September 11, 2010
Thirteen years ago, Gjovalin Bobaj was a WEI correspondence student in Elbasan, Albania. Then, he moved to Montenegro and we lost contact with him. He didn’t finish the WEI course, but he never forgot what he learned.
Last year, when Gjovalin’s daughter, Marsida, decided to study English, he asked her to search for WEI on the Internet. She found us, and Jan Towell assigned her to Jo Byrd Huddleston, one of our Internet teachers in Arkansas.
Jo and Marsida studied together for several months, and Marsida decided to be baptized into Christ. There is no known Church of Christ in Montenegro, so Jo contacted Tom Bonner in Lushnja, Albania and Bledi Valca in Tirana and asked for their help.
On July 19, Tom drove Bledi and his wife, Valbona, and their infant son Lemuel up to Tuzi, Montenegro to meet with Marsida and her parents.
Tom writes, “We met the family consisting of Marsida, her father, Gjovalin, and her mother, Luçi. Arrangements were made for us to travel to a nearby river where the baptism took place.”
Bledi writes, “Marsida is a WEI Internet student who requested baptism. We went to see her, and I baptized her in the Cen River. We also encouraged her to sign her friends to study with WEI.”
Bledi, himself, is an ex-WEI student who came to Christ in the mid-nineties after studying with Jim Hutson of Knoxville, Tennessee. Now, Bledi is a full-time minister with the church in Tirana.
Marsida was born again on Jo Byrd Huddleston’s birthday. Jo’s joy was made complete when she visited Marsida in September. Ellen Walker and two young Albanian men (Sokol and another Bledi) accompanied Jo to Montenegro. Jo writes, “It was even better to see Marsida in person! She was really open and communicative with me, calling me ‘Mum.’
“On Sunday, I arranged for all of us to meet in my hotel room to have our worship service together. Mrs. Bobaj came and listened attentively while Sokol and Bledi gave the devotional talks and prayed for the communion. Also, songs were sung in both Albanian and English. Marsida seemed so full of joy getting to participate with other Christians!”
