I was born in Lezhe, Albania in 1984. During this time Albania was a communist dictatorship so religion was banned from the country. My family, especially my grandmother, was Muslim and continued to secretly practice her religion during that time anyways. By association, our whole family was Muslim. In the beginning of the 90's, communist dictatorship was overthrown and missionaries were allowed to enter the country to spread the gospel.
My mother was an English teacher so she went around being a translator for these missionaries. While she was translating, her and my father couldn't help but realize how amazing this message was. There was truth and hope that they hadn't experienced before. In 1993 both of my parents became two of the first people to be baptized in the Christian Faith. Their lives, and consequently mine, changed forever.
In 1999 our family decided to move to the United States. I was pretty involved with the church here as they were some of the only people we knew in a whole new continent. I got baptised after my sophomore year of high school here. As time went by, starting my senior year of high school I started straying away from what God had planned for me. I chose to hang out with some bad company and let myself really get into some bad stuff during that time.
Moving back home after my freshman year of college, I started working doing landscaping. I worked with a few Christian guys and I started noticing something about them that I didn't have and I wanted. While riding around in a lawnmower all day, I had a lot of time to myself. I started praying and asking God to show himself in my life. After a few months of praying and looking for a sign God really showed up in my life.
My life was changed forever. I had lived as a church kid for a long time. This was different. This time, God's love had touched my heart and ever since then, things have not been the same. I've been on fire for Him and i love getting a chance to share that with anyone I run into.
3 years ago I got the chance to do that by going to Jamaica with VMBM. When I was there I got to teach Vacation Bible School for two weeks. The people there were amazing and I loved getting the chance to spend time with them. The only thing I wished I could've done different was spend more time there getting to know the people better.
I've also been working with Young Life ministries for a few years now as a volunteer leader. This includes hanging out with high school kids, building friendships with them and trying to set an example of living for Christ. Every summer we go to a Young Life camp for a week where kids are promised to have the best week of their lives. Not only do they get to hang out with about 500 other high school kids from all over the country, but they get to hear about Christ all week long. The first year I went, out of the 5 guys I took, 4 of them met Christ and decided to dedicate their lives to him.
That is still by far the best day of my life. God really hit me hard by showing me his amazing power and how it can change lives through literally anyone. That was the day I decided I want to dedicate my life to sharing the Gospel and telling people about the eternal life God offers us.
That opportunity has come up. I was offered the chance to go on a one year mission trip to Italy and help out in doing God's work there. I jumped at that opportunity and now I'm preparing spiritually and trying to set myself up financially for it as well. I would love it if you joined me by supporting me in prayer, as well as in financial resources.
"Ask...in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24 NIV
