Today is something like day 74 on the race. It seems such a long time since I have been home in “real life,” but alas only a touch over two months has gone by. I can not say if this is a good or bad thing. The World Race or as we commonly refer to it as “fake life” is becoming fairly normal, so much so that I am having to remind myself what this year is about. This is not just another year to let slip by out of my fingers. This is a year to grasp in its entirety. This is a year to grab hold of and to hold on to with all I have. This is a year I can’t afford to be passive, that I can afford to be intentional.
This month is is called and ATL, or “Ask the Lord” month. My team was given a choice of 3 countries to pray over and decide on. In the end we ended up with Montenegro. What’s different about an ATL is that we are not given a contact to get a hold, but rather we are sent. We are sent as a scouting team to make contacts and build relationships for future teams to come through. So we are hitting multiple places around the country. This has been an amazing month for me thus far, and to think it’s only half over. Montenegro is a country with an estimated 150 evangelical Christians plus the four that the other team has seen come to Christ during their time here. We have slept and ate better this month than I imagine we will any other month. Not to mention myself along with the Jowers were taken on a day trip to kayak the Tar River, potentially the most beautiful river and lake I have ever been to. Our first few days were spent in the capitol, Padgorica- pronounced Padgoritsa. We worked with an amazing man of God who we had gotten a hold of through a friend of a friend in Russia, random I know. Our contact set us up in his church for 5 days, which was amazing. We were sleeping in a real building, with a full kitchen in walking distance from city center, which was a really nice place. We were able to find good internet and soak up the downtown area. We worked on the church a little bit and helped our contact around his house a bit one day including cutting and stacking more wood than I hope to ever see again.
After our stop there we headed to Niksic which may have been the greatest set up ever. It was really a fairly incredible set up. They are probably the only house in a 100 mile radius that has WiFi at their house….okay maybe a slight over estimate but not by much. The couple here was a missionary couple from California who have been here for about 14 years. The are building a larger house in order to accommodate teams just like ours. They were simply the greatest people to work with. During the day the guys worked on building a roof, it was quite the trust he put in us. The girls meanwhile worked in their garden which was rather extensive. I hate to brag, but I have never eaten more legitimately home made food, sorry mom. We had homemade bread, homemade jams, homemade pickles, homemade salsa. Home made peppers, tomatoes, raspberries, and an assortment of other things. During the evening we would make visits to church members and other friends of the family. This was one of the first times I had a legitimate conversation with someone. I got to just talk Jesus with this guy and share my faith with him, it was a very encouraging experience.
Our last week and a half have been spent in Bar, Montenegro working with a missions group here. It has been neat to meet the team that is stationed here and see their excitement for the what is happening in the area. There are literally no other Christians in the area besides the team so it has not been a very easy experience but their expectations for raising up a church here are no less diminished. We have done things with them such as English clubs, German club(we watched), handicap club, kids club, and other things along this line. Bar is also GORGEOUS. It is one of those places I’ve seen on TV where a crystal clear beach meets the mountains. It is beautiful. I have pictures I will try and get up very soon. It is truly incredible.
On the whole Montenegro has been kind’ve scattered, but also fruitful in the sense that we came here to make contacts, and indeed we have. We have found places for future teams to roll through and help support the church here. It excites me at the thought that we have paved the way for teams to follow in the years to come. Montenegro has been an absolutely beautiful country and I have been blessed to see God’s creativity at work. God Bless
P.S. We leave tomorrow for Turkey and in doing so will enter our first true Middle Eastern country and so I have to ask a favor. Please be sensitive with the information you comment on this blog. To our knowledge there is no problems with email, but careful what is posted for the public view. It is really not a huge deal with Israel and Turkey, the two countries we are going to, however we do want to take all the precautions we can for both our safety and the organizations ability to go into these countries. My blogs for the next couple months might also contain limited amounts of information for obvious reasons. Thanks so much.
