Imagine your father takes you from school and sends you to the streets to search the garbage for valuable items. It happened to Sabian when he was still a young boy. A hard and hopeless life awaited him.
Sabian comes from an impoverished Roma family in Rrogozhine, western Albania. To make ends meet, Sabian and his siblings roam the streets searching for plastic bottles and cans. “No matter the rain or the cold, we always search the trash,” he notes. Sadly, his father often squanders the money they bring in. “He gets drunk and then starts yelling and beating my mom,” Sabian adds.
Like most Roma people, Sabian’s family are faithful Muslims. But Sabian never found consolation in Islam. “I always felt no one cared about me and told myself I was born only to suffer,” he recalls. “I started smoking and drinking at a young age because this was the model in my family.”
Four years ago, a Christian circus group visited Rrogozhine, and Sabian went to the event. After performing their show, the artists preached about Jesus. Sabian was deeply touched. “I felt great joy in my heart and wanted to know more about the love of Christ,” he says.
The evangelists encouraged him to join a youth group in a local evangelical church. “I loved to be there because these people simply accepted me, even though I was a badly dressed child of color,” Sabian tells. With his group, Sabian went through a Bible League Project Philip Bible study course, and the message of the Gospel impacted the young garbage collector. “At the end of the program, I desired to receive Jesus in my heart,” he beams. “When I prayed with my leaders, boredom and sadness went away, and joy came to me.”
In the church, Sabian found the love and warmth he had missed so dearly in his family. “The church loves me more than my family does,” he declares. “God is my Father!”
In the beginning, Sabian’s family didn’t approve of him going to church, so he went secretly. Over time, they accepted his conversion to Christ, although they still mock him sometimes. Sabian doesn’t care, however. “I have to be patient with them as Jesus is patient with me, and I want my family to know Him,” he says with confidence. “I want to preach the Gospel because most Albanians believe in a false god.”
