“I am only here to help them,” complained a frustrated aid worker to a young Albanian man. “Why won’t they open up to me?”

The young Albanian thought for a moment, searching for a way to help the aid worker understand. “Do you think a woman who has been brutally raped would be trusting and open?” he asked. “Try to understand what my people have been through.”

The work of church-planting is slow in Albania because it takes time to build trust. With their history marked by atrocities and painful betrayals, Albanians do not trust easily, opening only to those within their inner circles whose trustworthiness is proven—people they speak with almost daily and spend time with several times a week.

This explains why mass evangelism does not work well here. Truly successful and lasting evangelism must involve lay-members. Friendship evangelism is the golden key that unlocks doors of pain and hopelessness. We believe the gospel will spread throughout this land through overlapping circles of close friends. The circles are already in place. Our challenge is to begin entering some of the circles near us, becoming genuine friends with people and leading those who are willing to Christ. As we encourage converts to do the same, the cycle will continue, and outreach will multiply. All of those closely interlinked circles can form a strong, secure community of believers, a church that can become a respected and influential part of the larger Albanian community. Then perhaps some form of mass evangelism may have lasting results, when combined with personal evangelism accomplished by Albanian laymen. But we don’t want to put the cart before the horse.

By God’s grace, we are privileged to have joined the inner circles of several Albanians and become close friends with them. Many of these friends want to know more about God and the Bible. Some have participated in regular Bible readings, prayer and worship with us. A Muslim man, the son of an imam, has accepted Christ as his Savior. A teenage boy has asked us how he can become a member of our church. None of these people have any background knowledge about the Bible. We need to make sure they gain enough understanding to make informed decisions. We want them to be true believers who are well-grounded in the Word.

One problem we face is a lack of Albanian Bible lessons and discipleship materials for people to study and then pass on to their friends. Rob Wilcox, former AFM missionary to Albania, has prepared materials for us, but we need $10,000 to get them professionally translated, edited and published. We are considering doing a little at a time as we can afford it, but then we would run the risk of leaving people hanging in the middle of the series and losing their interest.

Several Albanians are eager to begin these lessons, so we are turning to you with our need. If God has placed the desire in your heart to help bring the message of salvation to Albanians through this special project, please send your donation to AFM and mark it “Mays Albanian Bible lesson fund.” This is a crucial step at a crucial time. We are confident that you will not wait for someone else to make this happen, but will give generously and will spread the word to others to make sure this opportunity to bring the message of Christ to Albania is not lost. As Albanians say, “Kohë është tani!”—“The time is now!”

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