From Atheism to Christianity

Mud-bricked house in my home village — bits of a communist slogan hanging on to it — Malavec, Korce, Albania, May, 2017

I am Albanian and I grew up with the refrain: ‘the Albanian’s faith is Albanianism’. I enjoyed history and learning about the dark ages convinced me that religion had one goal: To keep people ignorant so they could keep paying more taxes.

Later on, after the fall of Communism, while working over school holidays, I stumbled upon a big black book left on a window seal. I opened it somewhere in the middle and started reading: ‘Get wisdom! Get understanding!’ and a bit further ‘Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.’ Proverbs 4:5-7.

I closed the book and read the cover ‘The Holly Bible’. That’s when I stared questioning my whole atheistic belief system. Jesus suddenly became more than just a historical figure and a dot between BC and AD. This book continues to transform my heart daily.

[‘The Albanian’s faith is Albanianism’ is an excerpt, from a well known poem, O moj Shqypni by Pashko Vasa, 1878)]