Prayer for Albanian Churches Requested
A military mine and weapon disassembly factory exploded on March 15, 2008. The explosions lasted for 14 hours.
The military factory was only hundreds of meters from the resident area of the town of Gerdec, one mile away from the town of Vora, and two miles away from the town of Marikaj. All of these towns were severely affected. The town of Gerdec does not exist anymore. There are about 300 homes that are totally leveled to the ground, another 500 that will need to be rebuilt, and another 1,500 houses that will need major repairs. The big explosion was preceded by minor ones, which thankfully caused the population from the area to spontaneously evacuate.
Yet about 20 people are reported to have died and another 60 are still missing. Most of the missing people are believed to have evaporated at the big explosion. Some of the bodies that have been found are very difficult to identify. There were hundreds of people injured by glass shattering. The explosion has been compared to a tenth of the Hiroshima explosion. The shock wave was felt as an earthquake in Tirana where some windows were broken too.
The cars that were passing up to three miles away from the area were also damaged. As a matter of fact, my family is thankful for God’s protection. We were driving toward Marikaj when the explosion happened.
Traffic delayed us a few minutes away from the dangerous area. As we were approaching the area we saw the clouds ahead of us disappearing from the sky and then the big mushroom-shaped explosion. Only a few seconds later the shock wave hit our car and shook it as if we were bumped by another car. We got out of our car and saw people hurt from shattered windshields. They had glass in their eyes, ears, heads, legs, etc. I have no words to describe it.
The people of Vora were running along the highway, trying to leave the city because they feared another big explosion. We saw police come within minutes, and we were taken out of the area. On the way home we called the pastors and people we knew in that area, trying to find out the extent of the damage.
Sadly, the Church of God churches in Gerdec, Vora and Marikaj (Unreached People Group project) are the ones directly affected by this tragedy. The rented facility in Gerdec does not exist anymore and the facility in Vora was heavily damaged. We do not know anything about the 30 children who attend the children’s service from Gerdec. We hope they were saved by their parents and taken away to the forests and hills around Gerdec.
Sadly, one of our sisters who worked at the factory has recently reported to have died in a hospital in Italy. Her name was Resmije Kraja. She was 19 years old, married and had a six-month-old son. Her husband is also at the hospital, injured. Resmije and her husband lived in extremely poor conditions.
We have not had much contact with our church members since they were evacuated to different towns in Albania.
The Evangelical Alliance has formed a committee to evaluate the damage and see how they can support Pastor Ermir Taja, who oversees the Church of God churches in these towns, and Pastor Gentian Proseku, who has also recently started to work in the area. We are waiting on the government to see how we can get involved. The human resources are there, but the financial burden for thousands of homeless people and children without school is great.
We feel overwhelmed by the vastness of the need.
Some of the evangelical churches in Albania have already gathered some offerings to support Pastor Ermir and Pastor Gentian.
Please pray for wisdom for our leaders and the Christian community as we deal with this tragedy.
Hervin Fushekati, National Overseer of Albania
