As I parked my car on the side of a busy street in the Boston neighborhood of Roslindale and walked around my car towards the sidewalk I noticed an old man passing by.  I recognized immediately he was Albanian, so I greeted him in Albanian. He we was surprised and asked “do I know you”? No, I said, but I recognized that you were Albanian.  His reply struck me. “Te vrare jemi ne”, which means something like “we are beaten down”. In other words he thought that I could notice Albanians and they stuck out because they carry with them the look of those who have been beaten down.  Beaten down for hundreds of years by one empire after another.   Then beaten down by a generation of North Korea-like communism. Beaten down by poverty, propaganda, and suffering. Finally, beaten down by immigration and living in constant survival-mode.

I usually recognize Albanians on the street and in public places because of their walk, their facial expressions and characteristics, their clothes and the way they speak.  Often I hear some Albanian and know for sure. But that man’s comment about them having the look of being “beaten down” has rung true.

I noticed the look that day in the 40 something man sitting across from me in one Albanian cafe in Roslindale.  His eyes were red and his posture tired and stressed. He had likely been drinking too much. A father of two, their family has been here for 2 years, yet he has had a very hard time.  He was “somebody” in Albania, running a government office. Here he is noboby. His words were confident, proud, hopeful, yet his eyes betrayed the toll all of this had taken on him.

I noticed it in the many senior citizen Albanians I interacted with last week at the ESL class I teach at the senior center and at an Albanian party at a Quincy Apartment complex.  The look is masked with a smile and a greeting, but this generation that suffered most under communism now slowly ages and approaches death in a strange country. Though often living near adult children and grandchildren, because of busyness and work, they most often face loneliness in a strange land.  

I saw the look in the man and woman in Quincy who had just had a horrible day.  A week after buying their first car and getting it insured, they experienced 2 accidents in one day.  The first a fender bender and the second a more serious accident that left his car in need of a tow and probably no option but being totalled.  As I arrived at their house that look was accompanied with tears, shouting and lots of fear.

Being beaten down is not just physical - tied to sleep, work, stress, accidents etc., it is also spiritual, for the vast majority of them face all of this in complete dependence on themselves.  Depending on their strength, their connections, their work ethic, their wisdom. They are unaware or undesiring of calling to the God of the Universe who waits to show mercy, who is ready to pour out grace, who eagerly yearns for hearts to turn to him.

My heart is broken by the staggering number of 50,000 Albanians in this area.  But it is because I know that behind the number are 50,000 individuals, 50,000 faces who bear stress, suffering, shame and pain right now in this life and potentially much worse for all eternity.  And whom, besides a very very small group of believers, face all of this apart from God. Many of them never having heard of the grace available and the Savior who has already accomplished all that is needed.

In Proverbs 18:10 it says “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and they are saved.”

How thankful I am today for the strong tower that is the name of the Lord for me and my family.  And how I long for the beaten down and burdened, the stressed and the suffering, to know the same.  Will you pray with us, that even as we proclaim the name of the Lord in word and deed that many Albanians would run into that strong tower!