July 6, 2012
After teaching WEI students in our summer campaign in Tirana, Brian and Chris Leavitt conducted a Suicide Intervention Seminar at the church building. This seminar was especially appropriate since there have been a rash of suicides in Albania in recent years.
Brian lists a series of events in his life that have prepared him and Chris for this seminar. Brian says, “The thread that binds them all is God. . . God is powerfully at work to bring about his purposes.”
Interestingly, my favorite student this summer was Kristi Qendro. Kristi had just completed a university research paper on suicide intervention. When I left Albania, Kristi became Brian’s student. Later, Kristi not only attended the suicide intervention seminar; she was a significant source of information that enriched the seminar and paved the way for a new ministry in Albania.
During the seminar, I received an e-mail from a young Albanian woman named Migena Shulla. She wrote, “I was invited to a training [seminar] located at Church of Christ in Tirana. I work for World Vision, and the topic was beneficial to the work I do. I met there some very interesting people. One of them was Art Hitt. I learned from him and from other church members about World English Institute. I was thinking to myself that WEI was a wonderful, encouraging project. We went down to the kitchen of the church to have lunch, and I thought I would have a look at the books. You cannot believe how much I was surprised to look at those booklets. I knew them. They were familiar to me. I learned with those books many years ago.
“I remembered that I had placed them in a special box at my home where I keep all those dear materials that first taught me about God. When I went home, I opened the box and found all the books I used to study and the certificates I had received. I started thinking about how much I had appreciated those teachings. Eighteen years ago, I had no idea about God . . . I could not believe that WEI is operating in Albania, and now you have face-to-face teaching. My Christian journey started at that time eighteen years ago through these booklets.
THANK YOU! I heard you were in Albania. . . . Such a shame I missed the opportunity to meet you.”
Migena comes from a Muslim background, but she was reared as an atheist. Her atheist parents would not allow her to attend church, but they wanted her to learn English, so they allowed her to study WEI. Today, Migena, her husband Tedi, her brother, and both parents are believers, and Migena teaches a Ladies Bible Class.
