A GOOD START​—THEN A BLOW

Though the Country Committee was working hard to promote pure worship, trouble was soon to come. In 1963, Melpo Marks wrote her brother John that two of the three brothers who made up the Country Committee, Leonidha Pope and Luçi Xheka, were “away from their families” and that meetings were not being held. Later came word that Spiro Vruho was in the hospital and that Leonidha Pope and Luçi Xheka were sick, referring to Acts 8:1, 3, where Saul of Tarsus sent Christians to prison. What was happening?

Leonidha Pope, Luçi Xheka, and Sotir Ceqi worked in a factory where members of the Communist Party held talks for all the workers, promoting Communist ideals. One day during a talk about evolution, Leonidha and Luçi stood up and said: “No! Man did not come from monkeys!” The next day both were taken away from their families and sent to work as exiles in distant cities, a punishment Albanians called internim (internment). Luçi was sent to the mountains of Gramsh. Because they considered Leonidha to be “in charge,” he was sent to the rugged, cold mountains of Burrel. It would be seven years before he returned to his home in Tiranë.

By August 1964, meetings had essentially stopped. The little information that trickled out indicated that the brothers were under strict surveillance by the Sigurimi. One message beneath a stamp read: “Pray to the Lord for us. Seizure of literature house to house. They do not allow us to study. Three persons in internim.” At first, it was thought that brothers Pope and Xheka had been released, since they were the only ones who knew about writing under stamps. However, it later turned out that Luçi’s wife, Frosina, had communicated that message.

The brothers who took the lead had been sent away. The vigilant eye of the Sigurimi did not let the others communicate with one another. Nonetheless, the brothers in internim gave a remarkable witness to whomever they met. The people of Gramsh would say: “The ungjillorë [evangelizers] are here. They don’t go into the military, but they build our bridges and fix our generators.” These loyal brothers gained a glowing reputation that remained for decades.

When the ban was lifted in 1992, Frosina was one of the nine baptized Witnesses left in Albania.