Published by It was my privilege to have a very diverse week as it regards our freedom to pray and worship God. It was the week of an event that has been promoted by teens throughout our country for the last 15 years called SYATP (See You at The Pole). This event is simply a specific day, the third Wednesday of September, where school students gather around their flagpole to pray.
As a coincidence I was asked to speak, on the Saturday of this week, at a teen event, up in Otisville Michigan that was focused on the persecuted church. It had been postponed to this date because of rain. The event was called The Albanian Church experience.
The first event, SYATP, emphasized our freedom to worship God in this country. Teens prayed out loud expressing their concern for issues that affect their peers, the coming election, and for the teachers and administrators in their schools.
I visited the Romeo Junior high, where 8 junior high boys prayed with boldness thanking God of their freedom to be there and praying for their friends at school.
I snuck away early so that I could also visit the Romeo Senior High. There were more then 50 teens plus supporting teachers and bus drivers there praying.
It was all enough to make a parent, teacher or youth pastor (that’s me) nearly cry for pride. And it was certainly enough to make me thankful for the freedoms we all have here in the United States of America.
No questions would be asked of these teens. No one would be in trouble. There would be no conflict caused. They were free to participate.
Just a few days later I was to speak to a similar group of teens who gathered as part of a church youth group event. 150 teens came from at least three different groups. My teen group leaders transported two vans full to join them from the Leonard area. Most of the teens of our group came from the Oxford junior and senior high school and some from Romeo junior and senior high school. Many of them were at the flagpole at their school just days prior.
Together we would become aware of the fortune we have to live in this day and in this country.
When I addressed the teens, I discovered that most of them had not been to the flag pole that week. Either way, I was able to point them to the fact that those who did gather expressed their freedom.
Then I shared the research I’d done about the history of Albania and from some encounters I’ve had with people who are not so free to worship God.
The Christian church in Albania, as well as most other religious organizations, arguably faced the most dramatic persecution of any known in history.
Albanian Church
When the Communist party took control of the government of the country it was 1945. It immediately sprung into action eliminating religion altogether. Prominent pastors were executed even up to the position of archbishop. Christopher Kissi, the Archbishop of Tirana was removed form his position by the communist party.
This was a continuation of the religious persecution the country faced, first under their King starting in 1912, then under communism.
Bishops could remain if they were found acceptable to the communist regime. But this would mean a total departure from what the Christian scriptures teach.
It would go down in history as the most oppressive communist regime. By 1967 all known religious institutions were forbidden to meet or practice in any way. The remaining spiritual leaders were imprisoned. Archbishop Damianos of Tirana was also sent to prison where he died in 1973.
The intention was to destroy the church. The know church was destroyed. But others still meet in what would be known as the underground church or the popular misnomer of the time, the Albanian Church.
I shared with the teens who were at the meeting, that even in recent history there are stories of persecution. I told about a church group meeting that was interrupted by the authorities.
One man recites his experience saying,
“Leaders were going to gather from 30 areas to hear two teachers that came from a foreign country (not the USA). They had “Pastor” stamped on their passport. The police followed them and staked out the place for 2 days posing as fruit vendors. On the 3rd day, 7 leaders did not show up at the event because they were led by the Lord to pray and fast in another location.
On the day the event was to occur, the police surrounded the event and arrested everyone there.”
The man recounting this story also said the government recorded the arrests and televised it so as to discourage others from trying to have an underground church meeting. They apparently also went door to door to try and track down the 7 leaders that were missing but could not find them.
Albania‘s systematic dereligionization that started in monarchy years beginning in1912 was fully ushered in during the 40s and 50s communist years. The communist could be said to have finished the job in 1976, a time when Albania would be officially known as the world’s first atheist state.
I am glad to note that religious freedom was returned to Albania in 1992. Though, the majority of Albanians do not practice any religion beyond claiming affiliation.
When I had finished sharing these details with the teens at the event, I told them of other instances where people are not free to practice religion.
One instance was only 5 years ago, when I was asked by a lady form a Muslim country to explain Christianity. Once I had shared with her what it meant to be a Christian she asked me to help her become one.
I was shocked and almost afraid. I asked her what it would mean for her to choose to follow the Christian faith having come from her Muslim country.
She said, “Most of her family would disown her.” She also told me her immediate family would be angry and would try to convince her that she didn’t really mean it.
The most shocking thing she told me was, “if I were walking in my own country with a Muslim and it was known that I was a Christian, we would both be shot. No one would ask any questions about our murder.”
I hesitated, contemplating what she had just told me. Then I asked “Yet, you still want to choose to follow Jesus and his teachings?”
With no pause she said, “Yes, I want to make my choice not out of fear but because it is true. And right now I am here in a free country where it is also safe to practice what I have come to believe.”
This whole conversation sure did cause me to evaluate my faith.
When I had finished sharing these stories with the group of 150 teens, I reminded them that we are so fortunate to be free. I also said I hoped that many of them would be practicing that freedom.
The rest of the evening was fun with a game that had no real implications, where the teens pretended they were Christians in the time of the persecuted Albanian church.
The adults searched for them and pretended to arrest them putting them into a gymnasium where they would be detain for a few minutes from going to their hidden church.
One teen said she kept forgetting it was only a game. Her adrenaline was running real high as she tried to sneak to the hidden church without being found or followed.
We adults who were arresting the teens also got into the experience with flashlights and camouflage.
When the time was up some of the teens made it to the destination. The rest were transported by van to a waiting bonfire for a closing talk by my friend Phil.
It is great to be free!
