“Only God will know how much you have softened my heart with the love you have brought to this place.”
Dragon told me this today, a grown man with tears in his eyes.
I have been having a hard time blogging since leaving Africa. It is easy to talk about all the orphan children you fed or the field you helped build but what do you say when your main task in a place is to simply pray and bring love?
I am beginning to realize that this world needs people who are willing to bring something as simple as a smile. In a place like Serbia, that was bombed less than a decade ago, joy is hard to find. You can tell peoples hearts have been hardened. Stories of persecution are not marked by generations past but by the current generation. This hardness is what keeps them going, a reminder that they survived.
We have decided to play the guitar and sing in the local park to combat this hardness. The days have turned to spring and much like home people are coming out of hibernation and enjoying the weather. We sit on a wooden picnic table and simply sing. I began waving and smiling at the stone faced passerby’s, the majority do a second take, “is that woman smiling and waving at me?” But most continue on.
The first day two friends, Natalia and Tonka, were walking side-by-side and after waving at them they stopped and smiled back. I decided to go up to them and say hello. I could tell she was taken aback. She told Alex (our translator) that people in Serbia never smile so this was a very odd thing. After some conversation she said she loved hugs. I gave her a huge bear hug and I could see tears in her eyes as she said, “I needed this.” We invited her to church and she invited us to a barbeque at her home.
The sun was setting as her and her friend walked off, side-by-side, giggling and a little more joyful than when they came.
The next day I saw an elderly man walking. He looked to be a park ranger and seemed intrigued by our music. I waved and smiled at him and his eyes lit up. He was so excited to have Americans in his park and invited us on a tour.
He grew up in this town and has been taking care of the park for years. “I never would have stopped if you had not smiled at me, I could see the joy you have and that you are bringing unity and peace to Serbia, something we desperately need.” We hugged, his smile broad.
After a long conversation he told us how far he was from God because he felt his sin was keeping Him from that kind of love, that he was undeserving. We told him that everyone deserves that kind of love, no matter what. The relief marked his face.
Not a bowl of rice for an orphan or a walk through a garbage dump, but a simple smile that brought joy and unity to a place desperately in need.
