This month in Romania has been full of so many things for me: Grief, joy, passion, sickness, laughter, confusion, and so much more. This was the month that I can truly say I began to fall in mad love with my team. Every single person has done their best to show me Christ, to love me, to uplift me, to support me, to be there for me.
But the time has come to move on. As hard as that is, thinking of our Oaza kids and all we had to gain here, we are so extremely excited about what God is doing next. This month has been our ATL month, since our trip to Egypt didn’t work out. ATL is a World Race buzz word that is impossible not to hear if you hang around us for very long. It means, “Ask the Lord”, and we do a fair share of ATL-ing everywhere we go.
An ATL month is a month where we have no certain destination, but we all pray and Ask the Lord where He wants us. It is so amazing how God brings everyone’s hearts together on this so that we do not move as seven individuals with differing ideas, but as a single unit waiting upon the Lord.
Most of the time, an ATL month won’t occur for a World Race squad until much further down the line than month three. This allows enough time for a team to figure out their dynamics, work part any problems, and focus on what the Lord is speaking. It also allows for a myraid of spiritual encounters with the Lord so we have learned how to clearly discern His voice. However, since we had month three fall through, we are doing ATL this month, but not in the normal way. AIM narrowed down three countries per squad that we could pray about and tell them the one to which we felt led.
However, we didn’t get this information until much later, and my team had already been praying about our ATL. We knew we were supposed to go to Eastern Europe, but no one on my team (including me) has any kind of strong grasp on the geography of Eastern Europe.
So I began praying on our van ride home to Hungary. The Lord was so clearly speaking to me, giving me visions about the deep things He has in store for us as His children, comforting my heart, many things. I then began to pray about our ATL. I asked, “God, where do you want us to go?”
Out of nowhere, God laid Macedonia on my heart so overwhelmingly, I knew it was Him and not myself. But here’s the thing: I had no idea if Macedonia was a country? A region? A city? I had no idea. But He laid it so clearly on my heart. I said, “Lord, I know this is You, but I am not going to say anything and I know you will confirm this from the mouth of one of my teammates.”
Well, a few nights ago, we were all eating a delcious dinner of Alphabet Soup. My team had a great idea that we would all pull out one letter and try to unscramble the name of the country for our ATL (Can you believe this is how it happens?)
Anyway, immediately, I noticed that three of the letters were “MAC”, the first three letters of Macedonia. I was just about to piece everything together when my teammate, Katie, said, “Macedonia.”
To sum up a very dramatic reaction, I freaked out. Even though I told God I knew He would confirm this through the mouth of a teammate, I was blown away when it actually happened! I told my team about what God and I had told each other, and everyone was getting really excited. After we had calmed down a little, Brandy told me, “I just kept hearing ‘Bulgaria’ when I prayed, but I don’t know.” Somehow, in my spirit, that seemed right, too. Our evangelist, Anthony, opened up his ever-present Bible and looked up a map on Macedonia, trying to figure out exactly where it was located and if it even was in Eastern Europe. Because it was a Biblical map, we couldn’t discern anything for sure.
However, our amazing contact from Arad, Paula, looked it up for us and reported back some unbelievable news: Even though modern Macedonia is it’s own country, Biblical Macedonia IS modern-day Bulgaria! All of a sudden, all of the pieces that were all over the place began to fall together. After that, everyone was finding Macedonia/Bulgaria in their daily lives. Anthony talked to a random woman who just kept expressing the need for missionaries in Bulgaria because it is such a dry and needy land.
So we were just sure God was taking us there, then we got the news: AIM had pre-selected three countries to be divided up amongst J Squad. I have to admit, I was really disappointed, because I just knew God was calling us to go to Bulgaria. Our team leader, Brandy, went to the meeting to find out what countries we had to choose from and was going to meet back up with us later to discuss where we felt led.
My team met, and as we did, Brandy explained what this month was going to be like. She then told us the three countries we had to choose from:
Albania, Montenegro, or…. BULGARIA!
I was so excited I could hardly contain it. God was totally leading my team to Bulgaria way before we even knew we had rules with the ATL this month. There are so many reasons why it should be somewhere else, but the Lord has clearly spoken to our team.
So, as of tomorrow morning at 9am, we are boarding a train to take us from Romania to Bulgaria, a country I know absolutely nothing about and never though I would go to. What I can tell you is that the capital is Sofia and Bulgaria is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia/Montenegro to the West, Macedonia and Greece to the South, and Turkey to the East.
And I can tell you this: There is kingdom to be found in the country of Bulgaria, and we are going to set the captives free!
Thank you for your support, I love all of you and hope to be able to talk to you soon. We are pioneering this month, meaning that we are going to a country that no World Race team has ever been to before. We have no set ministry, no contacts, nothing set in stone at all. We will be traveling with Team Fuel this month, and together we will be asking the Lord where to lead us. This may mean we end up in some very interesting places, since it’s all up to where Jesus wants to send us.
Pray for our time this month, that it would be divinely led by the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for unity among both of our teams to move and lead as one, and pray for the starving hearts of Bulgaria to be filled by the Bread of Life we are bringing. I hope to be able to update you more when we get there, but the reality of that is, I have no idea when that will be.
We love you!
