Urtan Kollonata

Drenova Church Plant

Quick Points

  • A challenge!
  • Name of the church is “The church of Morava”, which refers to a specific portion of the village.
  • Launched in the home of Arif and Marsida as a Bible study group in the fall of 2013.
  • Spring 2014 Alpha Course.
  • Break in ministry in winter of 2015.
  • “Relaunched” in spring 2015 in own meeting space, an apartment in the village.
  • Summer 2015, children’s ministry started.

Drenova is a village to the south of Korce. In the spring of 2013, we moved there in order to help plant a church. We had no idea what kind of situation we were walking into! Drenova is a complex village split geographically and more or less, ethnically. One half, where we are planting a church, is a cluster of apartment buildings that would fit more in a city than a village and is known as “Morava”. The other half is made up of private homes and the Vlach, a separate people group from Albanians essentially trapped on the wrong side of the border as WWII was coming to a close, and communism took root. Our elderly neighbors were very young at the time and never saw most of their family again until the border opened again in the early 90’s.

The church plant has been a difficult and tiring work for us. We invested a lot of time in a relationship that ended up being more of an obstacle than help and are still working our way back towards an effective church plant. We started and stopped several times but finally in the spring of 2015 were able to find an appropriate meeting place in an apartment that is a huge blessing!

Along the way, we have been pleasantly surprised by God’s provision in several mature women who were not attending any church since they could not get to Korca reliably (this is the reason villages need churches!) and they are forming the backbone of the new plant.

Please pray for consistency and growth for the believers in Drenova and that they will be able to be effective messengers of the Gospel to their neighbors!

Morava

Drenova