Believers of Albania: Xhulio Poçi

by Jaron | May 14, 2019 | Travel

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. 

Beleivers of Albania: Elis Resuli

by Jaron | Oct 3, 2018 | Travel

Albania is a country full of people looking for truth. Throughout communism, they were told they were a country who didn’t believe in a god. Officially, they were an atheist country. After communists handed over control of the country to democratic hands (to differing degrees depending on who you ask, but I won’t get into that here) people were open to finally seek out for themselves what they believed. Many of them were told by their family forbearer, “We are Muslim,” or, “We are catholic,” but had little knowledge of what that meant. The majority of people of both religious are left having a name of a religion they claim, and maybe with a few traditions they don’t understand, but lacking the power of knowing the god whom they claim, not knowing what it could mean to serve them with confidence and passion.

Meet Elis Resuli.

Growing up, Elis was always told he was Muslim, but would celebrate whatever holidays were common in his area wether it be catholic or otherwise. For a period he lived in Greece and learned a little about Jesus at an orthodox church, but as with the Muslim religion he was presented with, it had little impact on his life. He described himself as a person who cared only about himself, and what pleased him on any given day. What else was there anyway? While he was seeking fun, looking back he describes his life as being a lonely mess. Going to coffee shops and spending time with people, it was still all just emptiness.

When Elis went to University in Tirana, he met an unusual group of people. Elis started attending events Instituti Jeta e Re (New Life Institute, or CRU as it’s known in the US) to continue the trend in his life to simply find something fun to do to fill his time. They offered entertaining social events, as well as generally beneficial opportunities like english learning camps, so why not?

While there he found himself drawn to the people. They cared.

Then came Easter. As he heard the story of what Christ had done for him, he finally found something worth truly seeking out. Sajmir Troksi, a minister who works with IJR, met many times with Elis over a couple years to offer him friendship and support. Sajmir showed him that serving the Lord is a far more worthwhile endeavor than serving ourselves, and even further, that this God who sacrificed himself for a people who didn’t deserve it wants a deep and abiding relationship with him specifically.

To Elis, Sajmir was the vessel by which God showed Elis his love. The amazing thing is that Sajmir was a student just like Elis before he came to know the Lord in a similar way. Now, Elis is filled with new purpose. Thanks to him, more than 10 other students have already been introduced ti IJR and he is one of the most passionate and involved students in the ministry. One other student has even accepted Jesus as his savior directly as a result of Elis sharing his faith with him.

The community and dedication to friendship and discipleship at this ministry is truly a sight to see. I personally was blessed with the opportunity to watch Sajmir baptize Elis in the Adriatic sea this summer (pictured below) and witness the peace and passion in Elis’ eyes. I can’t personally converse with him much, as my Albanian isn’t so good yet, but I see him often at church and at IJR events, obviously filled with joy having found a greater purpose.

I hope to continue telling the tales of joy and redemption taking place in Albania. As many people in the world only know Albania from the kidnappers in the movie TAKEN, I have found it to be a much different place where God is doing amazing things in the lives of people here. While Elis’ story is unique to him, there are many other incredible stories I have yet to tell. Keep an eye out here and on my instagram (@DeiGratiaPhoto) for more of what is happening here, and follow the IJR social media pages as well to see photos and updates on what they are doing!

IJR Social Media:

Instagram: @ijr_student_21 , @ijr_student_tirana ,and more!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ijrstudenttirana/

Believers of Albania: Pal & Ueda

by Jaron | Sep 19, 2018 | Travel

Sometimes it can be difficult to find the words for exactly what you find special about a place. It could be a scenic view, a savory flavor, or an adventurous experience, but often it is something less succinctly explainable.  If I were to try to describe Albania, I could tell you of the Accursed Mountains of the North, the crystal waters of the southern Albanian Riviera, or the hilltop castle of Gjirokastër, but that doesn’t scratch the surface of why we felt called to be here. My passion is to tell the stories of the specific lives that God has lifted up. I want to not just tell you how Albania is wonderful, but to show you the eyes of those of who are raising this country up to be a place of love, refuge, and peace.

The first of these stories begins with a couple who approached me at church one Sunday in early 2018. Pal (pronounced like our Paul) and Ueda (ewe-AY-duh) were looking for someone to photograph their upcoming wedding in July. Over time, as I learned more about their lives, I knew it was important for more people to know them.  By getting to know the journey on which God has led them, you can begin to understand the Albania that we have come to love.

Pal and Ueda both grew up in and around the city of Lezhë in northern Albania, but they had very different lives. As a child Ueda mostly kept her head down.

“I [grew] up timid, not very open with people. I didn’t like to share my [struggles] with others. I just wanted to study hard and compete for a good degree at University… The purpose of my life was to finish school with good marks and then to have a good job so I could help my family a little bit.”

In Albania’s honor-shame culture, Ueda’s situation is common: to show your weakness to others is to bring shame on yourself, but a successful person receives honor. In a country where career opportunities can be scarce at best, this creates a vicious cycle that leaves many unhappy, feeling trapped, anxious to escape at any cost. A few stay and attempt to find their way here at home, but many emigrate to other countries like Italy, Germany, or the U.S. in search for a living.

Pal’s path as a youth was different, and yet he also felt trapped; his efforts to fulfill the expectations of others and still achieve his own dreams became an impossible burden.

Before I learned about Jesus, especially in high school, my life was a mess. I was a good student, but when I started high school, because of the financial problems in our family I wanted to quit school. But for some reason [it] never worked. Thinking this way all the years of high school made [me] a bad student. I would leave classes, hangout with the wrong people, trying to create an image that wasn’t me. My life was filled with lies, fear, troubles. All the time I felt a need for God and wanted to understand more about him. But my fears and sins kept me away.

At the beginning of their stories, it seemed that Pal and Ueda were running in different directions, but God was guiding them towards a crucial intersection.

Like many Albanian, Ueda grew up in a nominally Muslim family: they claimed the faith in name, but did not practice its tenets. Her main religious influence was her grandmother, who prayed daily and told Ueda that her god was Allah, but Ueda always felt something was missing. According to her religion, she knew it was impossible to have a personal relationship with Allah, but that was what her heart needed. She needed someone bigger than herself, to whom she could cry out everything in her heart, and who would speak back to her. While in high school, her search led her to the Catholic church near her school, where she tried to pray to this God who had reportedly walked among men on Earth.

… I heard about Jesus, and their God that sacrificed his son for his people.

 

Pal was raised Catholic, but in the same way as many Albanian Muslims, his hard-working northern Albanian farming family would only visit church on special occasions or holidays.

Since I was involved with the Catholic Church as a kid, I heard about Jesus a lot. I knew He is God and he paid for our sins, but also we had to do the rituals and did not have the security that our sins are totally forgiven.

In a similar way to Ueda, Pal wanted a relationship with God, but found something that did not fill the hunger in his heart.

The turning point in each of their lives came in university. As they made friendships with other students, their friends began to bring them to meetings with Instituti Jeta e Re, New Life Institute (a ministry otherwise known as CRU in the U.S.). Pal explains:

My family and friends were far from me, but there was one friend in Tirana whom I grew up with. He invited me to have coffee with two of his friends. And there I started hearing about Jesus. I heard about a personal relationship with Jesus.

These friends showed Pal love. They talked with him. They respected him. They shared their struggles, doubts, fears, and beliefs. Similarly, as Ueda’s friends began bringing her to IJR for fun events, she began to learn more about the God she had prayed to and sought for so long.

It was something new for me to hear that Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with me, that we can have time with him, worship him. These facts touched my mind and heart. I started to read the Bible, to know more about who is God: and his name is Jesus. God showed his face in my life.

Pal found that, as he built a true relationship with Jesus, he was no longer confused or seeking affirmation wherever he could find it.

The security that I have in Jesus now is something I never had before. I might not become a good person, but I’m accepted and loved the way I am.

It was just as much of a game changer for Ueda.

From a timid girl, I started to be more social to have time with people and to share the Gospel with everyone close to me. I had some [struggles] with my family about faith, that I changed [my faith], but even in these situations God was there for me. I found peace in his arms in every situation in my life. Now, I am extremely thankful to him for what He did and is doing in my life. He is growing in me a heart to worship, love and serve Him for all of my days.

They not only found a new faith, but a renewed purpose as well. They began to serve in IJR’s ministry, which is how they later met, and then fell in love. When they decided to marry, however, they faced a new problem. Ueda’s family had never approved of her change in faith, and they refused to accept her decision to be with a Christian man, denying Pal and Ueda’s request for blessing. In humility, rather than make a defiant statement, Pal and Ueda waited and went to their knees in prayer for the hearts of their families.

In the end, Ueda’s family relented, and I was honored to be present to see these two incredible people become one. Seeing the families join beside them as they said their vows was a beautiful sight. (Photos of the day are below.) At the time of this writing, their families have not yet accepted Christ, Pal and Ueda have not stopped praying that they will come to know God’s love and find the same joy.

There is an expression that I have used to express my life in Christ: “I don’t know much about God but what I know has changed my life.”

Just after getting married, the two of them moved to the city of Shkodër in northern Albania, where they have committed to serving IJR in the local church and ministries, telling others about how God changed their lives and inviting them to come along side them in eternity. It brings me great joy to think of what God is doing in their lives.  One look into their eyes is enough to instill incredible confidence and excitement for the lives of whatever people cross their paths. Albania will be a vastly more lovely, caring, and Christ-like place when they are done with it!

——–>    If you would like to partake in the work God is doing through these two, please go to this link and help support them through your prayers and giving:  https://give.cru.org/0790936       <——

Jaron’s First 2 1/2 Months Living in Albania

by Jaron | Jan 14, 2018 | Travel

Thank you for stopping by! Below are a selection of images and some explanations that I hope tell a little bit of the story of what I (Jaron) have been doing for the first few months here in Albania!

Christmas in the Villages

North of Tirana, back in the mountains and valleys tucked away from the rest of the world, are tiny villages and schools that lack many opportunities. Their school rooms are heated by wood burning stoves. Children’s teeth rot for lack of access to either dental care or education.  What they don’t lack however, is a potential for great joy and excitement.  I was asked to join our pastor Ylli Doci and the Prince of Albania (I bet you didn’t know Albania had a prince) to visit some of the village schools to photograph the delivery of Christmas gifts to the children.  Seeing them light up as they received and opened the gifts was a huge blessing.   One school greeted the prince with some traditional songs and dances as well, which was a big treat to be able to see.

Guri i Themelit

A.k.a. the church we have been attending in Tirana. The name translates to Cornerstone.  It is an international church that even has someone translating in the back of the church (shown in one of the photos) into a microphone, and there are headsets available for those of us that need it. I’ve been doing some photography for the church as well to help build up their website.

IJR

This is the beginning of my work with the organization that will be my primary focus in Albania. Many of you have heard of a ministry called CRU, or Campus Crusade for Christ, across the US. This is is the same organization, but in Albania. Under their umbrella are church plants, college ministries, and an array of other ministries. My goal will be to provide them with media for them to be able to share their work to the world, helping others fall as in love with the people of this country as they are. Below is a selection of images from my first outing with them just before Christmas at one of their college ministry meetings.

Fun with Students

Anna’s work and mine sometimes cross in wonderful ways. The school at which Anna teaches (GDQ) has a great community of students that are incredibly creative and jump at the chance to do creative things.  These images are a selection from one evening before Christmas. I had the urge to do some creative portraits in the city center of Tirana, and put out a message to a few of the students and these are those that heeded the call 🙂

GDQ

Another fun use of my skills here in Albania has been to work directly with Anna’s school, providing them with images to use in their recruitment materials and their website (both of which Anna does most of the designing along side her work teaching Art). Here is a selection of that work so far. Some images are from Anna’s mural painting class, a science class, PE, and a middle school ministry time called ELEVATE.  Enjoy!

This last image is just one of my favorite images showcasing the gorgeous country in which we live and work for this time. I hope you have enjoyed this snippet of my first couple months here.  It’s not without it’s challenges, but I get more excited every day as I get more and more glimpses of what God has in store.  Thank you for your prayers and support!

Mirupafshim!

(goodbye😜)