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Focus on Mission & Evangelization, wherever on earth!
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In fact, the first rather large project of "De Vaste Burcht" started in the mid-eighties, by financing Christian broadcast programs in the Albanian language through Trans World Radio.
Albania was at that time under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxa, who in the sixties dared to proclaim Albania the first atheistic country in the world. He and the Albanians paid a heavy price for this. Although in potential one of the richest (natural resources)and most beautiful countries in Europe, it ended up in extreme poverty, and total isolation from the outside world. During my first visit to this country, just one week after it opened its borders in 1991, Albanians told me with tears in their eyes that they could watch just one foreign TV broadcaster from Italy. However, they did not believe what their eyes saw; the government told them the Italians wanted to show them a world that did not exist; the programs were just made to mislead the Albanians!
We are in close contact with Gesina Blaauw, a Dutch missionary who has a heart for Albania and who lives in Albania since 1990.
The country is poor, although Tirana is stuffed now with modern buildings. But worse than the financial poverty is the spiritual deprivation. People have never learnt to relie upon people, and to make fundamental relationships. After more than 25 years of atheism, many people lost their sense for human values. In those days nothing was possible; nowadays nothing seems impossible. This causes hopelesness, corruption and unemployment.
But since 1991 the Gospel is proclaimed again, and Gesina Blaauw has had a very important share in this. Already ten years before she travelled regularly into Albania and tried to preach the Gospel surreptitiously. Based on etnicity 70% of the population has a Moslim background, 25% Greek orthodox and 5% Roman Catholic. Rough calculations show, that nowadays 20.000 people are born again Christians.
In the first years after the opening up of the country Gesina's mission was distributing relief goods in large quantities, but gradually her mission changed and is now mainly concentrated on working with physically disabled youngsters in order to make them useful members of society. It certainly helps in her mission that she is a disabled women herself.
Now she has a home - that is accessible for wheel chairs -for fifty of these youngsters, a therapy room, recreational room, four class rooms, outdoor sport facilities and an outdoor swimming pool. Now they changed from denounced and depressed young men and women without hope to dedicated people who want to contribute their share to society.
There is a community project that encompasses visiting villages around the centre, and visiting families who have to take care for a handicapped one. They also visit shop owners, restaurant keepers and officials to make them clear their buildings must be accessible for handicapped as well. Despite the project started only recently they were able to welcome 80 people at the first information day in the centre. There is a "Sports and Integration Group" that visits all 35 regional capitals to make the autorities aware of the fate of disabled persons in their region, and they make preparations to participate in the next Paralympics.
Several youngsters have a job now as a sports coordinator, design artist or in administration.
A web site of "God loves Albania Ministries" is in preparation now.
We are in contact with Gesina for more than 20 years and visited her several times on location in Sicily and Albania, and were able to help her several times in the past. If you want to contact her, please send us a email.
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Solar panels for heating swimming pool
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Swimming pool for disabled persons
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View at the rehabilitation centre
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The kitchen in the rehabilitation centre
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