Dr. Judy Massey of Peachtree City will share information about an upcoming mission to Albania at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 13, at Christ the King Church in Sharpsburg. Massey is a commissioned minister of evangelism and missions in the Diocese of the Mid-South of the Charismatic Episcopal Church and has ministered in several nations including Mongolia.
The trip, which will take place Aug. 31 to Sept. 9, will involve approximately ten highly experienced Christian elementary and high school teachers and a lesser number of school administrators spending these days in Albania, at the express invitation of the Albanian Ministry of Education, conducting a week-long convocation and in-service training program for a select group of more than 100 Albanian teachers. Being invited to attend this event by the education ministry is considered a great honor and opportunity for these teachers since little if any such teacher training programs on this subject have been held in this country. Elbasan, where the convocation will be held, has never had a convocation before.
Albania is a small country directly east of Italy. The two countries are separated by the Adriatic Sea. To the south of Albania is Greece. Albania, with only 2.5 million people, is by far the poorest country in all of Europe. It is only just now beginning to emerge from the result of more than 50 years of harsh communist rule under the Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha.
The country is approximately 60 percent secular Muslim, 30 percent atheist, and 10 percent Christian.
“The convocation will have larger sessions for all of the participants, plus smaller break-out sessions with one of our group individually training around ten or so Albanian teachers,” Massey said.
The Convocation theme/title is “Dream Makers.” Much of the thrust will be “how to get your students to reject unmarried sex, drugs, alcohol and crime … and instead follow their ‘dreams’ to a more wholesome, happy and successful life.” The teachings of Christ will be the central core of how “Dreams” can be possible for every Albanian boy and girl … and teacher.
The trip is sponsored by The International School Project, a division of Campus Crusade For Christ.
Massey has been a significant leader in many outreaches and organizations, including an outreach during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and Women’s Aglow. She attended Carson-Newman College in Tennessee where she received a bachelor of science degree and taught in the Atlanta Public Schools. In the summers she worked for the Foreign Language League and was the director of the Atlanta YMCA camps.
She completed a master’s degree from Georgia State University and continued her teaching career in the Douglas County Schools where she was named Teacher of the Year and piloted the county kindergarten program. She helped start a Christian Day School where she wrote part of the curriculum and was a member of the Junior League in the community. From there she became an adjunct professor at Mercer University
Massey received a doctor of ministry degree in 2001 from Regent University in Global Evangelization/Leadership. She has also taught and written manuals on spiritual warfare, Islam, prophecy and prayer walking, and sex trafficking.
She is married to the Rev. Canon Paul Massey and is a mother and grandmother.