A missionary family packed their bags and prepared for a new adventure in Albania! God called Delmar, Nati, and 3-year-old Clara to serve in the 10/40 Window.

“We are both from Brazil. I think God put in our hearts the desire to serve in a different place, in a different environment. In a place where we wouldn’t be comfortable. Somewhere that would challenge both of our ministries.”

“We realized very quickly some of the challenges that we would face preaching and bringing the gospel to this country.”

For years, Albania was a communist territory, banning religion, and declaring it the world’s first and only atheist state. Communism collapsed in 1990, but even today religion doesn’t seem to be a priority for most people.

There are only about 120 Adventists out of nearly three million people living in Albania. Delmar, Nati, and Clara were assigned to serve in the city of Korce [KOR-chuh], at the country’s first Adventist church, built in 1994.

The first year was especially difficult. Despite their efforts, there wasn’t a single baptism or anyone interested in Bible studies.

“At the end of my first year I was really discouraged because I couldn’t see anything big happening in the church. I couldn’t even see anything changing in the church.”

“We associate big things with good numbers, big numbers. In my first year I was trying to do my best, I was working a lot to do something big or something important according to my understanding.”

At the peak of Delmar’s frustration, he received a call to pastor a large church in Brazil. This offer seemed to come at the perfect time, and he shared the exciting news with his wife.

“I came and talked to my wife. We got a call to go back to Brazil. What do you think? We’re not doing anything here anyway. Why don’t we just accept it and leave and that’s it?”

“She looked at me and said, Do you think we did everything we could in Albania? Do you really think that it’s time for us to leave?”

“She said, I personally think that we should stay. The Lord has something prepared for us here. Maybe He wants to teach us something here and still wants to use us.”

So they declined the opportunity in Brazil and prayed about how God could use them in this challenging part of the world.

Delmar and Nati noticed that there were a lot of kids in their neighborhood. Maybe this was a good place to start!

“And then we also realized that Clara could be a good missionary to them. Everytime that we were coming or leaving our home and the kids saw Clara, the kids would say, Clara, Clara, let’s play.”

“We prepared a place to play volleyball and then said to them, Come, let’s play together. This just happened naturally. The kids started coming to the church. They started coming two times a week playing with us. In a few weeks they knew me as a pastor, they knew Nati, they knew Clara very well. We were so excited because now the church was full!”

They recruited help in the form of two Adventist volunteers from Brazil and community volunteers. One of the members, Angela, brought her friend Fatjon [FAHT-ee-ohn] to church with her every few months.

“Fatjon and I just connected as friends. We started talking about God, we started studying the Bible together. I invited him to be part of our group. He was really excited and engaged with us. He said, That’s what I want, I want to participate, I want to help these kids, I want to serve this community. In just a few weeks, he was helping us with the kids and the kids loved him.”

“All these activities brought us together and I had the privilege to baptize Fatjon as my first baptism in Albania. I was so happy to see the Lord answering our prayers.”

The love of Jesus touched Fatjon’s heart and he now shares this with others.

“When we follow Christ’s method, others can see it. I pray for the hearts of the people in the community to warm up and for them to follow Jesus.”

This church has seen many new faces in the past few months. Church members are connecting with the community through a Global Mission Urban Center of Influence. Nati uses her gift of music to teach classes to the kids. They love learning to play the violin. The center also offers language courses and a health club, with plans to branch out with more programs.

“When you try something new and you see it working, it already gives you hope. This gave us motivation to try different things, not just one approach.”

Please pray for this ministry as it continues to grow and integrate into the community. And pray for missionary families like Delmar, Nati, and Clara who are serving on the front lines of mission.

“When we were called to come as missionaries, I thought that I was ready to change the world. But it took me maybe one year to realize that before I do anything, the Lord was trying to change me.”

Thank you for supporting the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church!

Do you like living in Albania?

(Clara nods yes!)

Notes:

. This is the current situation you find your main character in.

Family waiting

. This is an inciting event that changes the course for your main character.

God calls family to go to serve as missionaries

. The trigger results in a quest for your main character to achieve a goal.

The goal is to share Jesus with the people of Albania

. These are complications that prevent your main character from achieving his goal.

No results for a year. No baptisms, little activity in the church, discouragement

. This is when your main character chooses what path to take and confronts the obstacles.

Delmar receives a call for a dream job in Brazil, he’s tempted to take it

. The critical choice results in the climax, the peak of tension in your story.

He chooses to honor his commitment to Albania

. Your character is changed in some way.

He sees that God is using him. People start coming to church, he has his first baptism. He believes God is working through him.

. The story ends with a satisfactory closure.

The church is full and they are getting to know their community better.