A YOUTH WITH A Mission worker has been appointed the new general secretary of the Albanian Evangelical Alliance.

Eugen Begu, aged 25, who became a Christian at the first evangelistic meetings staged in the country after the fall of its hard-line Communist regime, has stepped down from the missionary organization to serve in his new, three-year role.

Begu is the first national to lead the AEA since it was revived in 1992, taking over from American missionary John Quanrud. Originally founded in 1882, the umbrella body was shut down during Albania's 40-plus years under dictator Enver Hoxha, who declared the country to be atheist.

Begu was among the first converts when several missionary organizations, including YWAM, joined together to hold a series of evangelistic rallies in a sports stadium in the capital, Tirana, in the summer of 1991.

"Communism had just fallen and like many people I was in the shock of the changes, and sensing more and more the emptiness that this severe regime had created in us," he recalled. "I thought that the West had the answer, and at the first Christian campaign had my first meeting with Christ."

After becoming a Christian, he completed a YWAM Discipleship Training School, and then helped lead similar programs - teaching and equipping new Christians - for three years.

Representing 42 churches and organizations to the government, and Catholic and Orthodox churches, Begu sees his role being to promote unity among Christians in Albania, and appealed for international prayer for the Church to "understand its role as the salt and light of the nation".

The violence and anarchy that swept the country last year - forcing the evacuation of most overseas Christian workers - had seen local churches grow stronger. "What was very difficult in the physical realm has been a great blessing in the spiritual realm," said Begu. "What a blessing it was to see people praying and believing in a time of despair, what a blessing to see the churches clean the streets as everybody was filling them with bullets.

"I believe God is moving in Albania. I believe that he wants to change the course of history in our nation, if we will respond and repent from our ways. I long to see the day when we Albanians will go to the nations and bless them."

Return to: February 1998 Index Page

Return to Main YWAM Page, or to YWAM Communications