By BosNewsLife News Center
TIRANA, ALBANIA (BosNewsLife)– Tens of thousands have heard the Christian “Good News” in Albania’s capital Tirana and “many” made “public decisions for Jesus Christ” at an evangelism festival of American evangelist Luis Palau, organizers said.
The announcement came as thousands gathered at Tirana’s Mother Teresa Square Sunday, September 23, for the second and final day of ‘TiranaFest’, the first evangelistic gathering of its kind in this formerly atheistic nation.
Palau called the event “historic” as in 1967 the Albanian leadership closed all religious institutions and declared Albania the world’s first “purely atheistic state.”
Many Christians were jailed and several of them killed because of their faith in Jesus Christ under the regime of late Albanian Communist leader Enver Hoxha, according to several advocacy groups.
(Watch here Luis Palau’s promotion video for TiranaFest. Story continues after this)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK2L5ikl4fg”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK2L5ikl4fg
Only in 2010, the government granted legal status to some 135 of the nation’s evangelical churches, the Luis Palau Association said. “However, Albania remains one of the least evangelized places in the world, with less than 1 percent of the population” of 3 million “claiming to be evangelical Christian,” the organization added.
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP
Other church observers have suggested that figure is higher, but Palau maintains there’s a difference between following church traditions or making a personal decision for Jesus Christ.
He and other evangelical believers like to point to Bible verse John 3:16: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’.
Yet, “Albania’s small but passionate community of believers is hungry for God to move,” Palau said.
Organizers stressed that TiranaFest has been arranged in cooperation with Albania’s government and Tirana city officials. Additionally nearly every evangelical church in Albania was reportedly involved in the TiranaFest with Luis Palau.
Besides Palau’s sermon, the TiranaFest included performances from international and Albanian artists as well as a variety of extreme sports events and activities for children.
LOL,
Just because you see big crowd and some people answer your Q. with “yes i accept Christ”, it doesn’t mean that they really will convert to Evangelism or to any other religion for that matter.
We, Albanians are fed up with religions, we don’t need missionaries to tell us who Moses,Jesus or Muhammad are/were, we know it even before Vatican knew it.
It’s kind of silly seeing evangelical albanians. Consideing we already have a flourishing orthodox and catholic church. Albanians were one of he very first Europeans to accept Christ, we don’t need to be “evangelised” by foreigners.
Congratulations this is really good news, yes many Albanians need to find God and accept Jesus as their savior. More evangelical Albanians is only good news for this country. God bless them all
Yeah illyrian my friends who went to the fest found it very annoying that an evangelist would take most of time.People were tricked to come to fest because they were misinformed by ads
Dear Jerry,
Which way were they “misinformed” and “tricked”? Luis Palau’s name is immediately below the TiranaFest name. And, yeah, he is an evangelist. And Nikolle, “flourishing” Catholic, Orthodox, or I could add Protestant, or Evangelical churches doesn’t necessarily mean those active in them are Christians, Palau would argue. It just means that the churches as institutions are doing fine. I think he may refer to for instance Bible verse John 14:6: ‘Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (New International Version). Churches have nothing to do with that. They may bring together people who believe that, but that’s not always the case.
Stefan. J. Bos, BosNewsLife
The ads that were shown on TV did not even mentioned Louis Palau once.Even if his name was there they still didnt know who he was.I even told people that they were going to religious fest but the did not belive me.Not not to sound disrespectful i would like that Louis would have used more facts and not claimed that 70 % are muslims wich is absolutely not the case(latest census shows 70% not religious at all).Albania is secular country with secular traditions and constitution,religion in public life is not part of us like in the USA.Christians require to put your religion before anything else ,we albanians consider ourselves albanian before any religion to say the oposite would be total social suicide. If you dont understand what i mean then i would like to qoute an albanian founding father from 100 years ago Pashko Vasa ”People don’t go to the churches and mosques because the religion of Albania is albanianism”
This was not Christianity. This was badly organized activity.Singers dressed in miniskirt.Half naked body.Singers who were not related to the activity.The culmination was when the scene appeared a political leader who stole elections efficiently and publikle in TV, his name was Lulzim Basha.What they have to do with Christianity, is there anyone to explain?! The peak was in the morning when a gay alongside with name Toni Gogu, advertised activity.He is known for his homosexuality in Pojan, Korca. Hahahaa. What is that Christianity?! And by the way no more then 1000 people was there.