A village church with a bridge to Albania
We’re a small church in Marston Moretaine. We’re also bound up, heart and soul, with a community in Tirana and Durrës called Tek Ura — at the bridge. It has changed how we see our own village. And it means that if God is stirring something in you about the wider world, there’s a real road from here to there.
The world is not a side project
Jesus’ last words to his friends were an instruction to go — to their own city, to the region next door, and “to the ends of the earth”. We don’t read that as a job for specialists. We read it as the shape of a normal church.
So we hold two things together and refuse to choose between them. Tuesday afternoons at the Community Centre, and summer camps on the Albanian coast. A school assembly in Marston, and a homework club in Tirana. It is the same love and the same Lord. Only the postcode changes.
And we’ve found something we didn’t expect. Being tied to a community fifteen hundred miles away hasn’t made us less interested in our own village. It has made us more so.
Tek Ura — “at the bridge”
Dan and Annie, our ministers, moved to Albania in 2014 with a fifteen-year vision and, in their own words, “no real idea how it would work”. They spent the first year doing almost nothing but praying, listening and learning the language. What they saw stayed with them: children picking over the municipal dump, families living on the riverbank, and hard lines running through society about who belongs and who is invisible.
In 2016 Tek Ura was commissioned. The name is the whole idea: build bridges between people who have been kept apart, and be a community with God at the centre of it.
Ten years on there are two community centres, in Tirana and Durrës; fourteen Albanian staff, several of whom started out as translators and now lead the work; and five programmes running side by side. There’s a church, Komuniteti i Besimit, that meets in ten small groups across both cities and is led by Albanians. That was always the point. By 2028 the aim is for the whole thing to be Albanian-led, top to bottom.
Since 2024 Dan and Annie have lived here in Marston, gone back for around eight weeks a year, and led Vale alongside it. A church with no manse, no building, and a stipend supported by Home Mission said yes to that. We’re rather proud of it.
Read the longer story — Southend, the Sahara, Tirana, Marston →
Five things, side by side
Nobody at Tek Ura is “a project”. The same families come to the homework club, the clinic, the shared table and the church — because it’s one community, not five services.
- Skills120
children a week in homework clubs and English groups, plus Albanian lessons for 32 refugee families. Children who were close to dropping out are staying in school.
Skills at Tek Ura → - Rehab67
people a week in free physio and sensory therapy clinics. 160 came to the inclusive “Flow” camp — for many, their first time in a swimming pool.
Rehab at Tek Ura → - Recovery34
people into legal work in a year. Eleven homes repaired, heater loans for 62 families, and a social worker at the door.
Recovery at Tek Ura → - Church136
people in Komuniteti i Besimit across ten cells. The Durrës Thursday cell grew from 27 to over 50, and saw its first baptism on the coast.
The church → - Connect503
a week through the centres’ doors — drop-ins, carers’ groups, older people’s socials, 400+ at summer camps, and residents’ councils shaping the work.
Connect at Tek Ura →
“Ten years ago this was a dream spoken in another language. Today it is our church — Albanian voices leading worship, Albanian hands breaking bread.”Juri Arapi · Pastor, Komuniteti i Besimit Tek Ura
Three organisations. One mission.
It sounds complicated. It isn’t. Each one does the bit it’s best placed to do, and the same people — and the same prayers — run through all three.
Tek Ura
The Albanian charity Dan and Annie founded in 2016. Two community centres, fourteen Albanian staff, five programmes and a church. Increasingly Albanian-led, which was always the plan.
At the Bridge
A UK charity, registered with the Charity Commission in July 2026 (no. 1218711). It raises money here, makes grants to Tek Ura there, and runs Immersive — the internship and volunteer programme described below.
Vale Community Church
That’s us. We’re the UK home for Immersive, the church family people leave from and come back to, and a place where prayer for Albania is ordinary rather than special. We also do joint funding bids with At the Bridge.
The Central Baptist Association stands alongside all three — it was the CBA who helped make Dan and Annie’s hybrid role possible in the first place. And prayer runs through the whole family: Tek Ura’s prayer guide is prayed in Marston as much as in Tirana.
What Albania has given Marston
It would be easy to describe all this as a small church kindly supporting a big project abroad. It isn’t like that, and we’d be embarrassed if it were.
The Table exists because of what was learned about tables in Tirana. “Belong before believing” came home in a suitcase. The instinct to look for where God is already at work, rather than where we’d like him to be, was learned on a riverbank a long way from Bedfordshire.
And people have gone. Members of Vale have been out to see it for themselves. A group of UK church leaders went and, in Dan’s words, “came back different”. In February 2026 more than a hundred supporters from around thirty Baptist churches gathered at Whetstone to mark Tek Ura’s tenth birthday, with most of the Albanian team in the room. We were there, and it felt like family because it is.
“Albania is not a place we take things to. Some of the best thinking in this partnership comes from Tirana and Durrës to Bedfordshire, not the other way round.”Dan and Annie Dupree
Pray, give, go — or start closer to home
There isn’t a queue and there isn’t a test. Pick the one that’s nearest to where you actually are, and we’ll help with the next one.
One short prayer a day
Tek Ura publishes a prayer for every day — eighteen weeks this autumn, each week on one of the five programmes. It takes a minute. There’s a printable prayer guide and other resources too, for your own quiet time or a Life Group.
Today’s prayer →Run, walk or sponsor the Tirana 10K
Sunday 25 October 2026, on the streets of Tirana. Run it, walk it, or sponsor someone who is. £250 keeps a child in school for a year. Regular giving to Tek Ura goes through tekura.org.
Run for Tek Ura →Take a team
A team from Vale, or from your own church or group, spends a week or two in Albania — summer camps, the community table, the programmes — shoulder to shoulder with the Albanian team. You’ll give a lot. You’ll receive more.
Bring a team →Immersive: weeks, months or a year
Immerse yourself in Tek Ura’s projects and programmes for two to three weeks, six months or a year, and see the impact first-hand. Open to anyone, whatever your age or stage. Details just below.
About Immersive ↓Talk to someone who’s done it
If you think God might be calling you overseas — or you can’t shake the thought and wish you could — talk to Dan or Annie. Twenty years, three countries, and they’ll tell you the hard bits as well as the good.
Start that conversation →No passport needed
The Table on a Tuesday. Storytellers in the village school. Messy Mornings. Lifts for Cranfield students. It’s the same mission, and it needs the same people. Most of us start here.
Find something this week →
Immersive — two weeks, six months, or a year
Immersive is At the Bridge’s programme for anyone who wants to do exactly that: immerse yourself in Tek Ura’s projects and programmes, alongside the Albanian team in Tirana or Durrës, and see the impact first-hand. It’s open to anyone, whatever your age or stage, and Vale is its UK home.
- 2–3 weeksOrientation, then a placement in Albania. A first taste — see the work up close, get stuck in, and come home with a real picture of what God is doing.
- 6 monthsAn extended placement across one or two programme areas. For people testing whether there’s a longer call on their life.
- 12 monthsFull immersion, language learning, proper integration into the team. For those weighing up long-term service or leading a team one day.
Every track is faith-funded: you raise your own support, and At the Bridge administers it with Gift Aid. You won’t do that on your own. What Vale gives you is a church family before you go, someone walking alongside you while you prepare, prayer while you’re away, and a proper debrief when you’re home — because coming back is often the hardest bit.
Everyone completes a safeguarding check before placement, and Tek Ura’s own safeguarding runs in-country.
And a word to younger people. Tek Ura has particular openings for young adults on its summer camps — hundreds of children and families, many of whom have never had a holiday, and a team that needs your energy. With At the Bridge and Tek Ura we’re also shaping something new: small teams of young adults serving in the UK and in Albania, and growing into leaders through it. It doesn’t fully exist yet. If you’re in your late teens or twenties and want in at the start, say so.
Ask about ImmersiveThe persecuted church
We also stand with Open Doors, who serve Christians facing persecution for their faith around the world. Dan and Annie know a little of what that costs from six years in Tunisia, where being a Christian was against the law. We pray for the persecuted church, and Open Doors helps us do it with our eyes open — real names, real places, and what to actually pray for.
The things people ask
Do I need to speak Albanian?
No. The Tek Ura team work in Albanian and English, and you’ll be alongside them. You’ll pick up “faleminderit shumë” — thank you very much — in the first hour, and it will get you a long way. Twelve-month Immersive includes proper language learning.
I’ve never done anything like this. Is that a problem?
It’s the normal starting point. Most people who go for a week or two have never been on a mission trip before, and a good many had never been to Albania. Nobody expects you to arrive knowing what to do.
How much does it cost?
Short-term teams cover their own travel and costs. Immersive is faith-funded: you raise support from people who want to back you, and At the Bridge receives it, claims Gift Aid where it can, and gives you statements. We’ll help you work out a realistic target and how to reach it.
Is it safe, and how is safeguarding handled?
Albania is a peaceful country and Tek Ura has hosted teams for years. Everyone on Immersive has a DBS check (or the Albanian equivalent) before they go, agrees to a code of conduct, and is covered by insurance and an in-country risk assessment. Tek Ura has its own safeguarding lead, as do we.
Who is Immersive for?
Anyone. Students and gap years, yes — but just as much people mid-career, retired, or simply curious. It’s for anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the work and see the impact first-hand. Short-term teams are for churches and groups of any age. If you’re not sure which fits, ask.
What if I think God is calling me somewhere for good?
Then please tell someone, because that’s a call worth taking seriously and not on your own. Dan and Annie have been through it twice. We’ll pray with you, be honest with you, and help you find the right training and the right people — whether that turns out to be Albania or somewhere we’ve never been.
Tell us what’s stirring
A week in Tirana, a year, a lifetime, or a Tuesday afternoon at the Community Centre — it all starts the same way. Say what’s on your mind. A real person reads it, usually Dan or Annie, and nobody will sign you up for anything you didn’t ask for.
Start a conversation Visit tekura.orgTek Ura · Rruga Faik Kulla, Tirana · Rruga Aleksandër Goga, Spitallë, Durrës · info@tekura.org