Albania

Berti and Adelina Berhami

Berti grew up as an atheist in a Muslim tradition where his parents never practiced their religion, but they feared God. While in high school, Berti was taught that God was something that man created, because of man’s limited knowledge. Under Communism, Berti was taught that the ignorance of man was expressed in the idea of God. His high school education strongly enforced two viewpoints concerning religion and God. Those became Berti’s convictions at that time in his life. The first was that religions are the best tools for a government to keep people under its control, by making them afraid of God. The second viewpoint was that believers in God are naive people that cannot walk with self-assurance, and as result of that they choose to live in a world of ideology, ignoring the achievement of science. Berti lived with conviction to these viewpoints until the end of his last year in high school when communism fell and Albania opened up. It was that year in 1990 when Berti started to have doubt in what he was taught in school. The following year Berti attended the University of Tirana with many expectations, but the reality there was completely different. What he was taught in high school was just some basic ideas. But at the University Berti was under the influence and pressure of hundreds of new ideas, thoughts, and theories about science and life. He therefore sought to find answers to three critical questions:

1. Was God a dream or a reality?
2. Could science and faith exist together?
3. Which among those ideas contained truth, and would really change a person’s life?

In May of 1992, Berti met with a man who tried to give him answers to his questions. The man was a missionary who had come from London to Albania to teach the Bible. This man used the Bible as a reference source for almost every question Berti asked, which made Berti listen carefully to the man’s responses. Berti thought the man was sufficiently educated to put the Bible aside and use his own worldly knowledge to answer his questions. But, here was an educated man who believed the Bible. This fascinated Berti. Soon thereafter, the man explained to Berti about a relationship with Jesus and invited Berti to accept Jesus into his life. The man then led Berti through the sinner’s prayer. Berti prayed the prayer, mostly to be polite to the man, but also had a little faith that it would change his hopeless reality. Since that day Berti never saw that man again, but he started to read the Bible to gain an understanding of Jesus.

During the following school year, an American missionary who worked with Campus Crusade for Christ knocked on Berti’s door. The missionary challenged and encouraged Berti in his first steps with Jesus. He invited Berti to the activities Campus Crusade organized at that time on Campus, and encouraged him to go to the church. Day-by-day Berti came to know Jesus better. He found Him to be true and alive. His teaching captured Berti’s mind and His life touched his heart. All Berti’s previous thinking was challenged to the limit. Berti had no more doubts about Jesus as Redeemer, Lord and Savior. Jesus blood shed on the cross and His resurrection gave Berti assurance of his new life in Him. Berti then got involved in a Bible study and in many other activities on Campus. Evangelism was the one activity he preferred.

Berti’s previous dream to work with mathematics (which is his degree) was changed. First, he embraced Christianity because of its power to change the World, and now he had this opportunity to make Christianity a reality in his life. Berti prayed for God’s direction in his life, and felt the call to serve with Campus Crusade for Christ. So in July 1996 he joined the Campus Crusade staff. Since then he has worked at the University of Tirana, where he is sharing Christ with students, and discipling those who come to know Him.

Adelina grew up in a small town in central Albania. As typical for Albanians, she came from a Muslim background. Her family never told her about God, but somehow she was able to hear from others about God. It was during high school that she and her friends used to pray to God in places that people call “good places.”

Adelina was a very good student, and her dream was to be a doctor who rejoiced to see her patients healed. She finished high school, but her dream seemed out of reach and she became pessimistic about her dream. At about that time, Adelina got to hear about Jesus Christ. Upon hearing about Christ, she began to trust Christ, and started to read the Bible, but read it simply as a story. Adelina continued to trust and pray to God.

In December 1993 Adelina went to the University of Tirana to study Finance. There she met a girl who worked with Campus Crusade for Christ. The girl explained to her many things about Christ. From those conversations, Adelina understood that Christ was her God and her Savior, and that she needed to start a personal relationship with Him. That personal relationship began shortly after that time. Adelina then became involved in a Bible study, and in the other activities organized by Campus Crusade. After her first year in College she was part of an evangelistic project in the villages of Albania. There she saw that the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few. She saw the same need for Christ in her dorm. She then started to pray for the workers, and God put in her heart to be a full time worker for Him. As a result of that calling, Adelina shared the Gospel with those in her dorm. Some of them came to Christ, and she then started to lead them in a Bible study.

Adelina graduated from college in July 1998, and joined the Campus Crusade staff at the University of Tirana. She was then placed in a position to serve the students in the dorm where she used to live as a student. Helping 21 Christian believers at that dorm, and reaching others for Christ, put Adelina’s heart on fire to serve the Lord in a major way. It has been an absolute privilege for her to serve God by serving students at the University of Tirana.

In August 1996, Berti, who had just graduated from the University and joined Campus Crusade, fell in love with Adelina, who at the time, was a third year student. Both of them were involved with Campus Crusade. Shortly after they began seeing each other, Adelina fell in love with Berti. In August 1998, after Adelina’s graduation, they were married. That year, Adelina also joined the Campus Crusade staff in Tirana, and they now find great joy in working together with college students in Albania.

In 1999 God blessed Berti and Adelina with their first daughter, Sara. Then, about four years later, their second daughter Klea was born. Both girls bring great joy to Berti and Adelina.