Bible Text: Luke 21:15 | Speaker: Bonnie Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. Luke 21:15

The year was 1991 when the iron curtain of communism finally fell in the country of Albania. For the three million people living in Albania at that time, God was truly dead. For His name and His book had been seemingly wiped out by what was the most repressive regime of all the Soviet bloc countries.

But God’s presence remained. He was in the heart of a grandmother, who dared not say His name, but who secreted herself and her young grandchildren in the bathroom. There she shared an Easter egg with them, telling them never to participate when others defamed the name of God, and never, ever tell their parents that she had spoken to them of God.

One of those young children was Enkelejda Kumaraku. Leda came to know of God and faith in Christ through a broadcast on television, but it took her over a year to find a Bible and four years to find a body of Christian believers. As a young believer studying and working at the state-owned TV and radio station, Leda had the boldness to ask her boss if she could produce a Christmas program—the first Christmas programming ever aired in the history of the country.

Leda is with us today in the studio, and Leda, I’d love for you tell us– how did that first Christmas program come to take place in Albania?

Leda Kumaraku: You just bring to me some great memories of that time. As a young believer, I knew about God’s gift to man and how the Lord created all of us for His purposes—and that was my prayer: to use my gifts and my knowledge for His glory and for His purposes. So I really wanted to use the opportunity—it was a public radio and television. But as producer there, I went to my boss and I tried hard for a few months to get him to agree that I would have a Christmas program over the air. I just told him, “You know, we have to be modern like all the rest of the world. Everybody speaks about Christmas. Just here, there’s nothing.” And when I think of those years, we’re very dark not only spiritually, but we’re very dark even physically.

We didn’t have lights and we didn’t have electricity most of the time. And on Christmas you couldn’t see very much Christmas lights or everything else. So he agreed that I begin. I do this program. And right after that I was like, “Whew! Praise God I got the “yes,” but how am I gonna do it?” I’ve never done a Christmas program in my life. I’ve never been before in a Christmas celebration even in my church because I had not been in my church for any of the Christmas(es).

So I had no idea what to do. So I began to talk with a few friends and I talked with a few missionaries. “Okay, how do you do Christmas in your country and how do Christmas programs sound like on the radio in your country?” One of the missionaries gave me a magazine and that’s where I learned for the first time about Advent. I didn’t have a word and I didn’t even know how to translate “advent.” I was so amazed with this magazine and I learned so much myself. I was so excited I could teach and I could really help a lot of people in Albania learn about Christmas and how you can prepare yourself for Christmas.

I never had an idea that this magazine was the Guidelines magazine. And it’s very dear to my heart because it helped me learn a lot. I know very many people that were blessed by that program that they heard on public radio and television. And we were able to use the same material for many Christmas because we have not found something that would better explain Christmas and would better prepare the hearts of people than Guidelines magazine.

Bonnie Sala: We actually had no idea how that magazine ended up with that missionary in Albania.

This Christmas, friend, I hope that you will praise God, that you will know His Son, and that you will celebrate God’s great gift.

Resource Reading: Revelation 15:3-4