During the past thirteen years, approximately 1,100 people have been baptized into Christ in Albania, most of them from Muslim backgrounds. Churches have been planted in Berate, Kosova, Durrës, Elbasan, Fier, Korca, Lushnja, Orikum, Pogradec, Pelican, Shkodër (now inactive), Tirana, Ure Vajgurore, and Vlorë, plus the ethnic Albanian congregation in Prizren, Kosova.
Missionaries have come and gone through the years, often leaving behind fledgling churches without trained leaders. Hence, there is an urgent need to train men to help these churches grow—and to plant new churches in Albania and other Balkan countries.
By the providence of God, this urgent need is being met. Steve and Deborah Stamatis are now in Albania heading up a leadership training school. By the time you read this newsletter, the doors of International Bible Institute of Albania are open, and Steve will be teaching at least ten students.
IBIA is an affiliate of Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock, Texas, and Steve is serving as the Dean. The Adams Blvd. Church of Christ in Bartlesville, Oklahoma is sponsoring and partially supporting Steve and is providing three full-time student scholarships at $400 each per month.
The Cordova congregation in Rancho Cordova, California is donating one full-time scholarship, and the church in Higden, Arkansas is sending $100 a month. We still need $300 a month to complete one more full-time scholarship and six part-time scholarships at $200 each per month. Who will help us equip these churches?
By providing student scholarships, you are helping Steve and the Albanian churches train teachers, preachers, and spiritual leaders in a region where Paul preached the Good News in the first century (Romans 15:19). Illyricum derived its name from the Illyrians, the ancestors of modern Albanians.
Once completed, the 7,500 square foot building will be used seven days a week, year around. The Tirana church will conduct its worship services, Bible classes, seminars, training classes, weddings, funerals, and fellowship activities there.
World English Institute will conduct its short-term mission campaigns there each summer. Long-term missionaries and nationals will teach their students there—twelve months a year. International Bible Institute of Albania will teach its courses there. The building will also provide teaching space for visiting professors from NationsUniversity, and NU students will be tested there. The library will be available to anyone who wants to study God’s word.
This building will have three floors. The basement will have a lobby, fellowship hall, kitchen, youth lounge/classroom, toilet, and benevolence room. The ground floor will have offices, restrooms, classrooms, and a library with computers.
The upper floor will contain an auditorium that seats 270 people, a lobby, and a rest room. A covered roof top garden will accommodate outdoor worship services, fellowship gatherings, and weddings. The total cost of this multi-purpose facility is estimated at $275,000 including a large automatic generator that will provide electricity for the building when the power goes off—which is almost daily.
Thanks to the generosity of Christians across the country, the needed funds have been raised. We are especially grateful to the brothers in Maryville, Tennessee who have pledged or contributed more than $100,000 (including the generator) during the past four months. Praise God for his spiritual and material blessings. He is good. So are his people.
Michelle Goff, missionary in Caracas, Venezuela, reports that she and the ministry team in East Caracas “have taken advantage of the interest in the English language and North American culture.
“At the beginning of December, the World English Institute classes, hosted by the East Caracas Church of Christ, gathered for an end-of-the-year activity to celebrate the graduation of five students from the first level of the Advanced English Classes. Two of the students in that class are Arab Catholics.
“These students in the advanced class are not the only ones benefiting from a study of the Word using the English language. The beginning class students have also appreciated a less confrontational introduction to the Lord’s Church and His Word. Several have visited the church for Sunday morning services and have agreed to a personal Bible study with the preacher or local missionary.”
Vasile Iuhos, Minister of the church in Oradea, Romania, writes, “We are using WEI materials in our outreach. My schedule is based on WEI materials. I have on Monday two English classes for beginners where I use the three WEI books. I’m studying the Bible with about six students through the WEI intermediate and advanced courses.
“Brother Alex Hevesi is using the beginner course in his village, teaching the gypsy kids English. He has between thirteen and fifteen students. “Also our sister Magdalena Luchici is teaching her school colleagues English using WEI books. Maddy is doing the same in Arad, helping them follow up their summer campaign.”
Tom Langley reports that two young men “were recently baptized in Oradea. Both were WEI students. Alex Gondor (left) has completed the advanced course. He studied in two summer short-term missions with teachers from the Tenth Street church of Christ in Opelika (AL). One of his teachers for both years was Sally Duer. “Levente Tantos (right) has studied the WEI beginner’s course with Vasile.”
Joanna Martin Howard, an elementary school teacher and WEI Internet teacher tells an interesting story about Moses Kamwendo.
In August 2015, Moses Kamwendo’s name app
Steve and Suzie Winham have been using WEI materials in La Paz, Mexico for several years. In one of their e-mails, they said, “This Spanish WEI ministry is taking off so fast our heads are spinning. What a wonderful ‘invention’ and way to spread the good news. We received RAVE REVIEWS from the students about the Beginner’s English Course!”
In another letter, the Winhams wrote, “There is a tremendous interest, desire, and need for people to learn English. We had real estate agents, nurses, hospital clerks, a police woman, a postal worker, two lawyers, a seamstress, a restaurant head waiter, various store clerks, and several teens and children enrolled.
“We also conducted classes for students more proficient in English by using the WEI Basic English and Bible Course. The first two days, there were 90 people that attended the classes. Attendance dropped on the third day to 50. Of those 50, about 25 were in attendance nearly every day.
“The week after we left La Paz to return home, the local preacher, Alejandro Somoza, reported to us that 15 students are continuing the classes with him twice a week.
“The WEI course is very effective with Spanish speaking students.”
eared on the list of prospective students on the WEI website, and Joanna claimed him as a student. Joanna says, “Moses continued with his lessons, though there were times when he was not able to work on them. He worked through the Intermediate lessons throughout 2016 and 2017.
“In March of this year, he started the Advanced Course. He worked on the lessons about baptism throughout this spring. In May, after completing the lesson on ‘The Purpose of Baptism,’ he came to the question, ‘What have you learned in this lesson?’ His answer was that he had learned he needed to be baptized to have his sins forgiven.
“That comment set in motion an amazing chain of events. I emailed Jan Towell to see if we could find a Christian contact in his area. In her nightly email message to the WEI teachers, she asked if anyone had contacts in Malawi. Sallie Rose Hollis, from Louisiana, knew of a preacher in Malawi named Gift Makwinja. Sallie sent Gift’s email address to Jan, and Jan notified Gift about Moses. The two men got in touch with each other and arranged to meet. Gift’s home is about five hours away from Moses’ home, but Gift made the long journey and studied with Moses. At the end of their study, Moses was baptized in the Mombeze River, almost three years after he started the WEI lessons.
On January 7, during the Albania-Romania Mission Workshop in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Bob and Jan Towell were honored with the Christian Service Award. Bob and Jan are Coordinators of WEI Internet Studies. They are responsible for teaching people about Christ by e-mail in 155 countries, and they do this without remuneration. They say, “Our pay is out of this world.” Praise God for Bob and Jan.
Fred Uptagrafft reports that two of his WEI students, Emilio Callo and his wife Shirley, were baptized on Monday December 19. Brother Jed Fuentes of Nag City Church of Christ served as the baptizer. The Central Church of Christ in Baguio City has offered to help Emelio start a church in his home and to mentor him on how to be an effective servant of the Lord.
God is now using WEI to teach people about Christ in 185 countries. The UN lists a total of 195. Let’s praise God and pray for the other ten.
What an exciting two months it has been since our last Update newsletter. It has been a privilege to participate in the World Mission Workshop at Harding University, the Euro American Military and Missionary Retreat in Rothenburg, Germany, and the Albania Romania Mission Workshop in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
It continues to amaze and encourage us to meet so many evangelists and missionaries who have successfully used WEI as a tool for introducing people to God’s word. Many others are now planning, for the first time, to use the WEI curriculum in their outreach ministries. They recognize the unlimited potential for reaching lost souls with the word of God using a combination of Bible and English courses.
It was a special thrill and inspiration to meet Bob Buchanan and Ken Wilkey and their wives in Rothenberg. They have spent their lives teaching and ministering to the beautiful people of the Philippines. Over the last 50 years, thousands of Filipinos have become Christians and hundreds of churches have been established. We currently have many
correspondence students in the Philippines, and we plan to work with these two brothers to expand this work.
From Rothenburg I traveled to Romania to meet with brothers from six cities, who are hosting WEI short-term teachers this summer. It was such a joy to see my Romanian brothers again and to hear of all the good things happening in the Romanian churches of Christ. The organizational groundwork for our 2006 short-term mission teams has now been laid, not only in Romania, but also in Albania, Finland, Nicaragua, and Taiwan.
We still have many places for additional teachers on these teams. If you are interested in teaching WEI one-to-one in any of these countries this summer, please give our Maryville office a call immediately.
Angie and I and the WEI board of directors would again like to express to you our heartfelt thanks for your support. You are mentioned in our family prayers every night. May God be with you. We love you. —Tom and Angela Langley
Times are changing, and we are being forced to rethink our strategy for world evangelism. We still need correspondence teachers who teach people through the mail, but more and more people are getting computers. Now, we can teach people by e-mail at virtually no cost. Bob Patterson, our WEI Webmaster, and Bob and Jan Towell, Coordinators of WEI Internet Studies, are on the cutting edge.
We are also getting requests for WEI materials from national preachers in Ghana, India, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Philippines, Uganda, etc. They recognize the value of the materials for evangelistic outreach, and they want to use them, but most of them have no money. If we provide free materials for these evangelists, God can use them to reach more people that we can reach by regular mail or e-mail alone. If this is God’s will, he will provide the funds.
Mike Hale received an interesting letter from Daniel Kiptoo Kasis, one of his WEI students in Kenya. The student wrote, “I wish I could slaughter a goat for you as we do it in our tribe as a token of appreciation. I hope God will show me how best to say thank you. Bye for now, Uncle Mike. Have a blessed day. My parents had the photo you sent me framed and hanged on the wall.”
Enoch and Jeannine Thweatt have been leading teams of short-term missionaries to Taiwan to teach WEI students the past two years. One of Enoch’s Chinese students looked around the room at six other teachers and students and said, “It is not right to do this for a short time two times a year. If we do this year around for the next two years, we can have a strong church here in Tien Mou.” After praying about it, Enoch and Jeannine decided to sell their house in Nashville and return to Taiwan. They are trying to recruit enough teachers for an ongoing WEI campaign nine months out of the year.
Thank you, dear friends, for your constant support and encouragement. May God reward you. We appreciate you, and we love you.
—Dick and Maudine Ady
