A fun fact you may be unaware of is our love for tennis. We both grew up playing with our families and it has now become something we bond over. Coming to Serbia we were excited to be in the home of a few of the top ranked players on the professional tour. Novak Djokavic, Elena Yankovic, and Ana Ivanovic are the pride of this country. Djokavic is the number 1 men’s player in the world currently and he is to Serbia what Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan is to the States.
What I have loved about this month is the overriding theme of “service.” I’ve written before about the tremendous hospitality we have received around the world and at the risk of sounding like a broke record player, I’m sharing about the warmth we’ve received here.
Our contact is a local Pastor who graciously allowed us to make our home for the month in his church. The church is a tight-knit community and I’ve learned that hospitality can transcend language barriers. We have been served and served some more. Serbians know how to make guests feel like family, and I have learned a thing or two about becoming uncomfortable so that others may be comfortable.
Twice monthly, the church hosts a bible school. Men and women come from around the country and stay at the church while school is in session. As women, one of our ministry assignments was to prepare and serve all the meals necessary for the students. As someone who loves to cook, I relished the opportunity to prepare traditional Serbian food for these men and women. Not only did we learn to cook Serbian style, but it would develop into a realization of my own person strengths as well.
Peeling Potatoes!
The girls on our team have been doing a bible study about discovering our spiritual gifts and it’s been such a great time of discovery for me. The study suggests that your gifts generally fall in one of two categories; serving or speaking. I’ve learned that my gifting lies heavily in the serving category and cooking this month has given me further confirmation of this!
I’m thankful for the race because it’s during this time that living with 5 other people becomes so beneficial. Sometimes it’s easier for those closest to us to recognize our strengths than it is ourselves. My teammates have a unique place in my life and are able to see what I cannot. This type of community changes you. It is impossible to experience 11 months of this lifestyle and return the same person.
So where do I go from here? This has been a month of discovery for me. Through experiencing the hospitality of our Serbian friends and making big picture connections with my experience thus far, I’m learning not only where my strengths lie but how to operate in them. I want to go home and model the warm welcome I’ve seen here. I want my home to be a place where anyone is safe to enter. I want to use whatever resources the Lord blesses me with to bless others. I’m learning and gaining knowledge of who Ashley is in the body of Christ, so my next step is to put it into motion. Extraordinary service has been modeled in each country we’ve visited and now it’s my turn to take what I’ve learned home!
