Moza's Story // The MomCo Albania // The Great Sea Initiative

Albanian mom Moza felt alone as she faced the everyday challenges and shame of raising a child with special needs. She could never measure up to the social pressure to be the perfect mom with the perfect kids. When the isolation and exhaustion became too much, a surprising invitation opened the door to hope.

Global worker Nita Bukowski’s mentorship of The MomCo group leaders prompted two women to begin a group for moms of children with special needs. Vera understood the isolation and marginalization of parenting a child with special needs and had found hope in Christ and a caring community through The MomCo. She desired to see the transformation she’d experienced extend to other families and across to the city and extended the invitation to her friend Vali to help start the group on her behalf and the many moms who needed it. 

 Related: MOPS Albania with Nita Bukowski (video)

Albania's religious makeup has been shaped by Islam brought by the Ottoman Empire, a deep history of paganism, and decades of political atheism. Albania’s evangelical population is only 0.6%, but women like Nita, Vera, Vali, and more desire to make disciples through their moms groups. 

When Vera invited Moza to the group, Moza was at a crossroads: give in to her despair or open herself up to something new. 

Through Vera and Vali’s discipleship, Moza experienced a caring and loving community for the first time. There, sharing the frustrations of her day wasn’t met with harshness, but understanding and gentleness. There, she wasn’t left to anguish over her life, but was given a new perspective. There, she came to understand how deeply loved she was in Christ, and how she could find the strength to persevere in him. There, she became not the perfect mom, but the mom who relies on a holy, merciful and loving God. 

This is one of many stories like it coming from the women in Albania who are trusting God for a gospel-movement to begin in the home and spread through the nation. 

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