{"id":22803,"date":"2026-09-01T16:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cgk.nl\/?p=22803"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:02:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:02:29","slug":"how-god-lives-among-the-people-in-albania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cgk.nl\/en\/zending\/hoe-god-woont-tussen-de-mensen-in-albanie\/","title":{"rendered":"How God lives amongst the people of Albania"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a situation where there is a shortage of everything, can you \u2018just\u2019 pray for food, health and money? Mdw\u2019er Wilma de Vries<\/a> She often asks herself this question. In Albania, she helps to provide diaconal support to churches. She takes us along on her visits during an afternoon of home visits and tells us how she sees God\u2019s hand at work amidst complex situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Always a surprise<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust park your car over there; we\u2019re going to visit someone here for a bit.\u201d Tuesday afternoons are always full of surprises. I never know in advance where Pastor Fitije is taking me. Sometimes I find myself in beautiful houses, but usually we end up in cold, draughty little rooms. Now that the sun is shining brightly again, people are back out on the streets. It\u2019s better to be there than inside walls covered in mould.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We walk through narrow streets, passing some rather lovely houses. It only serves to pique my curiosity even more. I\u2019ve never been here before. I know that things might be different round every corner we turn. And indeed, little by little, the streetscape changes. The tarmac gives way, the tall gates disappear from view, the silence is replaced by noise, and the fresh scent of spring is replaced by a mixture of decay, smoke and sweat. Everywhere I look, shacks have been built. Wooden planks, corrugated iron, plastic: anything that can be used has been used to build something habitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you a doctor?<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

We step inside the first cottage. We are given a warm welcome. Inside, it looks surprisingly tidy. The room contains a neatly made bed, a sofa and a small cupboard that serves as a kitchenette. The floor is clean. A young woman looks at me with a beaming smile. Of course I\u2019m welcome! \u201cAre you a doctor?\u201d Before I can set the record straight, she\u2019s already rolled up her sleeve and is rattling off her problems. Twenty-one years old, three children, the eldest of whom is six. A shiver runs down my spine. Whilst I take her blood pressure, we have a bit of a chat. Meanwhile, a handful of children gather round me. It\u2019s fascinating to listen to your own heartbeat for a moment. Do they go to school? \u201cNo way,\u201d says the girl who, according to her mum, is six, but looks like a three-year-old. I wonder if her mum can count?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like in a slum<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

We go from cottage to cottage. For a moment, I feel as though I\u2019m back in the endless shanty towns of South Africa where I was in 2014. The smell, the noise, the type of houses, the problems\u2026 But I really am on a tiny patch of land in Albania. Sometimes I shake a dog off my trouser leg. Or I call out to the neighbours to turn the music down a bit, because I can\u2019t listen to the lungs properly like this. I assess some skin conditions and try not to start scratching myself when I see the remnants of a scabies infection. I explain to a fourteen-year-old that vaping is incredibly harmful. A gentle approach won\u2019t work here, so I give him a choice: \u201cDo you want to get cancer or not?\u201d My better judgement protests, because of course he doesn\u2019t have that choice. Does he actually even have the choice to stop smoking? Do you have a choice when all the men around you \u2013 and many women too \u2013 smoke? Whilst I\u2019m giving him a telling-off, the lad in question carries on, unperturbed, patching his bike tyre. After all, tomorrow he\u2019ll have to go and collect scrap metal on his bike again. I have countless little chats about smoking. \u201cWhy do you smoke?\u201d \u201cStressed, stressed,\u201d comes the reply. A baby smiles mischievously when I manage to cradle her in my arms, and a woman doesn\u2019t believe me when I tell her that the paracetamol she faithfully takes three times a day isn\u2019t for her heart. A man is angry because I don\u2019t have a miracle cure for his kidney stones with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Praying for the best<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In every cottage, I am asked to pray. I hear my own words: \u201cDear Lord, You are the God full of love, full of grace, full of goodness\u2026 We pray to You: let this be evident every day in our food, in our health, and in the money we need for our necessities.\u201d I feel doubt welling up in my heart: \u201cCan I really pray this here? Here, where the problems are so complex\u2026\u201d My respect for the pastor and my colleague, who comes here every week, only grows. They have started a children\u2019s club here and are working amongst the women, to spread the Gospel here too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Work of God<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

As we make our way back home, I find myself wondering what I have seen of God here. The woman who gave me such a warm welcome into her little cottage told me, with eyes shining, that she loves Jesus, and that she has so much peace and joy in her heart. What a light she is to those around her! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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