Great time at Gorsley

As I was saying on my blog the other day I have been to a number of festivals and shows this summer and they are all different in their own way.

I have just returned from manning the European Christian Mission stand (pictured below) at the Gorsley Festival, near Ross-on-Wye on the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire border.

It is a really friendly five-day event and has a homely atmosphere. There are coach parties from South Wales coming to see the flower festival which the village Baptist church launched in 1980. Since then Gorsley has grown to attract thousands of visitors over the August Bank Holiday.

There are also many others who camp and join in the Christian festival with activities for all the family.

In the Pavilion are a range of missionary societies and Christian media alongside stalls selling home-made cakes and locally-produced fruit and vegetables.

For me and ECM it was an excellent festival giving out scores of information about the mission and also selling 82 books.

What also pleased me was that about 15 people came up to the stand to tell me they had bought God’s Secret Listener last year and they had really enjoyed reading it.

Also at the festival was ECM’s The Labyrinth, a multi-sensory presentation of Christianity and they reported that they had had a busy five days.

I did manage to go to some of the Bible readings and the evening events and thought Charles Price’s expositions on Acts were excellent as was Nia’s concert and worship leading.

I am definitely planning to be back there again next year.

Off to the Gorsley Festival

I have certainly been to a few festivals this year to promote and sell my books including Keswick during weeks one and two; New Wine at Newark, Go 2011 at WEC’s HQ in Hertfordshire and the Shrewsbury Flower Show.

Now it’s off to man the European Christian Mission stand at the Gorsley Festival near Ross-on-Wye on the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire border.

The village Baptist church launched a flower festival in 1980 and since then it has grown to attract thousands of visitors over the August Bank Holiday to see the floral displays and join in the Christian festival with activities for all the family.

The star event in the Pavilion with the range of missionary societies and Christian media will again be the Missionary Aviation Fellowship who are bringing one of their light aircraft and flight simulators.

Also at the festival will be the return of ECM’s The Labyrinth, a multi-sensory presentation of Christianity.

The main speakers will be Charles Price and Mark Ritchie (programme pictured below).

For more details about the festival go to http://www.gorsleychapel.org/ 

My book goes into a fourth edition

I was delighted to receive an email from my publisher, Lion/Hudson/Monarch, yesterday to say that they are printing a fourth edition of God’s Secret Listener which will be available in early September.

I never thought when the book was published last October that within 11 months we would be on our fourth edition.

Sales manager at the Oxford publishers, Andrew Wormleighton, said the book had been selling steadily at Christian bookshops all round Britain with the one of the star performers being in Stockton-on-Tees, which fascinated me as I have never been there in my life. 

The publishers report that the book is selling well worldwide, but particularly in the USA and Australia.

I am glad there is another reprint as I have a busy few weeks of meetings ahead.

As well as going to man the European Christian Mission stand at the Gorsley Festival on the Herefordshire/Gloucestershire border for the five-day Christian festival over the Bank Holiday weekend I am then going to preach in the morning at St John’s Methodist Church, Hereford, on the following weekend before speaking at a meeting of Newcastle Congregational Church in the evening.

Then I am speaking at Stoke-on-Trent Probus Club, followed by a midweek church meeting in Hartshill, Newcastle-under-Lyme, a Stourbridge Library group talk followed by a Shrewsbury women’s group meeting at the end of the month.

In early October it’s off to Sheffield to talk to an Albanian prayer group, before going to preach at St Peter’s Church, Pedmore, near Stourbridge, and then talking to Shrewsbury Business Chamber at the plush new football ground.

In between those dates I am trying to fit a trip to Oxford on September 22 where I have been invited to a special anniversary service in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, (pictured below) celebrating 40 years since

David and Pat Alexander started Lion Publishing in 1971.

This is followed by tea in the Great Hall in Christ Church.

If you are from Stockton-on-Tees, tell me why I should visit your town, email me on John@jbutterworth.plus.com

Broadcaster continues Albania work

It was good to catch up a few weeks ago with Sali Rahmani, the radio presenter whom Berti Dosti listened to in secret while he was a captain in Enver Hoxha’s army.

As well as acting as interpreter for Berti at the Keswick Convention Sali (pictured below) is still very involved in work in Albania, even though he now lives in Northamptonshire.

In his latest newsletter he writes about three exciting aspects of his ministry.

Firstly, he says he is still keeps in touch with some of the Albanians who listened to the same Way of Peace programme as Berti did.

Sali translated and broadcast gospel programmes while he was with the European Christian Mission based in England and then Austria for more than 28 years. These were then beamed into Albania through Trans World Radio in Monte Carlo.

He added: “It is a joy to hear that these Albanians continue to love the Lord their Saviour and that they are active in their home towns.”

Secondly, Sali mentioned that he had been working hard to arrange for Gospel meetings in the London area for Albanians living and working in England.

His prayers have been answered; they had their first service at Pastor Mark Jackson’s church at Monnow Road Baptist Church in Bermondsey. Now they are planning another one in North London and they are hoping these will become regular meetings.

Finally, Sali has been busy helping produce for Manna Publications Bible study booklets, which have been widely used by churches in Albania, Kosova and other parts of Europe.

Sali, who is involved with the final proof reading and corrections, has just had the first study Bible booklet on Genesis printed. Now he is involved in the second part of Genesis for which he is also doing the translation.

He is hoping to finish this next month when he plans to go to Albania to let another person check the accuracy of his work.

Anyone who would like to know more about Sali’s work email him at Sali.rahmani@ntlworld.com .

The story of Sali’s amazing conversion is told in God’s Secret Listener. To buy a copy email John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Ancient Illyricum ship discovered

Ever since I wrote my Albania book I have been fascinated by its history and particularly that of Illyricum, the Roman province that covered present-day Albania and what used to be much of the old Yugoslavia (see map below).

So I was interested to read a report by Associated Press in the Boston Globe that a joint US-Albanian archaeological team had found the well-preserved wreck of a 1st century B.C. Roman cargo ship off the coast of Vlore, complete with 300 wine jars from Illyricum.

Mission leader George Robb said the 30-metre ship could have been part of a flourishing trade in local wine from southern Albanian vineyards, adding: “Ancient Illyria was a major source of supply for the western Mediterranean, including present day France and Spain.”

The paper reported that most of the jars, known by their Greek name of amphoras and used to transport wine and oil, were unbroken despite the shipwreck. However, the stoppers used to seal them had gone, allowing their contents to leak out into the salt water.

A statement from the Key West, Florida-based RPM Nautical Foundation said the find was made 50 metres deep near the port city of Vlore, 90 miles south west of the capital, Tirana, early this month.

The foundation, in cooperation with Albanian archaeologists, has been surveying a swathe of Albania's previously unexplored coastal waters for the past five years. So far, experts have located 20 shipwrecks - including several relatively modern ones.

"Taking into consideration the date and also the depth - which is well suited for excavation - I would include it among the top 10 most scientifically interesting wrecks found in the Mediterranean," said Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi, who participated in the project.

The site, whose precise location is being kept secret, will be left unexplored until the Albanian archaeological service is in a position to do so, concluded the paper.

For more details about Illyricum and Vlore, where Berti Dosti went on his first summer Christian camp in June 1993, see my book, God’s Secret Listener, available from John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Book's links to new walking holiday

I always enjoy the Sunday Times, particularly the Travel Section. So I was especially delighted today to see in an article headlined Life’s better off the beaten track, a company had launched a new walking holiday to Northern Albania.

The article said: “There aren’t many real adventures left in Europe. Here’s one of them. Up in the isolated Thethi Valley, in the Albanian Alps, farmsteads are still reached only by tracks, the nearest shop is a five-hour drive away and the tradition of hospitality to visitors is as strong as ever.  The scenery has been compared to the Himalayas.”

What also caught my attention is that the trip visits two places mentioned in my book God’s Secret Listener , published by Lion/Hudson/Monarch – Shkodra, which is Northern Albania’s oldest city, and the lovely historical, hilltop town of Kruja.

When the Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha abolished religion, or so he thought, he decided the Roman Catholic cathedral in Shkodra (pictured below) should be converted into a much better use than a religious building – and so he ordered it to be turned into a volleyball court.

To ensure the residents did not become interested in religion again Hoxha also decided to build the world’s first Museum of Atheism in the city in 1972. After the fall of Communism the museum was closed.

When Berti’s friend, Sali Rahmani, was interrogated by the Yugoslav secret police they accused him of being involved in an imaginative scheme to get the Christian message into the closed country of Albania by filling 1,000 plastic bags with literature and dropping them into the 335-kilometre-long River Drin in Kosovo, Yugoslavia, to float downstream into Albania.

Sali knew about the plan but had not been involved in it. His interrogators didn’t believe his denial of innocence and had great delight telling him it had been a useless enterprise since the authorities had fished all the plastic bags out of the river.

But Sali had the last laugh when he later went to visit Christians in Kruja and one of them produced the plastic bag and literature which he had found in the river, and said he had read it all.

It is too late for my wife Jan and I to go on this walking holiday as it starts in September and we are already booked for those dates. But we have emailed the company to give us the times of their next trip to Northern Albania as we would love to see Shkodra and Kruja, plus the dramatic mountain scenery.

For more details contact KE Adventure (01768 773966) or log on to www.keadventure.com

Newcastle United's link to Albania

With the second weekend of the Premier League about to get underway today I was interested to see the Sunday Times’ predictions and how they likened each club to a country.

They said Newcastle United, badge pictured below, were similar to Albania as they are both “chaotic, confused and unpredictable.”

That may or may not be true of the Geordies’ club, but I think it is harsh on the Balkans country which has made great progress in recent years.

Albania certainly had its troubles in the 1990s as it moved from an isolated Stalinist dictatorship closed to the rest of the world for 47 years to a Western democracy which is now a member of NATO and wishes to join the European Union.

But I don’t think visitors arriving today at the smart, modern airport in the capital, Tirana, find it chaotic, confused and unpredictable.

Incidentally, the last time I travelled to Albania I forgot I had an old packet of razor blades tucked away at the bottom of my bathroom bag in my overnight case which I took on board my British Airways flight.

It wasn’t picked up by security at Gatwick Airport on the way out, but it was detected by officials at Rinas Airport, Tirana, on the way home, proving that Albania is not that chaotic.

For interested football fans, Stoke City were likened to the former East Germany – “not especially cuddly but you wouldn’t want to fight them.”

QPR were Somalia as they are “ungovernable” while Aston Villa were South Korea “with North Korea’s Kim Jong-il as president.”

If you want to know which country your club were likened to email me on John@jbutterworth.plus.com

Busy time for Berti after Keswick

Berti Dosti reports he has certainly had a busy few weeks since returning to his Way of Peace church in Lushnje after speaking at the Keswick Convention last month.

A group of 12 energetic South Koreans (pictured below) from the SaRang Community Church in Seoul spent four hectic days in the Albanian church working with children, sharing their testimonies at a men’s meeting, encouraging a women’s prayer meeting in Bitaj, giving a demonstration of Tae Kwon Do in the local gym, and teaching two women's groups how to cook Korean style.  

Also last month a team of 13 from Belgium arrived in Albania to help the church by working in the mornings in the village of Gramsh, and in the afternoons in Lushnje.

Some of the team braved the hot sun and temperatures in the high 30s to turn a patch of bare ground at the Gramsh school into a basketball court, while the rest of the team visited more than 30 homes by invitation to encourage new believers, to share the gospel and to give their testimonies.

Then this month a team from Ireland and Scotland ran another successful week-long programme for special needs children at the Lushnje church. Now they have returned to the UK a group from the church are going to carry on meeting with the families and their children every week.

Finally, two expert teachers have also visited the Victory School in Lushnje over the summer. Despite temperatures in the high 30s Joanna taught three English classes each morning, and then another two in the late afternoon.

Joan spent two separate weeks last month teaching the piano and guitar to Albanian children.

She plans to return to Albania in October and then again next Easter to continue teaching the new musicians and the new church worship group.

There is more about the Way of Peace Church and the Victory School in God’s Secret Listener. To buy a copy email John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

News story brought back memory of embassy visit

I have only just caught up with a news story which obviously didn’t hit the headlines in the British media, but it still brought back many memories for me.

A few months ago a farewell reception was held to pay tribute to His Excellency Mr Zef Mazi, Ambassador of Albania to the UK, who has moved back to Vienna where he served for 15 years as ambassador of Albania to Austria, because he has been appointed to an important role at the International Atomic Energy Agency. 

Ambassador Mazi was surprisingly a great supporter of God’s Secret Listener.

The idea of presenting him with a copy of my book and asking him to give another copy to the country’s president was one of those impulsive moves I thought was worth trying, but never thought it would come off.

I carefully worded my letter to the embassy to talk about the exemplary military record of Berti Dosti, whom the book is about, and how he was helping the youth of Albania by running Victory School in Lushnje teaching English to 700 pupils.

One Wednesday in October last year, I posted the letter and was shocked to receive a call on my mobile two days later on the Friday asking when I would like to come.

So on Thursday, November 18 Berti Dosti and I caught a taxi at Victoria Station and asked to be taken to be the Albanian Embassy at 33 St George’s Drive.

“I have never been asked for that destination before,” said a surprised taxi driver as we clambered inside.

There was another surprise waiting as we entered the smart large terraced house that had been the embassy’s home for only four years, my contact there was Flutur Shkurti and she recognised Berti as they were distant cousins. Very Albanian, I thought.

We were taken to the office of His Excellency Zef Mazi and were impressed how simply and neatly the embassy was furnished, nowhere near as lavish as I expected it to be.

I hadn’t let on in the letter how Berti, a former captain in the army of the Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha, had become a Christian and was now the pastor of a lively church as well as a school principal.

However, the Ambassador had done his homework on Berti and they chatted away in Albanian about the church in their country.

Berti (pictured left) and I thought we would be there for only five minutes, but we had more than an hour with the Ambassador (pictured centre) and we presented him a special signed copy of the book and he also agreed to pass another copy to the President of Albania, His Excellency Mr Bamir Topi.

At the end of the meeting, the Ambassador asked if there had been a book launch and I explained that we had had one in Shrewsbury.

“Why didn’t you invite me?” asked the Ambassador who said he loved the chance to leave London and see the rest of Britain.

I promised I would invite him to a suitable event and made a mental note for 2011 thinking that would be a challenge.

However, it is now a thousand times more difficult thinking of a link with the book and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

From a film extra – to speaking at Shrewsbury School

It has been an unusual week as I have said already in my blog and today I move from being an extra on a TV production to speaking at Shrewsbury School.

It was a fascinating but long day being an extra for Sky 1’s new family comedy drama, Starlings, which is being shown in 2012.

We had to report to the Peak Edge Hotel, between Chesterfield and Matlock, at 6.30am and we didn’t finish on the set, which was in the middle of Ashover Fair, a real agricultural show with thousands of members of the public there, until 6.30pm.

I had never been an extra before but it was interesting to see the professionalism and work involved in producing a programme and being able to talk to the six actors and actresses, although there was a lot of waiting around for the 22 extras who were involved in various crowd scenes.

Produced by Steve Coogan and Peep Show’s Mat King it stars BAFTA® nominees Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey) and Lesley Sharp (Scott & Bailey, The Shadow Line, who is pictured below) in a working class comedy set in Matlock following the lives of the Starling family.

Granddad (Alan Williams, Luther, Rome) has recently moved in, following a rabble rousing incident at the old folks’ home. Rather than see him unhappy, his son Terry (Coyle) and wife Jan (Sharp), decide to put him up in their already crammed family home. Making room for him is Charlie (Finn Atkins, EastEnders), their 16-year-old football crazy tomboy daughter; work–shy, reptile enthusiast, Gravy (John Dagleish, Beaver Falls, Larkrise to Candleford) and beautiful Bell (Rebecca Night, Larkrise to Candleford, This September) and her brand new baby, Zac, who arrives bang on time for the first episode.

Producer Steve Coogan commented: “We are very excited about this smart but accessible new television series which will make people laugh and cry in equal measure for all the right reasons.”

From Derbyshire it’s off to Shropshire tonight to speak about my books, Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury, and God’s Secret Listener in the Moser Library at Shrewsbury School (pictured below) to the Shropshire Society in London and the Freemen of the Borough of Shrewsbury.

The Shropshire Society, which has been going since 1899, exists to foster connections between the county and London and organizes functions for Salopians and friends of Shropshire in London and Shropshire. It aims to keep London Salopians in touch with the county and to give county based members the opportunity to experience London at its finest and by supporting county charities. The Society comes each year to the Shrewsbury Flower Show.

The Freemen of the Borough of Shrewsbury is a tradition lasting more than 1,000 years. One of the last bastions of the old all-male establishment it moved into the 21^st century last September when it admitted ten women who were sworn in become Burgesses of the town at the Installation of Freemen ceremony, which took place at the Guildhall, in Shrewsbury. 

From Probus to Steve Coogan

It has been an unusual week starting with speaking to Longton Probus Club at Barlaston on Monday followed by going to Matlock tomorrow to be an extra on a new series for Sky TV starring Steve Coogan (pictured below).

Apart from that there’s five days’ work in Shrewsbury including giving talks to the Shropshire Society from London and the Guilds of Shrewsbury on Thursday and another one to the Mayors and Chairmen of Shropshire on Sunday lunchtime, plus two days manning a stand at Shrewsbury Flower Show, so it’s going to be a busy and fun few days.

It was a trip down Memory Lane going to the The Upper House Hotel on Monday to talk to 51 members of Probus as I knew a few of them and a number were Old Newcastilians, so it was good to chat about life at Newcastle High School in the old days.

The talk, questions and DVD lasted an hour and it seemed to go down well by the number of perceptive questions members asked about all aspects of Albanian life and history.

As I have two more talks coming up to different Probus clubs it was good preparation. I am pleased to say the lunch and the hotel were first class – and I also sold a number of copies of God’s Secret Listener and Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel.

Tomorrow should be a fascinating day as I put my name down as an extra with an agency a few months ago and this is the first day’s work they have offered me.

All I know is that the programme is called Starlings and I will report back on how the day went.

Chance meeting leads to amazing link to book

One of the most fascinating aspects of manning stands for the European Christian Mission at conventions is that you never know who you are going to meet.

In May this year I went to GO 2011, a Christian mission weekend at the Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade at Bulstrode in Hertfordshire, where I sold a copy of God’s Secret Listener to a young man, Malcolm Gray, who said he was going to give it to his dad as a present.

I thought no more about the conversation until I received this email from Malcolm’s father, Frank Gray.

He wrote: “Last evening Malcolm and his wife and daughter arrived here from Bristol and he gave me the book, suspecting that I might be interested. When he told me it was about an Albanian listener who came to Christ through listening to Trans World Radio broadcasts in his language it sparked my interest.

“I reminded him of how I used to be involved in recording radio programmes for the European Christian Mission back in 1971. Maybe there was a connection. I then told Malcolm about Mr Andoni whom I used to pick up and take to the studio in the basement of the YMCA in Parkside Road, Reading, overlooking Prospect Park.

“I also recalled how he had come to faith through translating the scripts and broadcasting them back to his people. After the recording session I would drop him off at Reading station where he would take the train back to London (Kingston-on Thames?).

“We lived in Caversham at the time and knew many people who worked at the BBC Monitoring station at Caversham Park, pictured below, where Mr Andoni also worked.

“I learned that he had a lot of sympathy for the broadcasts even though not yet a believer. Politically and philosophically Albania was in the same communist orbit as China and he was very agitated whenever he heard the rhetoric that the Russians were pouring into his country. His job was to monitor that.

“It was few years later that I heard from Ninian Lowis (son of the Rev Ninian Lowis who headed up Back to the Bible for many years) that Mr Andoni had sadly died while on the operating table undergoing surgery for cataract removal.

“We then delved into your book to see if there were any mentions of Mr Andoni and anything that confirmed my story. We found it on pages 94-95. I was surprised to read that the Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade, who were then headquartered in Upper Norwood, were also involved in radio production.

“The period when I was involved was around June – August 1971 before returning to Laos where I had been a VSO volunteer 1969-1970.  I went back to Laos to run a recording studio for Christian & Missionary Alliance.

“Among many other activities we made radio programmes for sending to FEBC in Manila for broadcasting back to Laos. After the communist takeover in 1975 I went to study at Wheaton College, where I met other prominent Albanian leaders whose names I have forgotten, (they were involved in the Bible School)) and have spent my working life ever since then with Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC).

“Anyhow, all this to say that it is amazing how God puts all these things together. It is good to now read of the bigger picture. Strangely Malcolm and I were in Monte Carlo in March and found the doorway leading to RMC, a place that I had heard a lot about, especially from Bill Mial, one of the "ancients" of TWR, who had spent many years there.”

He concluded: “I shall now look forward to reading your book!”

If you would like to read about Mr Aldoni’s journey to faith in God’s Secret Listener email me on John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Cheers to a great week at New Wine

Having spent a week at the Keswick Convention I went last week for the first time to New Wine, a Christian holiday and festival.

New Wine, which is the largest network of charismatic churches and Christians, began in 1989 at the Royal Bath and West Showground, Somerset, attracting nearly 2,500 people. It became so popular that in 1993 a separate conference for teenagers, named Soul Survivor was launched.

New Wine now attracts more than 30,000 delegates over three weeks on three different sites and Soul Survivor has more than 28,000 young Christians over two weeks.

I went to the North and East week from Saturday, July 30 until Friday, August 5 at Newark Showground in Nottinghamshire.

I didn’t know what to expect but I was bowled over by the event with 6,000 Christians, most of whom were in tents or caravans, enjoying each day packed with seminars and meetings.

The worship was amazing, the speakers excellent, the people were so friendly and helpful and there was an atmosphere of fun, typified by the hundreds of children rushing around the site in complete safety on bikes, scooters and roller blades.

I was again helping on the European Christian Mission stand in one of the huge marquees, the Marketplace, with Don Gyton, ECM’s representative for Eastern England.

What was interesting was that at Keswick we met many older Christians who had supported the mission and prayed for Albania for many years.

Whereas at Newark there were many younger families and students who didn’t remember Enver Hoxha, Albania’s Stalinist dictator, and hadn’t heard of ECM. But most of them were interested to find out more and we had many productive conversations especially with some who were interested in serving God in Europe. Many of them, I am glad to say, also bought a copy of God’s Secret Listener.

It is always difficult to evaluate whether a mission gets good value for money by being represented at these big events. It is hard work being on the stand from 10.30am until 10.30pm, with only a few breaks, and talking to new people all the time.

But both Don and I have no hesitation in recommending to the European Christian Mission that we are represented next year at Keswick and Newark.

Having already been to GO 2011 at the Worldwide Evangelisation Crusade headquarters at Bulstrode in Hertfordshire and with Jan and I off to the Gorsley Festival on the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire border at the end of this month I am sure I will be recommending the mission returns to all four events in 2012.