Meet our Board of Directors
Executive Director
Plator Collaku
Plator is the Senior Pastor of the Libonik-Maliq Evangelical Church, a network that has planted nine church plants in Southeast Albania. In addition to being a board member and founder of Hands of Providence, he is a current board member of Child Evangelism Albania, the Kennedy Foundation, and Albanian Leadership Forum, which is a part of the European Leadership Forum. Plator has also been a trainer and coach for United Nations, World Vision, and GIZ (a German government organization). Plator is also an elected member of the City Council in Maliq, Albania.
In September 2018, Plator earned an MLitt (master of letters) in Organizational Leadership from Oxford Graduate School in Tennessee. With his capstone project, Plator earned an achievement award with an honorable mention.
Plator became a believer in his youth and has felt the call to become a pastor and spread the gospel to the unreached in all ninety-eight villages within the Maliq municipality in Albania. Romans 1:16 inspired him to be in full-time ministry; For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
President
William Bennett
Beth Bennett
Bill Bennett served in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam era. He is a former international sales and marketing executive for Colgate-Palmolive and ITT corporations, and he then formed his own advertising marketing consulting firm, William Bennett Associates (WBA).
At age fifty, Bill left the corporate world and moved to the remote mountains of Colorado. This time of reflection led to a move to Colorado Springs, where he met Beth Bennett and got married. He served as a Communications Director of Greater Europe Mission during this time.
Rather than consider retirement in the classical sense, Bill and Beth sought direction for ways to serve an international Christian community. To their delight and amazement, they were able to move to the small town of Libonik, Albania, and serve alongside the Libonik Evangelical Church, which is known for their passion for evangelism and remarkable outreaches to street children, orphan boys, widows, and the poor and needy.
Bill and Beth are the parents of four adult children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Adriatik Selfollari
Adriatik Selfollari—fondly referred to as ‘Adi’ by friends and family—was born in Albania in 1970. Adi aspired to be a Medical Doctor and finished medical school in 1994. However, things took a turn in his career and life path, and he moved to Chicago in 1997. He now owns and manages a furniture-making company in Chicago and serves on the mission board at Moody Church. Adi’s life passion is to make known the way of salvation through Jesus Christ to all nations and peoples.
Adi currently lives in Chicago, Illinois, with his wife and two children.
Paul Davies
Paul Davies lives in the East of England, not far from Cambridge, having moved there to work as a teacher in 1974. In 2006, he left the teaching field to work with the Albanian Evangelical Mission (AEM.) Through working at AEM, Paul met the Hands of Providence’s National Director, Plator, and his work in Libonik and later in Maliq. Nearly eighteen years later, the churches in Maliq and Libonik, the Boy’s Residential Home, and the Children’s Day Center are very much at the heart of his continuing desire to be part of all that God is doing in Albania.
Rezearta Zenunllari
Rezearta, referred to as Rezi by her friends and family, was born in 1983 in Korce, Albania. In 2002, she started to work at the Children’s Day Center in Korce; then started to work for the Residential Home for Girls in Korce from 2005 to the end of 2007. In 2009, she completed University at "Fan.S.Noli" University with a degree in Education. In January 2019, she started working in Residential Home for Boys for Hands of Providence. She serves in the Libonik Evangelical Church in the children’s ministry as she is passionate about teaching children the Word of God and helping raise the next generation of believers.
Rezi currently lives in Libonik, Albania, with her husband and son.
John Durante
John Durante spent years looking for a meaningful purpose worth living for. Having sought fulfillment through a culture and lifestyle of surfing, snowboarding, and skateboarding, he turned back to God out of frustration and found peace and purpose.
After graduating from Calvary Chapel Bible College, he had various serving roles at churches in California, Hawaii, and Arizona. In December 2007, John and his wife Christina met with seven people in their living room in Point Pleasant Beach. Today, those seven people represent the humble beginnings of the church that he pastors - Jersey Shore Calvary Chapel (JSCC.) Today, JSCC is a spirit-filled and growing church with two locations. John's radio program can be heard in nine different states and two countries.
After hearing about the history and church in Albania from his cousin, Michael Durante, John visited Albania and was immediately connected with the people and work.
Michael Durante
Michael Durante came to Albania on a mission trip in 1994. During this trip, Albania captured his heart, and he went on many subsequent mission trips to Albania. In 2001, he planted the first Albanian Evangelical Church in the United States. He was the pastor of this church until 2007.
From 2011 to 2013, Michael lived in Korce, Albania, where he worked on church plants in Vlocisht and Pogradec. When he moved back to the United States in 2014, he planted another Albanian Church in Garfield, New Jersey, where he is also the current pastor.
Michael received a Bachelor's and Master's Degree from Trinity Bible College and Seminary in Indiana. He is currently pursuing his Doctoral degree.