First Person with Wayne Shepherd

First Person: Tani and Eftali Baraku

Tani and Eftali Baraku, a young Albanian couple who lead the ministry of Radio Emanuel, tell their story of proclaiming the Gospel in Albania. Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company: FEBC National Processing Center Far East Broadcasting Company P.O. Box 6020 Albert Lea, MN 56007 Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

Duration:: 23m
Broadcast on:: 14 Jan 2011
Audio Format:: other

Tani and Eftali Baraku, a young Albanian couple who lead the ministry of Radio Emanuel, tell their story of proclaiming the Gospel in Albania.

Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company:
FEBC National Processing Center
Far East Broadcasting Company
P.O. Box 6020
Albert Lea, MN 56007

Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

It's a great honor to serve the Lord. He has taken us in perfect as we are to do His perfect task. What I have in me I want to share it with other people I think that's what keeps me going on this ministry. This is First Person and I'm Wayne Shepherd. Welcome to this week's program where we'll meet a young couple who operate a Christian radio station in Albania. There is a country who until 20 years ago was officially an atheist nation but God seems to do His best work through a remnant and today the gospel is being proclaimed in Albania. You'll meet Tony and F. D. Barracu in a moment. First let me remind you that anytime you need additional information about the guests you hear on First Person you can look us up online at firstpersoninterview.com Links to our guests a calendar of upcoming programs and an archive of past programs is found there at firstpersoninterview.com and you can respond with the email address you'll find online or by visiting our Facebook page just look for First Person on Facebook. Well at a recent broadcasting conference in Romania I had the privilege to meet people from several Balkan nations who came together for training and encouragement and two of the people I met were a husband and wife who run a Christian radio station. They told me I could call them Tony and FT but I began by asking them for their real names. Well my real name is Eftali Barracu and my first name has a Greek origin. My grandparents decided to put me this name and it means happiness or something like that. Introduce your husband to me Tony I call him Tony what is your name Tony? My name is Meritan and it doesn't really mean anything it's just a name from the communist time I guess. You come from Albania where in Albania? We come from southeast Albania from a town called Kortia which borders with Greece and with Macedonia. Albania was a country where it wasn't just that Christianity was suppressed. There was no Christianity or any religion allowed of any kind right? I can say that there was no religion allowed for 50 years almost. All the religious objects I can say like the churches or cathedrals were turned into army depots and or police departments. It has been hard for our country being out of any religion that other countries we had problems it was very hard for us to to believe in God after that. Because there was nothing allowed. It was nothing allowed. And so when freedom came came and by the way when did freedom come to Albania? Freedom came well Albania was one of the last countries that got free from communism and it's after this country here Romania in 90s and I can say it's the only country left communist in 90s that became a democracy and in the 90s the first missionaries came with with Bibles and flyers and that's where we got the opportunity to listen about to hear the good news of God. Efti how did that happen for you I mean how did you come to know the Lord when there had been nothing prior to the freedom that came to Albania? I'd like to say something before saying that because I have orthodox background okay and as Stanis said it wasn't allowed by government but still few people that were true followers of Christ or believed in the Lord they kept the tradition. There's always a remnant isn't there? Yeah and one of them was my grandfather so I would like to say that I heard first for God or Jesus through him used to tell things related to Bible like Bible stories and and things that were forbidden for that time but that was the first step I just had some knowledge but later on I had the desire I was so eager to know God more more and more that was my desire and I just wanted to know people that knew the Bible or knew the Lord better and also I felt in my heart that I wanted to serve the Lord better I felt like my life was I was wasting my life and I wanted to do something different I wanted to serve the Lord and when I was in the first year of university I started attending a group of Christians and at that time I got saved nine years ago and I heard that the radio station were looking for young people to start working there and I applied there and since then I've been convinced that the Lord has called me for a special task and I want to serve him with all I have. And Tony understand that it was your father that first came to the Lord yes and really became a pastor and an evangelist quite well known. He became a pastor and was one of the first Albanian pastors in his area because as you know the church was missionaries were leading the church. Was it through YWAM that he came to the Lord? I can say that there were the first there were many people after them that kept feeding him with of course with the with the word of Christ but there were the first people that he met on the street you know without knowing anything and I remember as he said one of them told him that we love you you know we care for you and that that broke his heart coming from 50 years of communism where I can literally literally say you're afraid of your own wife because of the pressure and of the and of the spies and everything. So you couldn't even trust your own family. You couldn't even trust your own family and of course not even you never talked about love and stuff like that because communism as we know is based on material it's not based on so that broke his heart that broke any he kept thinking about that who are these people you know they come from land we we don't know and they love us how do they love us but I mean that's such an impression on him. What was life like for him before freedom came. He grew up he grew up he had a hard life I can say he grew up in a family where is with divorce parents and he had a problem with his family had to live he worked in a town called Arseca and it was hard you know he used to eat once a day that was hard especially in the communist time imagine I mean I can say it's hard for an orphan in on these days imagine back 40 years ago you know. So this spiritual reformation in your family started with your father started with my dad but it had to come to you and your heart how did that happen it came to me I was eight at the time where I where I got saved and I love God so much when I was a kid and I still love God and serve in my mind. We'll talk about that serving. First came my mother she was Orthodox just like AFT and she struggled a little because she thought oh I know I know Jesus but then she started reading the Bible with my dad and she understood that she didn't know anything until she read the Bible and the word of God. I was of course I was next to them and I got baptized I was literally sleeping in church because my room was a church where they used to have meetings I was sleeping there so I can say it was literally a house church wasn't it? It was a bedroom church. I remember people were happy that's think that's something I won't forget from my childhood people were so happy was a happy like an innocent happiness you know they're happy they found something I don't know peaceful something something that they were missing for a long long time. It was joy. It was joy. Yeah. I understand then your father passed away the Lord called him home while he was in America. The Lord called him home when he was in the States seven years ago during a prayer meeting. It was hard for us I can say because he he was yet we had the church and the radio and he was he was actually doing the work of five people and it was hard for us when he passed away because you know he had all this energy and commitment that we had to really pray and seek seek God to to do what he what he what he what he what he was doing when he was still alive. We'll talk about your ministry and the radio ministry that you have in Albania which is remarkable to hear about it but after I want to ask you you said you started working at the radio station as a young Christian and that's where you met this guy. That's the place where I met Tani. We knew each other as friends for a year and we had no intentions to date or anything like that but I will I will mention the moment when we started dating and it's very special because I had also said a story in my family after the first year of working in the radio station my my father passed away too so it was really really hard for me and my family but at the time all my friends were a great encouragement for me also Tani's father he was a pastor and he knew the right words to to comfort someone and it was let's say the beginning of after that it was the beginning of our relationship because Tani was so close to me and he used to share Bible verses that encouraged me and that was the beginning of our story we started dating each other to know each other better and after two years we got married and God's given you a son yeah we have a son now he's almost three years old and we are blessed through him more from this committed couple of radio Emmanuel in Albania coming up next time on first person will meet artist Ron DiSiani I remember at one point crying as I was painting I believe I was painting Christ face I said to the Lord if I don't stop crying I'm not gonna be able to finish this and I really felt in my heart him say to me that's okay you're not painting it anyway Ron DiSiani's art honors Christ and all that he does and you'll hear the story of his calling next time on first person let's pick up where we left off with Tani and F.T. Barakou from Albania radio Emmanuel was started by Tani's father and I asked him about his father's dream well his vision was to spread the gospel to places where he to remote areas because it was as I said it was an evangelizer I can see even more than a pastor he was an evangelizer and he used to go out in remote areas with I I remember when I was a kid with this big TV and four guys that were supposed to hold the TV with Jesus movie in this steep steep mountains of course I was lucky because I was a kid I never got to carry anything TV's were much every in those days much every in those days especially in Albania and yet this vision that it couldn't even though it could do that forever it couldn't reach as much as a media can reach as the radio signal can reach and that's why he got this let's say I can say cold from God to start a radio and that was in year 98 when he first started to get his vision and was right after Albania it was safe because a year ago we had the civil war in Albania so the country was was very bad and he had this dream of opening a Christian station I can't imagine what he had to go through to establish a radio station in a country that had no almost no semblance of religion for so long no almost almost nothing and even for us was I can say seemed like a it seemed like a joke in a way because we were all laughing you know why you know why do you want to waste your time on something is too expensive it's a crazy dream yeah it's too you know I and of course I did want him to to get disappointed I bet you look differently at it now though don't you for sure for sure I'm glad I'm glad he kept his vision yeah because today you operate that radio station today I operate that radio station and we got we started with one antenna at our building and now we have three more well fd tell me about the radio station who is it aimed at is it music talk what what do you do on the radio station well actually you're directing me the right question because I deal with the programming here the program station and we try to keep a balance between music and programming we want to reach people through music but also through messages and programs that are produced in our radio station and others that are from pastors and people that are that have had a great impact in in Christianity we have received lots of feedback from our listeners and they show us that these programs have given them something different because they listen to radios other TV stations but they don't find the the same hope that they receive from this radio station and this is what makes us more alive and we feel that our mission is for a reason we have a calling for a reason it's not for nothing well tell me if I'm wrong but it seems like the Albanian people would have a sense of almost despair after freedom there must be some disappointment that things haven't you know panned out for the country economically and other ways even with freedom so there must be this sense of disappointment people were looking for freedom but they had a misconception about freedom after freedom there was a time of confusion of transition and people were disappointed because they didn't receive what they were looking for because they thought that the world would be so open to them but still people were afraid to to interact with Albanians because they came from a system that was so harsh and that made people look different or isolated and people were looking for freedom let's say in in wrong directions yes and we know there's so many opportunities now yeah we we say in Albania that people accept more the bad things that the good things and in Albania people didn't know to to select between good and bad things and most of the things they accepted and received were were a bad influence to their life and that's why they they were disappointed I can see why the radio station that is so important and in people's lives it gives them something to hope it gives them God's word eternal word Tony tell me about the response you get from listeners what do they say about the radio ministry we get a lot of response we had a guy that was calling us for almost a year and it was just last year in our youth program and he was if first started asking about Jesus during the program is first out of curiosity making question to to the to our DJ and the studio speaker then he ended up calling for support he was he was supporting what they were saying and praising God in the same time he said that he was working because he called for such a long time he said that he was working in a jail as a correction officer well just a few months ago he stopped talking he stopped calling us on the radio and we received this letter from him and we were all amazed in he actually he was in a correction officer he was he was doing his time he was the prisoner and he was he was so ashamed from his past life that he couldn't he couldn't he couldn't tell us but he said that God brought him to this light and now it's over you know it's a it's he's a new man and we're so happy you know we're we're happy to listen to stories like this more than buying a new building like say yeah satellite antenna all the technology all the technology is one thing but it's the power of the word that even penetrates those prison walls it's a and we've been delivering pre-tuned radios with our station to the jail and we're happy that people from there are calling and I can say that God God can save everybody yeah we have time for one more listener story if you have it we have a girl from another town close by our city in Arseca she used to listen to our program she lives in this remote village where I can say the culture changes with with the parents where they don't allow girls to to go out or use the internet or but she called in the radio last year I can say it was last year she called on the radio she was listening to my dad's program now my father has this preaching ministry all on CDs so it continues even though he's with the Lord it continues and it and it seems like is beyond beyond the microphone the microphone when you're listening to the radio so she thought he was really still alive so she thought he was alive and she called on the phone and she said where is Pastor Chimi and what time do you have the meetings I really want to meet him because I I want to get a Bible and I want to come to church because I'm listening to you guys all the time talking about God and I'm anxious to meet you well of course we have to break it up to her she can see him she may have to wait a while yeah saying that but we're glad because now she goes to church on her home in her in Arseca and a evangelical church and she serves there we're happy amazing amazing we're very happy let me ask you in closing why do you do what you do you know I I can say oh first I'm sorry for my English because we have no problem understanding you believe me it's it's well done I want to I do this because God gave me hope in my life many times and I've seen not only me my wife and all my family God gave me hope and he has taken me he has accepted me many times even though I I've done mistakes and I'm a happy man I can say even though I have problems like everybody else I'm still happy because I have God in my heart and what I have in me I want to share it with other people I think that's what keeps me going on this ministry after you how about you what what motivates you to serve Christ through radio in Albania well radio is my passion but it's not only the only reason why I serve in the radio station when I'm out of the radio station or when I do something else I'm not in peace because recently I tried to do something else but I didn't feel at peace and when I do what the Lord has called me to do I feel at peace but also it's a it's a great honor to serve the Lord because he has taken us imperfect as we are to do his perfect task he has chosen and he has accepted us to do something that is great is amazing is beyond our understanding so I'm happy to to do my my little task let's say for his kingdom and for his glory but also I want other people to to receive his message and to have the hope and peace that I have that comes only through Jesus Christ to me it was amazing to hear how God through Tani's father raised up this ministry and then called this young couple to not only maintain it but expand it and dream even greater dreams for reaching Albania for Christ their story inspires me to want to be even more faithful and following God well I place additional information about radio Emmanuel on our website and I hope you'll pray and support them as they do God's work through radio online we're found at first person interview dot com next week we're back in the studio to talk with artist Ron DiSiani Ron is a gifted painter who has quite a story to tell of his calling in the art world as a way of communicating God's truth and you'll hear him tell it next time here on first person with thanks to my producer and friend Joe Carlson I'm Wayne Shepard hoping you'll join us next week at this time for first person you [MUSIC PLAYING]