January 4, 2002
About five years ago, KetiThanasi spent the summer in Tirana, studied the WEI Bible course with Wayne Speer, and was baptized into Christ. When she returned to her home in Fier and started teaching school that fall, she carried the Good News about Christ with her. She has been the backbone of the church in Fier ever since.
Through the years, Virgil and Jackie Jackson have driven up to Fier from Vlorë to conduct worship services on Sunday afternoon. Art Hitt and others have led about thirty people to Christ in WEI summer campaigns. But the church in Fier has been predominantly female — until recently.
Two years ago, Art Hitt taught and baptized Luan Hassenbeliu and his wife. When Doug Smith moved to Fier last summer, Luan became Doug’s companion and fellow-evangelist.
As Andrew brought his brother, Simon Peter, to Jesus (John 1:40-42), so Luan has brought numerous men to study with Doug.
In his September report, Doug sent a picture of forty-year-old Albert Shahini standing by the Adriatic Sea, the site of his baptism.
Doug commented, “This is our new brother in Christ. He is a colleague of Luan, my ‘Andrew.’ Luan just keeps bringing more and more men for me to study with. He is not ashamed of the gospel. He has been more than a brother to me in Fier.”
On September 1, Doug and Luan held their first Sunday service in Zharrez, a village near Fier. Nine people attended, including seven Christians and two non-Christians. A month later, the attendance at Zharrez was thirty-seven.
On October 20, forty-eight people attended the Sunday worship service in Zharrez. Within a six-week period, the attendance shot up from twelve to forty-eight. God is at work in Zharrez.
On the evening of October 31, the night before Doug was scheduled to depart for Kosova and America, two of his students (Benjamin Cakrani and Ylli Binaj) decided they wanted to be baptized.
Doug said, “If Paul could baptize the Philippian jailer in the wee hours of the morning after being beaten and thrown into jail, I could surely handle the late hour.” So he baptized them in Vlorë.
The next day, Doug left Fier and drove to Prizren, Kosova to renew the license plates on his car. When he returned to Tirana, he found Fatmir, one of his students from Fier, waiting for him. Fatmir had decided to be baptized into Christ before Doug left for the United States.
During the past three months, the number of adult men in the Fier congregation has grown from one to six. Attendance at the Sunday morning worship service has risen to about forty.
