THE MISSION FIELD

Our mission field is the district of Pogradec. This town is situated in the south-east of Albania, on the Lake Ohrid, a famous lake situated between Macedonia and Albania. Pogradec has always been an important touristic town. A lot of tourists come from big cities such as Tirana, Elbasan, and the neighbouring Korça, to visit its lake. Surrounded by mountains, Pogradec area lies at about 750m above sea level, the altitude of surface of the lake, and raises up to 1300m in some villages.

The villages we are working, are:

• Stropke: it is about 10 km from Pogradec, it is the nearest village and it is situated 900 m a.s.l. It is a country rich of vineyard and fruit-trees this thanks to a big artificial basin, which provides water to the near villages in the summer time.
• Cerrave: it is situated at 12 km from Pogradec, 850 m a.s.l. It is an important landmark for the nearby villages and is crossed by the only national Albanian road on the area.
• Blace: it is situated about 15 km from Pogradec, about 1000 m a.s.l., near a small plain between the mountains. This village was builted by miners who worked in the mines on the nearby mountain called "Mali i thate". The agriculture, as well as for all the other villages, is the only resource.
• Bratomire: it is about 20km from Pogradec, 1110 m a.s.l on the foot of the mountain. It is the poorest villages and it is short of water. A lot of men
  are forced to emigrate as clandestine's in other countries to meet their families' needs.

HOW DID THE MISSION START?

In 1992 Past. Emanuel Enke, came to Pogradec with a group of Youth With A Mission, to announce the Gospel of hope. After he visited and spoke about the Lord in some villages, he decided to come back one year later with three other teams from the church in Germany to repair the school in the villages of Stropke, Bratomire and Blace.

In the July '93 these three teams worked for a month, not only in the schools, but above all, preaching the Word of God. During this month there were the first baptisms in the lake of Pogradec. The developing of the work went on well so, Ps. Enke and his wife Carla, decided to live for some months in this area to continue the work started. The most important social work that he made was to buy a tank truck financed from the church in Germany, to transport water in the village of Bratomire.

In "95 there were other baptisms, and a lot of them were young people from Stropke.
In this period he was 68 year old. This and other problems, forced him to find a young couple in the church of Germany, but without success.

In March "96, the Lord gave him the opportunity to speak about this necessity in the "National Convention" of Apostolic Church in Italy. This was a challenge for the church in Italy and for Ps. Elia Landi (Missionary Secretary and today President of the Apostolic Church in Italy). Later on, Ps. Elia Landi and the church in Grosseto, prepared all the necessary things for a explorative journey in Albania (if you want to read the journey report, click here, Italian language only). Next, the National Council looked for a young couple involved in the church ministry and available to move in Albania within a year or a year and a half, to continue the work started by Ps. Enke.

In January '97, was organised a meeting between the N.C. and some couples to talk with them about their vocation. In this meeting partecipated also Sandro and Luciana Sardella, working for some years in the evangelistic ministry. Sardella's had a real vocation for Albania and, in February '97, they had the approval from the N.C. to move to Pogradec.
But the departure was deferred. It was exactly on those days that the civil war broke out in Albania, caused by the collapse of the famous financial pyramid schemes.

In December '97, when the situation was quitter, Ps. Enke went to visit the Albanian believers (if you want to read the journey report, click here,Italian language only). Only in May '98, Sardella's accompanied by Landi's had the possibility to visit the work in Albania, to find a house and to decide about moving to Pogradec. In a few days, the Lord, gave them the possibility to organise all things better for the family Sardella's stay in Albania: the house, the school for Carlo (the son), and to get to know the believers groups.
When Sardella's came back to Italy, together with other brethren from different communities, organised all the necessary for the transfert, happened in September '98

DEVELOPMENT

Sardella's narrate:

Our work in the village started in September '98. The first thing to do was to establish the weekly meeting and to understand the group's situation. For us it was important to have the possibility to be accepted from the believers in the villages as Ps. Enke substitutes. The second, was to learn the language and the local costumes, very different from ours.

You can read the report about this period's event on the page NEWS.

Until September '99 the group's situation was not positive. For almost a year, the believers in the meeting of Stropke were not more than three; in the village of Bratomire, some months later, we had a strong opposition from the owner of the house were we had the meeting, and with the local Moslems; in the village of Blace we had the possibility to have the meetings with two families. In the period between Mars-July '99, in the Kosovo refugees' time, the Lord revealed Sandro to open a church building in Stropke. In September, while we were adjusting this church building, some believers baptised by Ps. Enke and some other young people started to attend the meetings. But, while in Stropke the situation was going on very well, in Bratomire there were a lot of problems. In fact, we didn't have a place for the meetings any more and there were few believers. The Moslems' persecution became harder, especially from some fanatic guys, who punctured our jeep tyres, or blocked the road with big stones or gave trouble during the children's meeting.
Thanks to the Lord, this situation has changed. A sister has invited us to have the meeting in her house. Moreover, after having spoken to the elderlies of the village about the situation created by the Moslems, the problems stopped.
Some time later (April 2000), after having prayed hard, the Lord opened us the doors to the village of Cerrave.

In the same time we started to have meetings in our house in Pogradec, with a family who accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. Their son needed a difficult operation for a serious fracture in his arm. So, we brought him to a specialised hospital in the nearby Macedonia, where he was operated. This operation was financed by MNA, a medical Christian foundation that, like us, is a Nehemia member.

The meetings in Pogradec were interrupted when this family, for a certain time, went to work in Greece. Now, they have come back to Albania and we have restarted regular meetings again.

MISSIONARIES

We begin by introducing the youngest of Sardella family, Ester, born in Rome, in 24 October 1996, than Carlo, born in Rome in 19 august 1989, followed by the lieder of the house, Luciana, born in a small village in Abruzzo in 22 October 1966, and finally the oldest Sandro born in Rome in 05 February 1962.
Since our conversion to Jesus, which happened in '89, we have felt the calling to serve the Lord. We have done the evangelical ministry and various activities in the local church of a small city near Rome Ladispoli, but with the passing of time we have been more and more involved with the work in the district of Rome and with the national work.

But when did this project of God for us begin?
It all began when in the "Eastern Convention '91" through prophecies God addressed to the church in Italy to begin a missionary work in Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania.

Sandro: "In that moment I felt inside of me a special blessing that made me love this country which I did not know before then, and even did not know where it was geographically situated. Certainly it was too early for my life to think for a missionary activity, so for some years I did not think any more for that inner call until in an evangelical service, in the local churches of Puglia (I think in June 94), God Enlighted in me the interest for this nation, thinking that it was there, only a few miles from the sea.
From that moment on, God gave me many signals that more and more confirmed the vision of Albania for my life.

In Easter 96, in the National Convention where occurred our consacration in the evangelistic ministry, pastor Emmanuel Enke and his wife Karla, described the work in Albania and the need to be substituted. So the desire inside of me to visit this work grew even bigger, a desire which seemed to disappear when, after some months, "by accident" I found myself in Grosseto to attend the final exam of C.S.T. (correspondent bible school) I saw that the local church had organized a wonderful Bazaar to find the founds for an exploratory journey in Albania, in which some coworkers of the church and brothers would take part. In that moment I thought that it was found the couple for the mission and this caused in me a kind of dislike until when Elia, in the return of the journey, did the report about it in on Araldo issue underlining that the National Council was looking for a couple ready to move. There was no more doubt, that couple was I and my wife. There was only a condition which excluded us from this request: that the candidate should speak English, so I felt I had again failed.

In a couple of months, in the place where I worked, came some Albanians who I asked a lot of things about their nation. I spoke to them and the Lord confirmed His will for me and my wife to go in that land desperate for the Gospel. Since that moment , when I returned home in the evening, I started to tell my wife to pack the suitcases because God wanted us in Albania. Certainly, it was more difficult for her to accept this, considering that she was close to having Ester."

Luciana: "In fact I would like to say that this has not been an easy period for me, in the condition that I was to do the will of God and the thousand doubts that continually came into my mind, such as: What if it is not God's will? What about the children? Only the thought to take them to a country with a lot of social and economical problems, was the biggest preoccupation for me. Every day I prayed God to help me to realise His will and to love Albanians. He with his kindness has always been near me and has encouraged me by fulfilling my request.

Since my first journey in Albania, knowing this people better, obverving the needs they had but most of all feeling the prayers of our brothers here, my heart was melted like the snow and finally I could hear God calling me in Albania. In one week time we managed to pack all the practical things that we would need for our movement in Pogradec. We had found a big and comfortable house, which has given many possibilities to welcome brothers who came from Italy, Germany or America to visit us. We found a school for Carlo and this was something that I was really interested in. Exactly that year, Nehemia foundation opened a private school which could offer beside the regular lecture classes, also computer, English, German, music etc. courses.

The next year, another Christian foundation, called Agrinas, opened a private kindergarten, where Ester is now going. So even another time God showed me that everything is possible for Him, and that when we do His will, He takes care of us and our family."