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The
1999
has been a blessed year from the Lord in His work in Albania.
We
have seen the starting of the regular weekly meetings in the
village of Blace, so that now there are three villages: Stropcke,
Bratomire and Blace.
- In
Stropcke,
on September 22, we inaugurated the Church, and till now
the number of adult believers is about 15-20, whereas the
children are
about 70. As you already know, the leader of the mosque
wanted to make a petition about our non desirable presence.
In the beginning of the 2000 we have had some problems with
a group of young Moslem guys, that try to stop the children
from coming to our meetings and tease the older believers
discouraging them. Several times we have tried to reason
things out with them, but we have realised that they do
not have the slightest idea of their religion ; they simply
want to have us out of their village. This does not discourage
us because in spite of this more other young people are
joining in and the Lord is victorious every time.
We
have organised a daily reading program, Bible studies on
our foundations of faith and are teaching the young people
to play music in the church. The Holy Spirit is growing
the community every day, knocking down especially their
timidity. Some boys have expressed their desire to be baptized,
which is something we want to do on the occasion of arriving
of the "Missionary Committee" from June 18 till
24 .
- In
Bratomire
the people always present in the meetings are about 20,
all women. In November the mayor's family, who was our previous
host
moved to the town, so we had to move to another house that
was gently offered by one of the baptised sisters. Lately
the people are more interested to hear the gospel. We have
mostly evangelistical meetings in here. As you already now,
the children in the last months of '99 were about 50, but
due to the jealousy and the intimidations from the Moslems
there are a little more than 10 now; but we believe that
the Lord will give us total victory in this . Even here
will for sure be people who want to be baptised.
- In
Blace,
we started the meetings in April and there are about 10
people more or less faithful . Our host family has opened
their house even to other missionaries before. The meetings
in here often have a beautiful spiritual atmosphere. The
children are about 50-70 and we are trying to find a place
to held their meetings , which till now are done in the
open- air.
Besides
the baptisms in June, for the future, we are praying that the
Lord will open the doors in another big village from where some
boys are already coming to the church in Stropcka. But the most
important engagement is to consolidate the work in all three
villages.
Several
times we have distributed in the three villages clothing , shoes,
toiletries and school material for children provided from different
churches and individual offerings.
From
April till July '99 we have been working in P.E.P (Pogradec
Encouragement Project) project for the refugees from Kosovo,
helping more than 350  people
in a military center. It was a wonderful experience that helped
us to understand how much the world needs Jesus. I think that
the Lord will recompensate for our efforts, for us in the front
line and for you that have met this enormous humanitarian demand
with your prayers and financial support.
There
have been brothers from Italy who have worked together with
the Sardella family: Stefania
Manara Marchi, from
October 98 till August 99 and Assuero
Bruno, from August
till November 99.We want to thank the churches that have supported
these dear brothers that have been a considerable help to us.
Eventhough
, now no Italian brothers are helping us in the missionary work
, the Lord has provided Albanian ones.
We
can see in Ardi
, member of the church in Stropcke, (has attended a discipleship
school of YWAM in 99 supported partly by the church in Germany
and partly by us, Italians), the hand of the Lord for a ministerial
service. We are trying in all the ways to help him mature spiritually,
so that he can use the gifts in him. He is faithful, responsible
and a great help in our absence. We should take seriously his
calling , in the future.
Linda
is our interpreter (she speaks 4 languages) in the meetings
in the villages , and she is a very spiritual girl. She is helping
in the meetings between missionaries and is always ready to
help in the work. She has worked with Emanuel and was baptized
by him and she is a member of a church in Pogradec.
Kristi
is a young boy who is helping Luciana in the children's ministry.
He is member of the Nehemia church and his pastor is pleased
that he is helping in our work.
The
work group, for the moment consists of :
|
Sandro
Sardella : |
Responsible
of the mission. Pastoral ministry. |
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Luciana
Sardella: |
Responsible
of the children's ministry. |
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Linda
Gegprifti : |
Coworker
and interpreter. |
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Ardi
Shkullaku : |
Pastoral
coworker in Stropcke. |
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Kristi
Priftuli : |
Coworker
in children's ministry. |
The
warmest greetings in Jesus.
With
love in Christ
Sandro
Luciana Carlo e Ester Sardella
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For
any contact about the mission, write to: 
