Tag Archives: Albania

Christian Radio Station To Bring Hope To Communist Nation

For years in the country of Albania, the communist government once exerted such control over the publications and broadcasting that you could not buy a dictionary with God in it.

Now, the country is undergoing a revolution of hope as a Christian radio station is airing programming in the Albanian’s native language aimed at bringing the good news to the lost.

Radio 7 has been broadcasting Christian material to the country since 2002 but had been hampered by the fact their programs were translations of North American programs that were aimed at believers in the United States and Canada.

The head of Radio 7 contacted an American ministry called The Tide which works to create locally produced Gospel shows around the world.  The group helped launch radio ministries in countries such as Nigeria, Nepal and India.  They knew they could bring the kind of help to Radio 7 that would impact Albania.

“Like all of our programming, The Tide Albanian-language program, which also reaches into neighboring Kosovo, is produced on-site, using indigenous speakers who tell people about Jesus in the language they were born to speak,” said The Tide Director Don Shenk. “But our ministry in Albania also goes beyond airtime, and our ministry leaders invest into the lives of those to whom they minister, visiting with them, giving them radios so they can listen to the program, praying with them and encouraging them in their faith.”

The ministry of Radio 7 and The Tide has produced noticeable results in just a few short months with letters from those who said they were atheists or Muslims who have now accepted Christ as Lord.

Albania’s population today is less than one percent Christian.

ISIS Threatening To Assassinate Pope Francis

Pope Francis is standing up to the terrorist group Islamic State by heading to Albania for weekend services despite clear warnings the group intends to kill him.

He will be the first sitting Pope since 1933 to visit Albania when he arrives Saturday.

Iraq’s Ambassador to the Holy See has told the Vatican and local newspapers that ISIS had made it clear they want to kill him.

“What has been declared by the self-declared Islamic State is clear – they want to kill the pope. The threats against the Pope are credible,” Habeeb Al Sadr said. “I believe they could try to kill him during one of his overseas trips or even in Rome. There are members of ISIL who are not Arabs but Canadian, American, French, British, also Italians. ISIL could engage any of these to commit a terrorist attack in Europe.”

Al Sadr said when the Pope condemned the terrorists for their killings of innocents he basically put a target on himself.  While the Vatican downplayed the threat, Al Sadr said it’s a very real danger.

“This band of criminals does not just issue threats,” Al Sadr said. “In Iraq, they have already violated and destroyed some of the most sacred sites of the Shiite faith. They have struck at Yazidi and Christian places of worship. They have declared that whoever is not with them, is against them. Either convert or be killed. And they are doing it it is a genocide.”

The Pope released a simple statement on the matter.

“I decided to visit this country because it has suffered greatly as a result of a terrible atheist regime and is now realizing the peaceful co-existence of its various religious components,” Pope Francis said.