My name is Meredith Kemp Lleshi. I am an American married to an Albanian and serving with Campus Crusade for Christ (or Cru) in Tirana, Albania. I have been in Albania since 1997 and married since 2002. We have three children Klara, 11, Martin, 7, and Aleksander, 5.
We have had various roles within Cru, but currently my husband and I serve on the Global Church Movement team, helping to plant a new church in our area. Obviously trying to start a new church is a gradual process. We have done an English camp, had women’s gatherings, had a lot of one-on-one coffees, etc. to build relationships. We just got funding for our own space for meetings and hope to start a full-fledged service in the fall of 2014. As one of only two foreigners on our team here in Tirana, I am also on the partnership team, helping develop and maintain good partnerships for our staff and ministries, mostly with internationals.
After almost 17 years, I am still on fire for what God is doing here in Albania. Albania is predominantly Muslim, but wide-open to the gospel, both politically and culturally. I don’t know of another place in the world that this is true. After only 22 years of freedom after the end of Communism, Albania is already a sending nation with global workers in closed countries, as well as other parts of the Balkans. Our goal is to develop Albanians so that Albania can continue to grow as a beachhead for sending global workers to the Muslim world.
Pray for God’s mighty hand to continue to move in this amazing place. Please pray for me as a wife and mom. With so much that I could do, please pray that I would seek to do only what God has for me to do. Please pray for our youngest son who has been diagnosed as autistic. He is in therapy and making progress, but it is hard knowing that he won’t be starting kindergarten with the rest of his age group. Special education is very minimal here. Thank you so much for your prayers!
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