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
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