. The grief quickly turned to anger from me and many of the others. I felt that the first half of the cycle for every team had been such a huge success, and this was a distraction by the enemy to get us to quit before we were done.

     I asked, “What if we don’t want to leave?” My thinking was that we were in remote villages among a people that loved and cared for us while we were their guests. The danger was for groups of Americans, not one or two scattered in hard to reach mountain villages. Everyone in that meeting quickly voiced their desire to stay.

     Dan said if we were going to stay, then we were going to have to sign a document stating that we had been informed of the potential danger, and against the advice of the State Department, and despite the fact that we had heard that the Embassy was going to evacuate some of its personnel, we were choosing to stay. We all quickly looked for pens and signed the document.

     Afterward our Albanian team mates came into the meeting shelter and sat with us by team. They were still buzzing and excited about the follow-up cycle, and had heard nothing about the bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. When my team sat next to Dennis and Teri and I, they could tell something was weighing heavily on our hearts.

     Dan then began explaining to them what had happened in the Albanian language. He hadn’t gotten far when the Albanians burst into tears and cries and crowded around each of us as they began holding us  closely, and rubbing and patting our backs.

     Besiana tried to speak with tears running down her cheeks as she stood up and hugged me tightly saying, “Oh, Robi, you are going to have to leave us?” I was too emotional to say anything.

     Dan continued in Albanian, and then held up the document we had all signed stating we were staying. What happened next was the most remarkable explosion of emotion I had ever witnessed. The place absolutely erupted with cheers, and praises of thanksgiving, gratitude, hugs and hand shakes, and weeping uncontrollably, but this weeping was for joy. I had never, ever experienced such an out pouring of love as I did that day by those wonderful Albanian friends.

     I knew that we had been blessed with a glimpse  of what heaven was going to be like . All it took was an audacious faith in an Almighty God and not to concentrate on our circumstances. We were cautious, but as it turned out the second half of the AERO cycle was even more successful than the first—but that is for other stories.

     The Albanian villagers did go out of their way to protect us. They were actually thankful we stayed. The home we stayed in was high up on a mountain over looking the central plains of Albania and we could see the main road from Durrës, a major port city to the capitol, Tirana. For the rest of our time there we watched Italian Army convoys heading for Tirana. At the same time, Serbians were attacking Kosovars not far away and NATO planes and helicopters flew over head frequently, but we were never in danger.

     Our attitude was that God would protect us, but even if He didn’t protect us, at least in the way we commonly think of protection, we knew that His will was for us to continue what we had been doing in the villages.

     I have since been to Nairobi, Kenya and seen the sight of where the U.S. Embassy used to be. It is a stark reminder that evil thrives in our world. We who are able should try to make the world better so that when evil arises it will not have such a devastating foot hold.

I am thankful for God’s provision and strength, and I am truly thankful for my Albanian friends who I refer to as my ‘loved ones’.

May God bless you until next time!

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