Walking into Guri I Themelit (Cornerstone) Church, you will be greeted by sweet young people with a hearty Mirëmengjes (good morning) and then, promptly (ish) with the worshipful strumming and singing of a friendly, humble, and passionate worship leader named Xhulio Poçi (pronounced like Julio Poe-chi). Over the last 2 years I’ve had many coffee’s and worship sessions with Xhulio. As I’ve heard his heart for the church, others, and God I am always left encouraged and in awe of what God is doing in that young man’s life. I couldn’t wait to share his smile and story with the world.
Growing up in a small town in the north of Albania, Xhulio has been blessed to be one of the extremely rare Albanians to be raised with a Christian mother that spoke to him about Jesus from birth. In 1992, when communism fell in Albania, there were missionaries from all over the world that came to share the Gospel of Jesus. Many Albanians were struggling at this time as people suddenly were dealing with a whole new system of living and had very little support. In Xhulio’s home town of Burrell, some missionaries from Brazil came to plant a church and their compassion and generosity shined brightly to his mother, and when invited to church she decided to go. Xhulio’s mother, by tradition, was Catholic and his father was muslim, but neither really knew much about what that meant. When people arrived that could truly show them who God is, teach them about Him, and even more so, show them what true sacrificial love and friendship is, his mother gave her life to Christ. Shortly after, Xhulio was born.
Over the 13 years of learning about Jesus, Xhulio attended church camp and during worship God truly became alive to him.
Back then I had just started trying to learn to play the guitar, trying to learn chords and stuff. I wanted to play at church. The worship time back then, I still remember it… just experiencing like God was really there, close, with arms open waiting for a big embrace. I think that was one of the moments that I understood really that God is personal and is like a friend and father. During that worship time I was just understanding and feeling this embrace around me and just like God saying “I am with you. I’m the God you are trying to follow, so keep doing it.”
Being the only person from a Christian home, Xhulio always struggled to feel close with kids from school and always felt like he had to wear a mask. Most people have felt different than their friends growing up, but when your entire context of faith and way of living is different, it can be a real challenge for a young child trying to develop their identity in middle and high school, especially when your entire country has very few role models to look towards. He finished high school, moved to the capital of Tirana, and his father lost his job all around the same time, creating even more struggles for Xhulio as he started to foster a lot of anger and loneliness.
It was at this time that having a family of believers working to show him love and acceptance made all the difference. Previously, his sister had also accepted Christ and had become really involved in the CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) ministry in Tirana, going to meetings and activities regularly. Her heart broke for her brother, and continually invited him to come to some of the activities only to be met with the stone wall of No. Eventually a crack formed in that wall and he decided to come to one of the meetings because another of his childhood friends was going as well. Unbeknownst to Xhulio, this meeting was the beginning of a 3 week project that he felt compelled to finish. While initially frustrated at his sister, he began to meet people that shattered his expectations and their compassion began to break through. Specifically, Xhulio met Renis.
He was so friendly with me. He knew all about me. He had been talking to my sister about me all this time. What I study, what teams I like, and more. So for me, the first time I met this guy was life changing. Because I was still afraid that he was just saying those things to make me happy. But no. I started realizing that he really cared. That he had only been a believer for just one year. I saw it was real.
Not only did Xhulio feel like he had won a new sense of hope, but his team in the project also won free admission to one of CRU’s English Camps that summer. It was at this camp that Xhulio’s faith became something so much more than just a belief for him.
It was a refreshing time for me. A recommitting to God. Slowly, but understanding that we don’t have to have our hope in people or ourselves, but just to build our hope in God because he is the one that holds our lives. That week I started wanting to start sharing my faith with my friends and challenging them to know Jesus.
From there, Renis became his regular mentor, discipling Xhulio as his brother. God was far from done with Xhulio though. He was just beginning. God brought many other people into his life, such as an American named Alan Bryant, who would passionately and persistently challenge and encourage Xhulio to grow and develop into the incredibly confident, effective, and caring man who currently leads worship every week at Guri I Themelit.
Not only leading worship at church, Xhulio works as administrator to many of the ministries there as well as continuing to pay the love he has been shown forward by mentoring others, and helping develop other young believers into leaders in the church. It is truly a spectacular thing to see his smile light up as he talks about those under his care potentially taking over for him in ministry.
My dream was always to get people together that have different gifts and help them to excel.Tohelp them unpackage their gifts and just enjoy it.The times I grew up the most were the times where I was serving with other people and using my gifts to give them back to God. These are my favorite times. Our dream is that everyone who has a gift will use it.
As we finished up our chat about his story, I asked if there were any particular stories in ministry that really spoke to his heart. He began to tell me about an evening at an english camp 3 years ago on the coast of Albania. After gathering a group of around 70 students and American partners on the beach around a fire, he began to lead them in singing some songs. While singing a worship song by Hillsong, Xhulio noticed one of the Albanian girls singing every word by heart. He asked her what church she went to and if she spoke english. He was amazed to learn that she only rarely attended an orthodox church mostly for just traditional purposes, and didn’t have any idea what the words of the song meant.
I challenged her to come to the church and to see our worship team. She loved to sing but she was very shy.Now she is one of the worship team leaders and leads some of the songs. It was a cool reminder that its not me. Its so beautiful when you are just enjoying what God is doing and asking God to become part of what he is doing.
I’ve been blessed to become a friend of Xhulio Poçi, and to become a part of what God is doing in his life. It’s amazing to see the impact believers like him are having in a country with so few Christians. I hope all that hear of the work men and women like Xhulio and others at Guri I Themelit and CRU, will dedicate themselves to pray for them and the eternally important work they are doing. Xhulio has some big dreams that he isn’t ready to announce publicly quite yet, but as you read his heart below, begin to pray that God would do a great work through him.
I think in albania people aren’t really optimistic, and many people tell you there is no hope. One of my dreams is to do something here that I love and that would help make some people say maybe I don’t want to leave albania. So right now me and some other guys have been meeting for the last year asking what are our dreams and how are we willing to trust God with something we cannot do ourselves, more than what we are doing right now. What would be the next step. Sometimes we say we are trusting God with something we could do ourselves and take credit ourselves. I think the next step is to trust God with something we clearly cannot do on our own.
