Thank you for visiting this page and wanting to learn more about me and my ministry for the Lord.
I’ve been wanting to serve the Lord from the first moment I met Him, over 25 years ago, in what was then the still very new Evangelical Church of Gramsh, Albania. I did a little of that back then, by being part of and even leading the worship team for a time, leading youth groups and Bible-study meetings, taking part in regular trips to spread the Gospel in the villages around Gramsh, and so on. I thought that serving God and the church would be my life from that first moment on, but the simple fact was that I wasn’t as ready or equipped as I thought. I had a lot of growing to do; I still do. At the same time, I had to lose so much of me, be broken in so many ways, and learn so many lessons before I could even come close to being considered worthy of such a calling.
One of the main lessons I learned through the years was what King Solomon puts so eloquently in Ecclesiastes, “Everything under the sun is vanity”. Nothing I experienced, sought after, or gained in this world was worth it. And I learned that as long as I put my own wants and needs before God and His will, I would never love Him like I claimed I did, nor be worthy of representing Him before the world. So, after many long years of chasing after the wind, I finally gave it all up for Him and to Him, and have wanted nothing but to serve Him ever since.
It was then that God made a way for me to come to Chicago five years ago and become a part of the wonderful family of the Orchard Evangelical Free Church. Here, He gave me the opportunity to receive, among other things, some much-needed training through Momentum, a program designed to train and equip current and prospective Pastors, leaders, church planters and missionaries, and when the time came, God called me back to where it all first started, at Gramsh, Albania.
I am very excited to have the opportunity to work with Pastor Artan Figu and the older believers there to re-awaken the flame of the Gospel in a town where most people, including believers, leave to never come back. For more than a decade, membership at the church there has numbered in the low twenties, while I know the potential is great, and the need much greater. After all, the first generation of believers in this church produced at least 5 pastors who now serve across Albania and Kosovo. Now, I am looking forward to seeing what the new generation of believers will be able to achieve in Gramsh, in the name of Christ.
But even though I go with much joy and anticipation, leaving the States, the life that I’ve built here and my family behind is no small a thing to do, and that is why I hope that your prayers and support will go with me. And above all, I pray that God will be glorified through everything I say and do, as I strive to obey His will and answer His call to go and make disciples in His name.
