Lee Bradley is not your average missionary.
While home in the United States for the past few months, Bradley trained for and completed a bike ride from the northernmost part of the country to the southernmost point. During the 43-day 2,738-mile trip, he stopped at churches to share about the work he has been doing in Albania for the past 15 years.
“I started my trip in Angle Inlet, Minn., and worked my way down through nine states to get to Key West, Fla.,” said Bradley, whose home church is Liberty Baptist, Duncanville. “I planned my stops around churches where I could speak, which meant I had to do some zigzagging.”
One of his many stops was at Calvary Pines Baptist Church, Grand Rapids, Minn. Bob Lemen, an elder at the church, spent time with him during the early part of his visit and checked in with him once his ride was complete.
“From his comments, it kind of reassured me to the kind of people Americans really are,” Lemen said. “He talked about people going out of their way to give him a ride when he had a flat tire and how no one ever tried to run him off the road. The Lord was really good to him, because he had some severe thunderstorms to the north and south of him, but they didn’t hit where he was.”
Bradley first gained an interest in biking in 2005 and did a ride across Alabama the following year. During that trip, he also spoke at various churches, but this time around, he wanted to “be bolder and go to some places where Southern Baptists aren’t so strong.”
By spreading his ride across nine states, Bradley was able to share his testimony and message with churches he wouldn’t have interacted with otherwise.
“In some cases, I had connections with the churches, but in some cases, I didn’t,” Bradley said. “I looked up different associations and contacted the directors (of missions), and they acted as intermediaries and helped me schedule talks.”
Even though he started out working as a church planter in Albania, Bradley got involved with the Albanian Bible Institute in Durres and has served as its director for the last five years.
In Albania, where Christians number a mere three-tenths of the population, creating trained Christian leaders is a difficult task.
This year, the institute is restructuring its curriculum to target people currently in the workplace who want to take evening classes.
It’ll also be extending its resources and training into other cities, helping to cast a wider net.
Lemen was interested to learn about the state of Christianity in Albania during Bradley’s talk at his church.
“Essentially the people had learned to believe in nothing. If you just start preaching the gospel, they might listen, but they’re probably just being polite,” he said. “It’s friendship evangelism to the extreme.”
Bradley returns to Albania on Sept. 7 and plans to continue building relationships as he’s done for 15 years in hopes that his school can continue be a tool for training native Albanians to lead local churches.
For more information about the institute, visit www.albanianbibleinstitute.com.
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