For the past three years, Living Water Adopt-a-Child (LWAAC) has been one of a few nonprofits working to impact Albanians living in rural, Upper Mokra. Our team travels twice a week to villages in Upper Mokra to host Bible studies, teach Bible classes, lead services, and bring women, men, and children together for Gospel-centered activities.
Upper Mokra is an isolated region located deep in the mountains of Albania with a population of 1,200. The area’s geographic location leaves citizens cut off from traditional employment, good infrastructure, and other public services. As a result, the government has neglected these people and failed to adequately invest in the region.
This lack of economic opportunity has caused many families, particularly young families, to emigrate to more urban areas of the country. Some families have stayed in the area but migrate to Greece for three months during the harvest season.
The majority of our evangelism activities are hosted at a community center in Trebinja but we also host Bible classes and sisterhood events in Dunica and Kalivac. These three towns comprise the majority of Upper Mokra. Despite the area being predominately Muslim, we’ve been able to spread the Gospel to a sizable portion of the more than 400 families who call this rural territory home.
We use these meetings to distribute free Bibles courtesy of the Albanian Bible Society.
LWAAC staff are also working to address food insecurity in the region. We deliver food packages every month to families who attend our meetings and activities. Additionally, we sometimes deliver Christmas gifts to the children when funds are available.
Our ministry is also looking into more ways that we can help these Albanians live safer and healthier lives by addressing sanitation, hygiene, and quality of life issues. Many villagers live in houses built out of stone that lack proper plumbing for drinking water because the majority of their resources go towards maintaining their agricultural land. Even working in the field can be an issue for some families as many community members own land that are long distances from their home. Without reliable transportation, these families walk to their land and work the soil using a combination of handmade tools and livestock.
To learn more about our efforts in Albania, please visit the Albania page of our website. Thank you to all of our generous donors who provide the means to spread the word of God throughout this country!
