Mt. Pleasant Couple Followed Their Faith to Post-Communist Albania

Above Photo: Mike and Ellen Holman serve as missionaries in a God-forsaken land.

 

 

From East Texas Journal, February 1995

By Hudson Old, Journal Publisher

Mike and Ellen Holman Missionaries in Albania

Mike Holman got his start in ministry the usual way — by studying physics at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University.

Years later, Mike and Ellen found themselves living in Albania, one of the poorest and most isolated nations in Europe after the fall of communism.

When Mike and Ellen Holman left Mt. Pleasant they traded comfort and stability for a mission field where running water, electricity, and heat could never be taken for granted.

Their apartment even featured indoor plumbing, which made them fortunate by local standards.

“With the aide of a gasoline-powered Russian pump,” the 1995 East Texas Journal, feature said, “Mike rigged up a gravity-feed water storage system so that Ellen didn’t have to run out on the street with a bucket when running water made its almost daily appearance.”

Life in Albania After Communism

For Albanian families in the early 1990s, life revolved around survival.

“Housewives schedule their day around the time the water will be running,” Ellen said. “The problem is, you never know exactly what hour that’s going to be.”

Electricity remained unreliable. Taking a hot shower became a carefully planned process.

Mike described waking at 4 a.m. to check whether the electricity was working. If not, he would start the gas-powered generator they had brought through customs. Then he turned on the heating element beneath the rooftop water storage tank.

“Two hours later,” the article noted, “you’re in hot water in Albania.”

Albania’s Harsh Communist History

Albania in the 1990s was still recovering from one of the harshest communist regimes in Europe.

Under dictator Enver Hoxha, religion was outlawed in 1967 after Albania declared itself the world’s first atheist state. Churches and mosques closed, while religious leaders faced imprisonment or execution.

“All religion was outlawed,” Mike said in the 1995 interview, “and the penalty was torture and or death.”

He added, “Almost everybody you talk to here can tell you stories about the execution of their father or mother or grandfather or uncle.”

For nearly half a century, fear and repression shaped everyday life. However, when communism collapsed in the early 1990s, order disappeared almost overnight.

“The order contrived by fear vanished,” the article stated. “Cops are on the take; theft is a way of life.”

Hospitals lacked supplies, orphanages struggled to care for children, and food shortages remained common throughout the country.

“Bread and cabbage are the population’s mainstay,” Mike explained.

Mike Holman’s Call to Missionary Work

Before moving to Albania, Mike and Ellen spent years involved in Christian ministry work in California. Later, they returned home to East Texas, where Mike worked in coal mining before moving into management and technical positions with Texas Utilities.

Still, Mike felt called toward full-time ministry.

“For several years I’d been saying, ‘Okay, God, just as soon as this or that’s done, I’m going to work for you full time,’” Mike recalled.

At first, he used practical concerns as reasons to wait.

“I used the kids’ education for an excuse,” he admitted.

Then Texas Utilities offered him a buyout package that would help secure the family financially.

“It was like, ‘Okay, Big Boy, so now what’s your excuse?’”

Eventually, Mike became involved with Gospel for Asia and missionary K.P. Yohannan. During that time, he used his technical skills to help organize missionary operations and communication systems.

Mike expected his missionary future would likely involve India. Instead, Albania kept appearing in unexpected conversations.

“I kid you not,” Mike laughed later, “it was everybody from the appliance repair man to the mailman.”

Even a church secretary repeatedly mentioned Albanian mission work during a phone call.

“Where is Albania?” Mike remembered asking.

Faith Guided Mike and Ellen Holman to Albania

Mike later described praying intensely about whether to accept the utility company buyout and leave his career behind.

“I’ll never forget it,” he said. “It was, ‘Take the buyout, sell your house and wait.’”

He obeyed immediately.

Imagine coming home and telling your spouse that you believed God had instructed you to quit your job, sell your home, and simply wait for further direction.

“Good,” Ellen answered. “I’m glad that’s finally settled.”

Mike later paused while speaking about his wife’s support.

“Without Ellen…” he said, before trailing off.

Within hours of putting their home back on the market, buyers appeared. Soon afterward, doors opened for missionary service in Albania.

Mike and Ellen Holman’s Missionary Legacy

In Albania, Mike taught computer courses at a university and assisted government officials with technical system analysis. Because trained technology specialists were rare there, his expertise quickly became valuable.

Meanwhile, Ellen taught children in schools that often lacked windows, electricity, and textbooks.

“The people burned the books when the communist government collapsed,” the article explained.

The work moved slowly. Albania remained a wounded and discouraged nation after decades of isolation. Yet Mike and Ellen stayed committed to serving where they believed they were called.

“We don’t have to understand every detail of God’s plan,” Mike said. “Wherever He’s put us, we’re just supposed to do what we can.”

Today, the story of Mike and Ellen Holman remains a remarkable chapter in East Texas missionary history and in the history of Albania’s difficult transition from communism to freedom.