September 23, 2002
Muslim woman's vision opens eyes to
Christianity; Texans help it grow
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___TYLER--A Muslim woman's harrowing dream resulted in a growing Christian church and the spread of the gospel in Rahovec, Kosovo.
___Several years ago, Elisa Durjorti dreamed she saw a man in gleaming white standing in the middle of a lake, surrounded by drowning people, reported her new friend Dick Hurst of Tyler.
___"Somebody help me! They are all dying!" Durjorti heard the man cry out.
___"As a Muslim, she went toa mullah but got no interpretation," said Hurst, a member of First Baptist Church in Tyler, who participated in his fifth mission trip to Kosovo recently. "Then she told a Roman Catholic priest, but he was no help."
A GROUP of Texas, Kentucky and Kosovo Baptists pose on the sixth day of their construction project in Rahovec, Kosovo.
___The dream confounded and confused the Muslim woman, but she never forgot that graphic image of death. Ironically, tremendous real-life suffering led her to the answer.
___During the Albanian genocide of 1999, Durjorti and her family fled to Macedonia, where they met Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary Rick Shaw in a refugee camp.
___She told Shaw about her dream, and he gave her a copy of the Gospel of John in Albanian, her native language.
___Durjorti sought out Shaw with the interpretation of her dream. "He's Jesus," she said of the man in gleaming white. "I want to help save my people."
___She quickly set about responding to her vision. She became a Christian and was baptized. And with Shaw's help, she started Way of Salvation Baptist Church in her home.
___The church soon needed a larger place to worship, because those "drowning" souls were becoming new Christians.
___This summer, that house of worship began to take shape.
___The young congregation hoped to build on a slab foundation last fall, but eastern European politics stymied their efforts.
___But after Hurst visited Rahovec this spring, he enlisted help. Soon, Farrell Shaw of First Baptist Church in Tyler and four members of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., committed to raise the building.
___"They are builders and made the project happen," Hurst said after returning from Kosovo not long ago. "We built the first floor--roughed in--in six days, sometimes 12-hour days. Twelve young Kosovars helped, and the work was guided by Bella, Elisa's husband."
___Although Mr. Durjorti is not yet a Christian, he holds strong positive feelings for Christians. "I'm Muslim, but I respect the faith of my wife, and it (the church) needs a good building," he said. "During the war, Christians helped save my family."
___The second floor of the church building is to be completed this month, through the efforts of the Kosovars and a CBF construction crew from Mississippi, Hurst said.
___While the builders from Tyler and Kentucky worked in Rahovec, they saw other progress, as well.
___"We were privileged to witness a baptism of two men in a lake," Hurst said. "Another teen wanted to be baptized, but his older brother said, 'No, you will be persecuted.' Family wishes are respected."
___The fruits of fund-raising labor also were evident at the Hasi Flour Mill, which was badly damaged during the war. "The mill is almost redone now," Hurst said. "The Dervishi family--mill owners--are competent, industrious and very charitable. It has been a great joy to help them and to share Christ with them."
___ Hurst also learned the wife of one of the mill operators, whom he met in 1999 and had been paralyzed for several years, now is well.
___
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