Rick & Patti Roberts

Missionaries to the Albanian People

To our valued partners in Missions,

We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus! We trust things are going well with you. You are often in our thoughts and prayers.
The past few months have brought some new developments, and we have been asked to take on a new assignment. In Philadelphia there are 15-25,000 Albanians and tens of thousands of Muslims from various cultures. There are two groups of Albanian Christians presently meeting in Philadelphia who are praying for a shepherd. We know the language! We know the culture! We are ready to take on this challenge! We believe this could develop into a thriving ethnic ministry that sends missionaries back to Albania. It is heartbreaking for us not to return to Albania ourselves, but we trust God’s leading.
This has been a challenging time of itineration. We have itinerated for 18 months, been in 160 churches in 11 states, and have re-set our departure date 3 times. We have continually sought the Lord wondering, “Why the delay?” (And if you think going to the mission field is a sacrifice, the real sacrifice is being here when your heart and your work are somewhere else.)
As I have prayed, the Lord led me to the 16th chapter of Acts. Paul attempted to go in several directions, but the Spirit prevented him and sent him in another direction, which introduced the gospel to a new continent. We don’t know what methods the Spirit used to communicate, other than the dream, but by whatever means, the Spirit prevented him from going where he wanted to go and sent him where he was needed. We believe this is what God has done with us.

Please note: We are still missionaries.

We will be ministering to and reaching out to thousands of immigrants. We, like many of you, have always been partial to foreign missions, but we realize that the foreign field is coming to us these days. King David was away at war when the Amalekites came and attacked his home and carried off all the women and children (1 Samuel 29). This is happening to America today. The Muslims are converting the people of our nation while we are reaching out to theirs. (We’ll share more about that at another time.) Below is a picture of a mosque in Philadelphia.


We need your support in order to meet this challenge. The work in Philadelphia is far from being self-supporting. Though we will be working in the US, we will continue to be funded as missionaries, just as we have been (though now through Assemblies of God US Missions), and the support should be sent in the same way you have been sending it. Our account number is the same - 217334.
We beg you to continue to support our work, and pray for us as we go through this transition. We will begin ministering in Philadelphia in April or sooner. Currently we are receiving additional training and will return to Albania in April to restructure leadership for that ongoing ministry. While there for three weeks I will teach a course at the Bible College.
It has been our greatest pleasure to partner with you and your congregation in taking Jesus to this precious people group who have been historically 85% Muslim, and to see God work in their lives. Thank you for the privilege of continuing to do so!

Rick & Patti Roberts P.O. Box 60772 – N. Charleston, SC 29419 – Cell Ph. 843-437-3923 E-mail : rick.roberts@agmd.org Website : www.oocities.org/pastorick.geo !