Around the World: Gifts for Honduran children, an art show by Kenya’s street kids and more quick takes
Around the World is our monthly rundown of news briefs,…
Around the World: a fast-growing Albanian church, Bible resources for Serbs and a school in Togo
Around the World is our monthly rundown of news briefs, links and quotes from Churches of Christ all over the globe. Got an idea for this column? Email Erik Tryggestad at [email protected].
ALBANIA
BERAT — He wasn’t thinking big enough.
Minister Cimi Kafexhiu, who preaches for the Durres Church of Christ, rented a small house for a new congregation in Berat, a city that was part of the Roman empire some 2,500 years ago.
The minister hoped the rented space would be big enough for a new congregation in Berat, planted in October.
Cimi Kafexhiu leads singing during Sunday worship in Berat, Albania.
“Well, I was wrong,” Kafexhiu said. After three months, the church has a regular attendance of 35 to 40 people for its Thursday Bible study and Sunday worship services. The church also has about 10 teens and 15 to 20 children.
About a dozen of the worshipers are baptized believers, said Kafexhiu, who travels to Berat twice per week with his wife, Anila. They teach classes for adults and youths. The minister expects more baptisms to follow and hopes to procure a communion set and an overhead projector for the church — in addition to a bigger meeting place.
SERBIA
BELGRADE — Members of a Church of Christ in this Central European capital, including minister Drasko Denovic, recently completed translating The Bible for Kids app into their native language. Denovic said he’s hopeful that the translated material will be incorporated into YouVersion, the popular Bible app for mobile devices.
Drasko Denovic
The church members also completed “synchronizations,” matching spoken-word audio with video, for nine videos in the BibleProject.com series, covering the books of Matthew through Acts, so that they can be heard in Serbian.
“It looks like we are slowly getting closer to the digital generation,” Denovic said, “not through just the ‘normal’ street evangelism, but to those who have replaced paper with the digital media as well.”
TOGO
LOMÉ — A school that meets in the building of the Nukafu Church of Christ has grown to 310 students, minister Esperance Mensah said.
Esperance Mensah
The church also operates a school in the rural village of Yobone that has 74 students.
The schools had an exam pass rate in excess of 98 percent last year, Mensah said, and the government education department honored them with a certificate. The church is raising funds to buy 18 laptop computers and furnish a computer lab.
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