Peaceful surroundings

      Holta Cenmurati may be only 17 years old, but her knowledge, wisdom and life experiences reach far beyond that.
      Born in Albania, the senior at Shiloh Christian School came to the United States in 1997 after war broke out in her native country. She is now staying with Kathy Bland and her husband, who have become legal guardians. However, Cenmurati hopes to return to her hometown of Tiran‘ after finishing college and begin a Christian ministry that she believes will bring hope to a country in disarray.
      "My biggest problem with her is requiring her to be a kid sometimes," Bland said about Cenmurati, who knows five languages -- Albanian, Italian, French, Spanish and English.
      Gail Haase, secondary principal at Shiloh, said Cenmurati works very hard and puts her homework first.
      She has had to deal with cultural differences in the United States that have sometimes been painful. She believes it is Cenmurati's faith that has helped her through many life situations.
      "She has a real heart to love people through all kinds of differences and to try to understand," Haase said. "Faith is something that grows a lot according to your trust and your experience, and she's had so much experience. We kind of emotionally shelter American kids. The more you suffer, the more you learn to trust (Jesus), the more real your faith gets to be."
      Bland said it was the tapestry of God's handiwork that led her to Cenmurati, and Cenmurati to the United States.
      As an empty-nester, Bland wanted to help others by leading Bible studies. At a training session in Tennessee, she met a woman named Lorraine Graves who was planning to go to Albania with her husband as a missionary.
      "Three years later, I went back to the same training session, I went back to the same table," Bland said. "I was having a very emotional feeling, wondering if they ever made it to Albania."
      Suddenly she noticed a group of people knelt down in prayer. After approaching them, she felt compelled to ask them if they were praying for Graves. It turned out they were. Graves had made it to Albania; however, the ministry was in need of more missionaries to help in Albania.
      "I've never been out of the country, I'm in my 40s, but I just knew I was supposed to go," said Bland, who lived in Little Rock, Ark., at the time. "I sent them my money and went with them."
      As it turned out, Cenmurati lived next door to Graves and became Bland's translator for her two-week stay. The two quickly developed a lasting bond and kept in touch after Bland returned to the United States.
      Cenmurati said Bland called her one evening in 1996, very worried after the war had started, and told her she wanted to bring her to the United States.
      "It was everywhere," Cenmurati said about the shooting. "Most of the people used to go on top of the buildings and they used to shoot. But other people used to shoot in the streets, too. People would drink and just do it for fun, not necessarily to kill people.
      "It was no government, anarchy, so everybody just took advantage of the situation to shoot guns, and other people of course took advantage to do the things they wanted to do, like raising up groups of terrorists."
      She said it was especially dangerous for teen-age girls, who were often kidnapped and sold into prostitution in Greece or Italy, a situation in which Cenmurati narrowly escaped one morning on her walk to school.
      Two weeks later, after learning her friend had been kidnapped and never found, Cenmurati's parents decided to let her go to the United States to stay with Bland, although they had only known her for two weeks.
      It took eight months to get her visa, but she finally arrived on Oct. 4, 1997. She lived in Little Rock until several months ago when the Blands moved to Las Vegas. She was provided with a scholarship to Shiloh Christian School, where she will be a graduate of the school's first senior class.
      "When I see the teachers (here), I think where have I lived," Cenmurati said. "I love all these teachers, I don't know where to put my finger on which one, because you have never thought of being in Albania and having the teachers we had and the kind of relationship. If you would have É lived that, you would know how to appreciate the teachers that you have here."
      Cenmurati hopes to attend the Masters College in California and receive a degree in theology and perhaps another in computers.
      "I want to have a ministry when I go back to Albania," Cenmurati said. "The reason I came here is to learn something, because it is such an advanced country in every way. You come here and you take the best of what you can do to make Albania go forward.
      "My goal is, of course, to serve God, but to bring my country forward and to work with other youth like me that probably didn't have this ability to come to the United States and have a good education. With everything that has been going on É they have given up. And they cannot. It will be our turn not far from now to step forward and do something for our country."
      Those interested in donating to Cenmurati's college scholarship fund can call Bland at 364-9235.