Albanians think of our country as being in transition, not only in the political and economic sense, but also spiritually and morally. “Transition” implies a short-term passage of time while going from one state to another, or from one place to a new destination. Although thirty years have passed since the end of the communist regime in Albania, we still feel like a society in transition. In my understanding, the biblical exodus of the Hebrews, wandering for forty years in the wilderness, could be seen as a society going through a transition similar to what we have experienced here in Albania.
But this view is quite broad, and you might wonder, “Can I learn something relevant about an individual transition from Kaon?” So, let me tell you a bit about the transitions in my family’s life. For us as a family, since 2017, we can count at least five transitions, some related to changes in location while others to the type of service to God that we as a family have felt called to do.
In 2017, we relocated as a family from Tirana to Denver, Colorado, to pursue theological education. It wasn’t just a change of place, culture, and language, but also of friends and the rhythms of our lives. We were accustomed to an intensive pace: meeting with students in cafés to discuss the Gospel and provide advice for their student lives, leading small groups, training other missionaries, or frequently traveling to different cities in Albania to explore new ministry possibilities. This made our routine in Albania dynamic, whereas in the new reality in Denver, apart from attending classes, my wife and I would mainly have “meetings” with our books and desk work, writing essays. Our children also started attending a school there for the first time. The school was not in Albanian, their mother tongue, and they faced challenges in making new friends.
Just as we were getting used to our new life in Denver, our education ended all too quickly. In 2019, we returned to Tirana to continue our ministry, but not in the same way we had left it: instead of a lot of in-person interaction,we shifted to a media-based approach. At the same time, our boys also transitioned again. In addition to the language change, they had to once again deal with the Albanian teaching style, which stressed them and us as parents. But this is not a complete picture when speaking of our transition back to Albania.
Albania lacks many things, but we are very rich in one area: social life. Even foreigners notice this. A fascinating fact is that Albania has one of the highest number of cafes per capita in the world! This is not as much about how much coffee Albanians consume, but rather how much time they spend meeting friends in cafes. Reconnecting with friends in cafes made our transition much smoother.
Beginning in 2020, the year of the Pandemic, which can be considered a worldwide transition, my wife and I underwent another series of changes in ministry. Our transitions continued until 2022, when we established a new ministry in the area of Apologetics—building it from scratch.
During these years, our boys also moved to a new school. We had heard so many good things about the International Christian School GDQ that we decided to enroll our children there and bought a house near the school to make transportation easier. This was undoubtedly a significant risk, but after two years, we can say it was worth it! Our children are so blessed that we haven’t felt any issues with their integration into the school community.
I wouldn’t be honest if I said we’ve experienced every transition smoothly. Naturally, fear can arise in transition as we move into the unknown. However, it’s precisely the uncertainty that makes transitions an opportunity to trust in God. With the numerous transitions we’ve gone through as a family in recent years, we’ve had many opportunities to trust in God.
These situations have taken us out of our comfort zone and away from the chance to rely on familiar paths. Looking back, we see that we wouldn’t have handled any of these changes properly on our own. God’s grace and guidance are evident every step of the way, never further than the horizon we can see from where we stand at any given moment. In all these cases, I believe we can say that we’ve come to know God better because we’ve positioned ourselves where we cannot succeed without Him. This is true not just financially but also in direction, encouragement, and the community of people He has brought close to us.
In conclusion, I believe that often, on our Christian journey, transitions might be God’s way of keeping us in a continuous spiritual transition as we move towards transformation to become more like Christ.
Are you in transition?
Do you see it as an opportunity to trust in God?
About the author:
Kaon Serjani graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Tirana in 2007, and later pursued master’s studies in Christian Apologetics Ethics at Denver Seminary in the US. For 15 years, he was engaged in evangelism through Cru ministry. Kaon made his debut as an author in 2016 with the Albanian novel The Cell of Freedom. He is also the author of the scholarly book On Truth, Religion, and Morality and most recently, the apologetic book Reasons to Believe (Vision Printing 2023). In 2022, Kaon and his wife Danjela founded the Institute for Faith and Cultural Engagement, an initiative aimed at creating a safe environment for raising questions about faith and receiving credible answers.
