On Sunday 19 February, Sr Wilma de Vries was dispatched from Urk-Maranatha church as MDWs. Wilma will do missionary diaconal work in Albania. She is being sent out by Urk-Maranatha in cooperation with the Reformed Missionary Union.
Healthcare
The small, vulnerable churches in Albania face great challenges. Not only are they a minority, they also have to deal with the difficult past, poverty and poor health care.
'Fokusi' is the GZB's churches programme in Albania. Besides theological training, diaconal support will be added to the programme. Wilma will focus on healthcare and addiction care. Organising medical outreaches to the villages, prevention classes and offering a listening ear. She will do this in cooperation with churches and local partners. One of the local partners is ABC Health Centre: they have a desire to set up palliative care and reach those for whom health care is not currently available. Wilma will also work in the clinic. Thus, the partners' knowledge and Fokusi's contacts come together with the shared desire to give God's love hands and feet in Albania.
Broadcast missionary workers
It was not the first time that a missionary was sent out from the Maranatha congregation of Urk. Family Hessel and Coby Visser (Bible translation work in Botswana) and family Albert and Jacomine Verhoef (Bible translation work in Tanzania) presided. It is especially nice that every Sunday afternoon in all church buildings of the Maranatha congregation, prayers are offered for the sent missionary workers and for the people reached through them.
