Steve Stamatis

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Stamatis Status – October, 2005

I like these words of Theodore Roosevelt, “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” Much of the process of fund raising tempts me to live in the “gray twilight”.

There are strings of days when I feel like doubting Thomas. Then I am reminded that our Risen Savior who revealed Himself to the doubter is still alive and with us and His heart’s desire for those lost in darkness has never changed. I deeply believe that this Biblical training center located in Albania can become one of the tools of God’s worldwide reconciliation team.

So many of the various facets of getting this Biblical training center up and running are beginning to take shape:

We have located one floor of an apartment building (100 yards from the WEI building in which the Tirana congregation assembles) for use as dorm space and classrooms.
Our curriculum is pretty much completed and we are waiting on approval from the Sunset International Division administration.
We have worked out the school calendar for 2006/2007. We have also completed the daily schedule that we will begin with.
We continue to widen our network of relationships that are helping us to develop our student pool. We are beginning to get inquiries from individuals as far away as Nigeria and India. We are also continuing to cultivate additional possibilities of students from Albania, Romania and Bulgaria.
We are making progress on our student scholarships.
We continue to work on finding qualified men (endorsed by Sunset) that will act as visiting instructors to assist me in teaching the courses.
Our personal support needs are slowly but steadily climbing towards our needed goal.
Our team of partners (both individuals and congregations) continues to grow as we press forward with our plans to develop the International Bible Institute of Albania. I believe this will be a great tool to assist in accomplishing God’s purposes in the world – specifically in Albania and the Balkan region.

There are still needs that we have yet to fulfill:

Our working fund is not working.
Our travel fund will not get us anywhere.
Leads on donated used laptops for the use of the school’s students have not come in.

Thank you to each of you that are using your God-given capabilities to move this enterprise towards the starting point. It is amazing how widely diverse the individuals of our IBIA team are. Your prayers, your notes of encouragement, your sending us names of potential students, your financial sacrifice, your giving us names of someone you know to contact, your creating pages on your web site for IBIA and your interest are all being used together by God to create a powerful working force that will enable the International Bible Institute of Albania to be a useful tool in the Kingdom.

Our common bond is God, His Kingdom and His purpose for humanity. In our battle against the “darkness” there are so many fronts on which the fighting is being waged. We are not in competition with other endeavors fighting for the same cause. We are simply trying to gather and unite the forces necessary to successfully engage the enemy on the front which we are choosing.

These two sites have information regarding our plans for IBIA: http://www.sunsetinternational.org/ and www.weiady.org

On October 3rd and 4th Doug Reeves, Chris Swinford, Dick Ady and myself gathered in Bartlesville, OK with Bob Seat and Art Henley to make certain we are all “on the same page.” The meeting was encouraging and enabled us to pinpoint some areas that need our attention as we move towards our beginning goal date to begin the school on January 23rd, 2006. Deborah and I would like to move to Tirana, Albania sometime in the first week of January.

Having already passed one proposed beginning goal date I would like to meet this new goal. With your assistance we can be on the ground in January. Together, we can make it happen. We have a PowerPoint presentation of what we want to accomplish on CD. If you would like a copy for yourself or someone you know that might want to partner with us, please email me your request. You can also contact me on my cell phone at 501-593-2556.

With appreciation and affection,

Steve and Deborah Stamatis