SKOPJE, Macedonia (ABP) — “A jeni ju Baba Dimri?” Translation: “Are you Santa Claus?”
That's what Serxhane, an 11-year-old Albanian orphan, asked Rick Shaw — who serves with his wife, Martha, as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship global missions field personnel in Skopje, Macedonia — a few weeks after receiving textbooks from Martha and Fellowship volunteers.
But according to Rick Shaw, it wasn't the gift as much as God's love demonstrated through giving that created the mistaken identity. “I told the young Albanian that, like Baba Dimri, we love people — especially the children of the world,” he said.
Serxhane was one of approximately 500 children who received textbooks, along with backpacks and school supplies. The textbook project was part of the Shaws' ongoing ministry among orphan and indigent children in Skopje and surrounding villages.
The children who received textbooks are either orphaned or have only one parent who is employed. Most are ethnic Albanians who face discrimination and lack educational and employment opportunities in Macedonia.
“Many of the children are very bright and dream of a better life,” Martha Shaw said, but they face obstacles to learning, such as having to provide their own books. “You can imagine what a challenge this is when no one in the home is working,” she added.
When Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., learned of the textbook shortage, they quickly responded. They spread the word to other stateside Fellowship churches, while the Shaws contacted churches in the Balkan region. In all, more than $40,000 was raised.
In August, three Highland members — Phil Collier, Terri Connolly and Angela Dennison — along with Mary Thompson of Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington, Ky. — traveled to Skopje, where they distributed textbooks and visited in schools and orphans' homes. They were joined by several local Albanian and Macedonian church members and Kristen Connolly, Terri's daughter and a Student.Go missions intern serving in the region.
The Kentucky volunteers “left full of love for Albanian people and with ideas of ways they could continue to support our ministry here, as well as begin a ministry to the Albanians who live in their own community,” Martha Shaw said.
Since the volunteers' return, Highland Baptist has discovered that many Albanians live in Louisville. The church hosted a Thanksgiving meal for local Albanians as part of an emerging, cultural exchange-oriented ministry, said Phil Collier.
“Our church has been energized by this project,” Collier said. “We have become more missions-oriented, with a large percentage of our members becoming involved in missions work and justice issues.” Collier noted that Highland has also enjoyed the connections created by the project with new Albanian friends and sister churches like Lexington's Calvary Baptist.
Calvary Baptist collected money for the textbook project and donated school supplies for distribution. The church's deacons also held a dessert auction during a deacon fellowship to help send Mary Thompson on the textbook distribution trip.
“It meant the world to me to have the opportunity to go and help the Shaws,” Thompson said. “I felt God's hand throughout the experience.”
The Fellowship's 2003-04 Offering for Global Missions, with the theme “Everyone … Everywhere, Being the Presence of Christ,” encourages this kind of personal missions involvement, along with prayer and financial support.
The offering's importance to ministries among Albanians cannot be underestimated, Martha Shaw said. “The Offering for Global Missions provides funding for us to be here, to establish ministries among orphans and widows, and to communicate with CBF constituency churches and other churches the Albanian story,” she said. “The offering is the financial foundation of our presence in the Balkans among Albanians. Without it, we could not be here.”
In addition to the textbook project, the Shaws have developed other holistic, transformational ministries alongside Albanians, including English instruction; clothing, food, medicine, firewood and heater distribution; medical care arrangement and financing; church planting and discipling; human rights advocacy; sewage system installation in villages; and prison ministries.
“Our goal is to guide Albanians to see the gospel as powerful, real and relevant to their lives and culture,” Martha Shaw said.
— Photo available from Associated Baptist Press
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