Auspicious day for Sali Rahmani

July 26 will always remain an auspicious day for Sali Rahmani, whose story is told in God’s Secret Listener.

Thirty-six years ago today the former Berwick-upon-Tweed Bible College student married Helen McGinley at Mosspark Baptist Church in Glasgow.

After a three-day honeymoon in Berwick-upon-Tweed, the newly-married couple drove out to Munich where Sali began a new ministry there helping overseas workers.

He also continued sending his Christian tapes in Albanian back to the European Christian Mission studio in Rawtenstall which were then beamed into the Balkan country by Trans World Radio in Monte Carlo.

Sali, pictured below, never realised how important his wedding day was until six years later in April 1983 when he decided to combine a trip home to Kosovo to see his parents and to go into the nearby villages and towns to find if there were any listeners to his radio programme there.

He was arrested by the Yugoslav police who accused him of propagating the Christian message, mostly through his radio work.

After days of questioning they produced a couple of plastic bags with an Albanian John’s Gospel in it, plus a large straw to keep the bag afloat, some chewing gum and Christian literature on which there were Sali’s contact details.

What do you know about these, demanded his interrogators? Sali knew about them, but very wisely, he had asked the Christians involved not to tell him too many details. Now he was glad he had been careful.

Some Christians had approached him with an imaginative scheme to get the Christian message into Albania.

This group had filled 1,000 plastic bags and dropped them into the 335 kilometre-long River Drin in Kosovo to float downstream into Albania.

His interrogators refused to accept that Sali had nothing to do with this unusual plastic bags mission, despite all his protestations.

Anyway, the interrogators told him it had been a useless enterprise as the authorities had fished all the plastic bags out of the river.

So Sali was delighted when he was visiting Christians in Kruje about ten years later and one of them produced the plastic bag and Christian literature, which he had found in the river and had read.

Meanwhile, Sali was wondering how he could convince them of his innocence, when one of the interrogators let slip the plastic bags had been put into the river on Saturday, June 26, 1976.

Suddenly Sali shouted with delight. “I can prove it wasn’t me. I had nothing to do with those plastic bags dropped into the river. I wasn’t even in Kosovo on that day.

“I was a couple of thousand miles away,” he said triumphantly. “I was in Glasgow, it was my wedding day.”

Sali’s story is told in God’s Secret Listener, published by Lion/Monarch of Oxford.

To order a copy for £7.50 including postage in the UK and £9 anywhere in the world email John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Birthday congratulations go to Alma

Belated birthday congratulations go to another unsung heroine in the Albanian church as Alma Syla celebrated a special milestone on Saturday.

A couple of weeks ago it was celebration time for Berti Dosti’s wife Tatyana. Then at the weekend it was the turn of Alma, pictured below, a deacon and a leading member of the Way of Peace Church in Lushnje and also the senior teacher at the Victory School.

As a young girl Alma grew up at the end of the Enver Hoxha era. She had always wanted to be a teacher but she had to do it the hard way.

When Communism fell she managed in 1990 to get a post in a remote village school as well as gaining a scholarship to study at a university in Tirana.

To get to the school in Spolet, it meant catching the 6.30am bus from Lushnje for an hour’s journey before a 45-minute walk through two villages to the school, where she started teaching at 8.30am and finished at 1.30pm. Then she had to repeat the journey, arriving home at 3pm.

After a meal and a rest, she started her own studies and preparing the next day’s lessons, until 10.30pm, depending on whether there were any power cuts, which were frequent in those days.

She travelled to school with on the bus with Elsa, a Christian teacher at the school who helped her become a believer.

In 2000 Alma started teaching at the Victory School and has played a pivotal role there and in the church.

Congratulations to Alma and I hope she had a memorable day with her husband Drini and two daughters Sabrina and Kaltrina.

Alma’s story is told in God’s Secret Listener, published by Lion/Monarch of Oxford.

To order a copy for £7.50 including postage in the UK and £9 anywhere in the world email John@jbutterworth.plus.com 

Albania strikes oil

I am indebted to journalist colleague and friend Barrie Farnsworth for sending me a press release announcing that Albania has discovered massive oil deposits in the Adriatic Sea.

This Balkan country already has one of the highest economic growth markets in south eastern European and this discovery is predicted to produce around one billion barrels of oil giving a huge boost to the economy.

Indeed, the discovery has led the Balkan nation to consider how it will best spend its new found fortune given that Albania earns 10% of gross production and makes 50% of earnings from oil sales according to the standard contract that the government uses with foreign companies searching for oil.

Ravin Maharajah, Partner of Lalzit Bay Resort and Spa, the 5 star luxury residential development, pictured below, on Albania’s Adriatic coastline, commented: “There are very high hopes for an oil boom in Albania.

"Indeed, foreign direct investment into Albania derived from global conglomerates Shell and Petromanas joining in partnership to explore for oil in the country will no doubt increase, making a real impact on the Balkan nation.

“As well as banking on oil, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will assist the Albanian government in September 2012 with a project that aims to rejuvenate Albania's outdated railways with a particular focus on rehabilitating the Durres-Tirana railway line seeing as 40% of Albania's population is based there.

"This will no doubt help push more tourism into the area further boosting the nation’s economic prospects.”

Maharajah continues: “As a testament to Albania's potential, our customer base is constantly growing with interest rapidly increasing in our 5 star resort.

“Indeed, the expectation of increased GDP growth as well as high visitor numbers in coming years thanks to a wider range of infrastructure projects such as the new railways, Lalzit Bay Resort and Spa will provide the perfect property investment opportunity for as little as €38,000.

Lalzit Bay Resort and Spa offers a premium, exclusive product to buyers who want the benefits of villa ownership including private gardens and terraces, exclusive services, and more privacy as well as a range of facilities including private swimming pools, a BBQ area, tennis courts and superb restaurants."

I wonder what on earth Communist dictator Enver Hozha would have thought of this economic boom and what he would have done with all this wealth if Albania had struck gold when he ruled from 1944-85.

 Would its history would have been so different?

To find out more about Albania read God’s Secret Listener published by Lion/Monarch of Oxford.

To buy a copy of the book, £6.50 including postage within the UK or £7.50 anywhere in the world email John@jbutterworth.plus.com   

Happy Birthday, Tanya

Happy birthday congratulations this week go to Tatjana Dosti who played an important role in the rebirth of the Albanian church.

Tatjana – or Tanya as she is known on Facebook – married Berti in her village of Melcan, near Korce, on Saturday, October 24, 1981.

She then moved to Berti’s home in Lushnje where they have lived ever since.

As well as bringing up their two children, Alta and Dorian, and looking after the family home Tatjana has played an important part in the church.

She hosted the second ever service in Lushnje in their home and every week for the next six months until the Way of Peace church grew too big for their flat and moved into a bigger building.

In 1997 during the troubles when angry crowds took to the streets Tatjana, who had been working as a court official, got up early to help her boss remove important legal documents from their office and move them to safety as the mob were setting fire to public buildings all over the country.

It wasn’t the first time that Tatjana, pictured below, had braved a violent demonstration.

She had been caught up in violence in Lac when Berti’s policeman brother had been injured and crowds had surrounded the police station.

She then helped Berti set up the Victory School and as numbers grew there and at the church she gave up her job to work full-time for both organisations.

The saying that behind every great man, there’s a greater woman is certainly true of Berti and Tatjana.

She is one of the quiet but unsung heroines of the new Albanian church.

I hope she had a great birthday on Monday.

I am too polite to say how old she is, but readers can work it out if they read the Dostis’ story in God’s Secret Listener, published by Lion/Monarch of Oxford.

To order a copy for £7 including postage in the UK and £8 anywhere in the world email John@jbutterworth.plus.com