Here’s another unusual Christmas present which I came across when I went to Sheffield recently to speak to a group of churches.
The event was organised by Lillian Miller, who is an Albanian Evangelical Mission supporter and also helps Logos Studio, a media company based in the Albanian capital, Tirana, which produces Christian DVDs and programmes for their national TV.
There we also met her daughter Karen Murdarasi, who is married to an Albanian, is fluent in the language, had worked for AEM – and was at the University of St Andrews at the same time as our older son Andrew.
Karen has produced a Beauty of Albania 2012 calendar to help raise funds for work in the Balkan country and pictured below is one of the 12 lovely pictures she took.
It is of the ancient ruins of Apollonia, near Fier in the south west of the country, which is where local Christians believe the Apostle Paul preached.
In the Bible in Romans 15 verse 19, the Apostle Paul states: “So from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.”
Illyricum is the Roman name for what is today part of Albania, the Dalmatian coast, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro with the River Sava being the northern border.
The Catholic historian, Daniele Farlati, states that Paul came to Dyrrachium, the modern port of Durres, and many Albanians believe it, although there is no proof.
However, the theologian Professor F F Bruce points out that in Acts 20 Paul travelled through Greece and it was likely that he travelled along the Egnatian Way, which continued to Thessalonica and on to Constantinople (modern Istanbul). Dyrrachium was the western end of that great Roman road.
What is fact is that by 59AD, Dyrrachium had its first Christian bishop and up to 70 Christian families were living there, showing what a great Christian heritage Albania has.
If you would like an Albanian calendar at £7.50 plus postage email LM@clanmiller.freeserve.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment