Well, I’m in Kosovo.
Didn’t see that one coming? Yeah, me neither. Six months ago, Month 4 of the Race was supposed to be Greece. Then, four months ago, my squad found out we were going to Macedonia instead. Two weeks into Month 3, my team was informed that we and two other teams were being sent to Pristina, Kosovo!
So that’s how I’m here. God has a purpose for everything; I’m excited to see how He will use me and the Tovs while we’re here!
A little bit about last month: Month 3, the Tovs were in Varna, Bulgaria, right on shores of the Black Sea. It was a month of full force spiritual attack that brought forth so much growth and unity in my team. I got to walk alongside my teammates in ways that I’ve never done before. I got to stand beside them and kick the devil’s butt in prayer on our balcony, I got to hold them while they wept, I got to speak truth, and they all did the same for me. It was a month of vulnerability, good food, English language lessons, international students, discomfort, tears, confusion and the lesson that I don’t have to understand everything in order to walk in grace, walks on the beach, sunrises, journal shopping (no joke, I bought way too many journals), opera (in an opera house), museums, surprises, autumn colors, and the hard reality that no matter how far you run from real life, it’ll always catch back up with you. Thankfully, Jesus is so good, and was beside us through all of it.
(But really, I thought last month was never going to end.)
And here we are (after a seven hour train ride from Varna to Plovdiv, a night on the floor in a beautiful church, and an eleven hour bus ride from Plovdiv, through Macedonia, up into Kosovo)! I can’t even begin to tell you all how stoked I am to be here! Not just because we’re staying in an incredible apartment (with a bathtub. I prayed for a bathtub. And a closet. I prayed for a closet!), but also because our ministry hosts, Kelsi and Hunter –a young American couple with a heart for the Ashkali, a forgotten Kosovar people who fall under the umbrella of ‘gypsy’- are exactly the sort of missionaries we desire to partner with. Besides their visiting the impoverished Ashkali villages on the outskirts of Pristina, where they visit the staunchly Muslim families and show them the fullness of Christ’s love, Kelsi and Hunter come alongside the Kosovar believers in order to build them up in their faith with the belief that –should the couple be called elsewhere- the church here will be self-sustaining and Kosovar, not American. They are a huge encouragement to me and my team. We are so excited to work alongside them this month!
It’s going to be a short month- 22 days in all before we head back down into Macedonia for Month 4 debrief! And then, after debrief, we hit the ground running in Zambia, Africa!!!!!
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
November is shaping up to be one heck of a month! Stay tuned for (hopefully) more blogs than last month!
Much love
