A COUNTRY bordered by a beau-
tiful sea, covered with majestic
mountains and rich in land—
A country once occupied by
Ancient Rome and later by other
powers— For missionary
YET A COUNTRY struggling with
a background devastated by a
Communist dictator who CARED
NOTHING for his PEOPLE—
opportunities in Europe,
The Communist dictator dreamed
of stamping out all traces of GOD
of ANY KIND in Albania. He
ALMOST ACHIEVED THAT.
contact Ed Hembree,
BIMI missionaries entering Alba-
nia found a people whose concept
of God was almost non-existent—
“Just Nothing!” However, most
of the people still believe that
somewhere, someplace THERE
MUST BE A GOD.
The Trail of
Tears in
Europe Director, at
Albania Mike McCombie
BIMI. Mike and Wilda McCombie
now serve as Western States
Representatives for BIMI.
James and Mary Ray led a team
into Albania to help missionaries
Mike and Wilda McCombie distrib-
ute the first Bibles in the country.
They set up a distribution point in the
center of the capital city. Dry weather
was an absolute miracle this time of
the year. The team was not sure what
would happen—after all these people
had been programmed to hate Ameri-
6 • NATIONS
cans and religion (or so the dictator
thought). THE RESPONSE WAS WONDER-
FUL. REACHING HANDS extended
for Bibles. Some kissed them. Oth-
ers kissed team members. They were
just glad that some Americans cared
enough for Albanians to come and
give them a Bible.That first day 5,000
PEOPLE WERE PHYSICALLY
TOUCHED—5,000 PEOPLE who
had lived all of their lives in atheistic
darkness WENT HOME FOR THE
FIRST NIGHT OF THEIR LIVES
—with a WORD FROM GOD. The
Communist dictator had crushed all
religions, destroyed all churches,
and erased every trace of God. The
country was totally atheist. God was
GONE!