Month ten was spent in Skopje, Macedonia! Eastern Europe was a very big change coming from Africa. Food, culture, dress, temperature, and landscape. My team served in the capital city of Skopje. It was beautiful – surrounded by mountains and beautiful architecture. I loved the change of pace being in a city with things to do and places to explore.
My team served at a coffee shop called the Qiriazi Center where they teach English to the youth as a way to share the gospel. The center is a fun place for students to hang out at after school or for a break during the day. We would play Apples to Apples and hang out with them. It was easy to connect with them since most of them could speak some English. It made it much easier to build a friendship. The center is run by Dardajan and Rilinda. Dardajan is from Albania and has been doing ministry in Macedonia for 3 years. Macedonia is made up of half Muslim and half Christian Orthodox. Dardajan and Rilinda have a huge passion to reach the people of Macedonia. In our morning prayer and worship meetings they would be on their knees crying out to God for the Macedonian people.
This month I became my teams Field Producer for the documentary we’ve been filming. I was in charge of recording, logging footage, and following the stories for my team and ministry. I had little experience with the camera and had zero experience logging footage and following stories. It was challenging to film everyday and remember to do all of the small things that are involved in it. It was fun to see ways I could improve and to challenge myself in something I had never done before. As if I haven’t done that enough on the race, haha.
I loved filming people during worship or prayer and capturing people pouring their hearts out to God. At the end of the month I interviewed my teammates individually in different parts around the city. I loved having the opportunity to hear their thoughts and see how different everyone answered the questions. It made me see and take away different things from the month from hearing their perspective of it. It has been a privilege and a honor to be part of something bigger than myself. I am thankful for the new opportunities, new skills learned, and unique experiences that have come from being a part of this squad. I would have never imagined that over the course of this year I would learn about filming and story telling while being a missionary.
Month 11 of the race my team has been in Slovakia doing Unsung Heroes. I did Unsung Heroes my third month of the race in the Philippines. My team is in charge of finding new contacts for the World Race to use for future teams. We started in the capital city of Bratislava for the first half of the month and are ending in a city called Kosice. It has been fun exploring a new country and seeing different ministries that are serving God in Slovakia. The squad will head to Budapest, Hungary on the 19th for our final debrief and for the last time we will all be together before flying home to Chicago on the 25th! Please keep my squad in your prayers for safe travels home!
Traveling by train to Slovakia!
