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The report recounted that shortly after World War II, Albania was officially declared to be the world’s first atheistic state and that the Marxist dictator, Enver Hoxha, had claimed to murder God, which he called his greatest achievement.
The report says that by mid-1967, all religious institutions had relinquished their churches, mosques, cloisters, and shrines to the government, as Article 37 of the Albanian Constitution, 1967, stated, "The State recognizes no religion, and supports and carries out atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in people."
But incidentally after the death Hoxha in 1985, the reverse became the case as all he really accomplished was murdering religious practices, to the extent that it did not take long for new believers to emerge, that by 1992 new churches were planted and new ministries were started.
It heartwarming to note that a ministry like Christian Aid Mission has for over the years been involved with several native ministries involved in this growth and also most indigenous ministries are engaged in some kind of mercy outreach, such as feeding the poor, which in turn, provides opportunities to share the gospel.
It’s regrettable that for those wishing to learn about Christ, true Christian literature is scarce giving way to lots of propaganda claiming to be of Christian origin, but does not recognize Christ as the living God and Savior of sinners, while there are some books considered to be sound Christianity, they are very small in number and geared toward younger believers.
For instance, Albanian Translation Ministries (ATM), a native ministry supported by Christian Aid, has been striving to meet this need.
"In view of the fact that the Albanian church is now 18 years old and acknowledging that we have some ‘milk’ books, but no ‘meat’ ones, our aim is to translate great books from our long heritage of Christian literature. This will give a stronger foundation to mature Christians – especially in church leadership," says an ATM leader.
He further stated that ATM has a highly qualified Albanian English teacher/translator who joined the ministry in 2002 adding that his prior experiences include translations of Christian books, articles, brochures and other materials for organizations or churches.
ANS notes that Albania is 70% Muslim and that ATM hopes to reach this large segment of the society, as well and that while ATM has the capability of translating any of the great Christian writers, it does not have the resources to get them published at the present time.
And also that in a country where there was decades of enforced atheism, there is now religious freedom, though today only 0.7% of the population is born-again Christian, while there are only small pockets of true Christian witnessing taking place amongst these people.
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Success Kanayo Uchime is a Nigerian missionary-journalist. He is the President of Kingdom Missions Outreach Inc.(KMO). He holds an Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria, Masters and Doctoral Degrees in Christian Ministry and Missions respectively from Go Ye Christian University, U.S. A. At present he lives in the Philippines with his family preparatory to moving over to Thailand to continue his foreign mission assignment. He's the Editor in Chief/Moderator World Mission News (WMN), an on-line mission news service. Uchime is a member of Journalist for Christ Nigeria (JFCN), Committee of Concerned Journalists, Washington D.C, U.S.A, etc. He's the author, Every Christian A Missionary, Your Church Can Go For Mission,
Used by permission Assist News Service www.assistnews.net
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