New ACSI Schools in Europe
ACSI recently received a letter from Rezart Lico who is currently working in Albania to promote national Christian schools and is a new member of ACSI Europe. This is the type of ministry which challenges us daily and reminds us of our purpose in serving the growing Christian school movement throughout Europe.
View online at: http://eepurl.com/bPTtCT
| Please read this exciting news below, and pray for the first national Christian school in Albania. |
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Developing Christian Schools in Albania!
During the communist years, Albania was the harshest country persecuting Christians and other religious groups. Article 37 was added to the Albanian constitution in 1967, which read: ”The state recognizes no religion and supports and carries out atheistic propaganda in order to implant a scientific materialistic world outlook in people.” Albania had a fundamentally violent and sustained antireligious campaign during the Communist years. In 1990 the first missionaries arrived from the Western countries to rebuild the Church from the remnant. Today, missionaries along with Albanian Christians are dreaming of Christian schools to educate the next generation in the Truth. Please pray with us for this OPPORTUNITY for the Albanians to HAVE CHRIST, and to have LIFE.
ACSI recently received a letter from Rezart Lico who is currently working in Albania to promote national Christian schools and is a new member of ACSI Europe. This is the type of ministry which challenges us daily and reminds us of our purpose in serving the growing Christian school movement throughout Europe. Your gifts to ACSI help to make this ministry possible.
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| Rezart Lico and team |
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We now have a core team of people who are working to carry out our vision for Christian schools in Albania. Our newly formed NGO will support different initiatives that will provide life-transforming education to the multiple generations of Albanians, starting with the children of today. We are working toward creating bylaws, focusing our vision and mission, defining core values, setting up our organizational structure, figuring out legal requirements, and so on! There are many more working sessions ahead for us.
We are also involved in some initiatives from local churches that have contacted us for help in establishing schools. One of these is in Lushnja, a town one hour south of Tirana, the Albanian Capital.
The sponsoring local church already has a preschool program with about forty children and wants to grow it into a school licensed by the government. We plan to start with Grade 1 and a combination Grade 2/3! We also plan to add one or two grades each year following. |
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Thank you for being part of transforming this new generation and generations to come of Albanian children through Christian Education!
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| Albania is a small country in the Balkans (north of Greece) with a population of about 3 million. It was heavily impacted by Fascist Italy and later by Communist Russia until it regained its independence in 1991. According to 2008 statistics from the religious communities in Albania, there are 1119 churches and 638 mosques in the country. The Roman Catholic mission declared 694 Catholic churches. The Christian Orthodox community, 425 Orthodox churches. The Muslim community, 568 mosques, and 70 Bektashi tekkes. The Evangelical Alliance has about 160 member congregations from different Protestant denominations. |
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Please pray and believe with us for the following:
- Two or three missionary elementary teachers for Grades 1-3
- Curriculum and textbooks for grades PK - Grade 5) – used textbooks are fine
- At least twenty students in Grades 1-3 for the next school year. More would be wonderful!
- Everything ready and submitted for the license application before the due date of April 30
- Acquiring the license in timely fashion in order to start the school year on September 1, 2016
- A total of $33,000 to make the building ready for inspection before the license is given!
If you would like to donate through ACSI Europe and need a tax-deductible receipt, please contact us by email. If you would like to support the Christian school in Albania, please designate your gift as "Christian School in Albania".
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