Sunday, March 20, 2016

News from the Churches in Tirana: Demos

Step Church 

It has been about seven months since STEP Church was born, and God is working by adding people to it. Saimir and his wife Kela, who are serving in that church, have been such a great encouragement as they are working hard in making Him known in their area. Now STEP Church has a new name that shows better their identity: Son Hill Bible Community Church. (Son Hill is the name of the neighborhood)
Their main focus at this time is reaching out to people for the Gospel. One of the ways that has worked very well is with the mothers of the children who are attending the church since the summer. The mothers are meeting regularly as they discuss parenting, the challenges of life, and how to get good advice from the Bible. This has been a very effective evangelical tool for this church. We are also meeting with professionals and business people as a means of getting out the Gospel. They also have begun a teenager meeting where they are having a wonderful time as they share the Gospel of Christ. The children's ministry is growing stronger and their influence is being spread in their families. Please continue to pray for this new church that the Lord will cause it to grow.


Eklesia Church

Eklesia Church is now three years old. Who would imagined that the Eklesia Church would be in the present stage three years ago? This church is growing constantly in number and in the Lord. It is a great encouragement to see families come to know the Lord. These are families that are experiencing a lot of financial problems. The Bible studies that we do every Tuesday is a special blessing for all the participants and it gives to us great joy to see the spiritual hunger that is there. By the grace of God we are having a very blessed teenager meeting. There are around 80 teenagers that are participating in the Friday weekly meeting. The teenager ministry had very good growth because of the blessed cooperative events we had with two government high schools. Children's ministry is also being blessed in the Eklesia Church.  With the growth of the church there are also challenges. The challenges that we have faced in the Eklesia Church now is to stay strong in sound doctrine. There have been a few people who have tried to spread unhealthy doctrines by way of their lifestyles, but God has protected his flock very well by his grace and mercy. We do have two main focuses for Eklesia Church for this year: 1. We are committed to investing in the raising up and training of the leaders. 2. We are raising up committed believers in the Gospel. Please join us in your prayers for Eklesia Church.

Our family: God has been very good to our family. Bona’s health has been stable during this period of time. We are very thankful to the Lord for his protection. Edi is doing well. This period has been very busy for Edi because of his seminary studies, and with the growth of the ministry his time has been stretched. Noel and Sion are also growing fast in body and spirit. It is a great encouragement to see them memorizing verses and continually sharing Jesus with their school friends. Thank you so much, dear friend, for letting us share with you our lives and our ministry. We are so thankful to know you!

- Edi and Bona Demo