From Don Yelton of White's Ferry Road Church of Christ:
Dear friends,
The following message is from brother in Christ, Artan Samara, one of the leaders of the church in Tirana.
Please note that several of our brotherhood humanitarian organizations are working together to relieve the suffering of the refugees from Kosovo and we will do all we can to help our brothers in Serbia and in other places as we have opportunity. The Christian organizations working together so far are:
Partners in Progress, White's Ferry Road Church of Christ Relief Ministries, World English Institute, Healing Hands International, Bread for a Hungry World, Christian Relief Fund, and MANNA International.
We think God for the unity being shown both in Albania and in our brotherhood.
Don Yelton
Web Site for Relief & AMEN Ministries: www.wfrchurch.org
-------------Forwarded Message-----------------
Date: 4/26/99 4:31 PM
RE: Refugee update from Tirana
Dear Brethren,
We would like to thank you all for the support, love and encouragement you are giving to us, while we are trying at these moments to serve our Lord through our relief project in help of Kosovo refugees.
As you probably know our main priority at the beginning was to build up and manage a refugee camp in our own. Of course this decision was result of our good will and enthusiasm to do our own best in service of these people in need, but we did not had any previous experience in such things. It is the first time we are facing such situations. So, as the time passed by, and after we made a proper study of the situation, and of the things that a camp wanted to be run successfully, and after we carefully listened to brothers from America and Albania with experience in emergency work, we decided not to take this responsibility. Our efforts now will be directed to the Kosovo refugees who live outside the camps hosted by Albanian families, and which are the ones in more desperate need for food. The refugee camps are being helped now from different NGO, but no one is helping the refugees who live in the houses of the Albanians. That because the information is missing and it is difficult to organize the work for helping these people. On the other side Albanian families, which have open their houses for them, can no longer support refugees with food. Lets not forget that the Kosovo families are big, with an average of 7 people for each family, and the economical and financial situation of Albanian families (according to the World Bank data) is far bellow the average poor level.
A week ago we went in a house of an old lady, where there were staying 12 refugees. The old Albanian lady did not stop thanking us for the food we gave to them. She said that for the two weeks that they had stayed at her home she spent all the savings that she had and now they all together with her were in desperate need for food. Some of the people that live with her were going to the camps to get some food, but because they were not part of the camp, it was difficult to get.
To be more organized, more effective, more future orientated, and get things more under control, the church decided to create the Crisis Committee which is going to get decision, organize, deal and be responsible for the everyday operations regarding the relief project.
The Crisis Committee is composed of 4 members of the church, which are: Tomi Panidha, Artan Xhaferi, Randy Richards, and Artan Samara.
In the last meeting the Committee discussed about things which will make the work easier and better controlled. We decided to open an bank account just for that purpose, and put there all the money that may come in Albania through different sources. In this way, all the financial system will be under control of the whole group. For the moment I will be the one with the responsibility of creating the financial system and keeping the financial data records, which will be double checked in regular basis by each of the Committee members, and will be available to each member of the church.
Based on the suggestion of our brothers and on the need to show our unity in our efforts to help the refugees, the crisis committee decided that, it would be best to have an official report of the work that will be sent out weekly. It will be written, reviewed for accuracy by members of the committee, and then the final copy will be sent via e-mail to all members of the committee and missionaries for forwarding to everybody's mailing list.
This is in no way meant to stop people writing about the crisis but since extremely large sums of money have been entrusted to the church and subsequently to the committee, we feel it is necessary to be unified in our reporting.
We as Committee are also going to prepare weekly reports, which will be the official reports regarding the relief work of Tirana Church of Christ.
Till now we have been able to help around 400 refugees or around 50 families who live outside the camps, in different areas of the town. We have assisted them with food, mainly flour, oil, sugar, rice, meat, fruits, soap, diapers for babies, toiletries, sleeping mats, blankets, second hand clothes, etc. We have been also continuing to help the refugee camp in Kavaja, where we recently send a van full of diapers for babies. The total amount spent till now has been around $10,000 USD dollar. In this relief work has been involved many members of the church including here Albanians and American missionaries. In our relief work we are considering not only the help we are giving as food or other items, but also our objective has been to spend time socializing with them. So whenever we go to give some help, we stay and talk with them about their physical and spiritual needs. The result of our work has already started to give the fruits. There are some Kosovo families who has started to bring their children to the children classes that we organize in the Church.
Last Sunday I was preaching in the Elbasan, a town around 60 Km away from Tirana. There were many visitors present, but what made me more happy was the presence of the two young Kosovo refugees. The theme I spoke about was about the generosity. When I finished at the end of the service, the two kosovo boys came and hugged me with their eyes filled with tears. It was very emotional. These hugs were not given to me, but to the Lord's Word. I pray to God that may many other souls should be touched by His Word of truth, by His love and generosity, and may He open the door for us to evangelize in Kosovo.
We are so thankful to God, to the love and enthusiasm of our brethren in the church and to all of you who are supporting us in our join efforts.
May God Bless all of you,
In Christian love
Artan & Brikena Samara