A few weeks ago I celebrated my 22nd birthday! I’m now finally able to sing T-Swifts song 22 and actually be the correct age.
The day before my birthday was our last day of ministry in Macedonia and we decided we would go out in the evening for ministry. Someone suggested doing prayer walks and just seeing where the Lord led us but I was thinking it would be nice to do something for our neighbor who had given us so many things throughout the month and been so kind to us.
My idea was shot down quickly and then ignored, but I didn’t think much of it I just figured no one else felt the same way. Which was fine.
After team time, our team leader Quinn wrote all our names down and put them in a hat(there are 7 of us). She started pulling names out and paired people together on who would go out on ministry together. There would be two groups of two and one group of 3.
Quinn pulled out two papers and said “Alyssa and Kimmy.” Then pulled out two more and said “Janibel and Quinn” which left myself, Bryce and Matthew. We all got ready and headed out in all different directions. Bryce, Matthew and I decided to go in the opposite direction of where we normally went for ministry and stumbled upon a leather shop, it was so cool! The owner of the shop handmade everything and even offers little classes to teach others to make small books. We thanked him for his time and promised we would be back tomorrow.
Not even a full minute later as we’re walking down the street, Bryce stops, turns to Matthew and I and said “What if we go back and talk to that man? We can take his class and make him our ministry tonight.” Matthew and I loved the idea so we all turned around and walked back to the store. The man gladly welcomed us back in, taught us how to use his tools and then taught us to make these tiny little books.
We chatted with him and he ended up helping us get a ride to Greece a few days later. We spent probably two or so hours with the man and before we left, we each bought some things from him.
Matthew called Quinn since she had the keys to the apartment and it was nearing the time we all said we’d try to meet back at the house and share how things went. Quinn said they would probably be a little late so we decided to walk around a bit more and try to see some of our friends one more time before we left Macedonia. We ended up seeing them and saying our goodbye’s. After we finished, we assumed the other girls would be back around the same time so we headed home.
We had planned to meet in the downstairs apartment so Bryce, Matthew and I headed straight there but the door was locked, we heard music coming from our other apartment upstairs so we decided to go up there instead. I briefly recognized that the music playing was Taylor Swift but didn’t pay attention to what song it was.
We got up the stairs and I opened the door to see Alyssa, Kimmy, Janibel and Quinn screaming “Surprise” and “Happy Birthday!” Blowing balloons in my face and Taylor Swift’s song “22” was blaring through the house. I looked to my right and noticed paper snow flakes and Christmas decorations all over the place. (Because I love Christmas and my birthday is on Christmas in July)
Come to find out, the whole “ministry” that night was somewhat planned, they staged the guys being paired with me so they could keep me out of the house while the girls made dinner, dessert and decorated the house.
There was a small Christmas tree with presents and cards under/around it, they made one of my favorite meals and even asked my mom for the recipe to my favorite homemade brownies. Then my favorite Christmas album ever started playing as we sat down to eat dinner. I couldn’t have felt more loved than I did that night. After dinner and presents I was told it was movie time and I got the choice between my two favorite Christmas movies. I picked Elf. It was such a good night! So I celebrated my birthday a day early but my team spoiled me!
They got me my favorite perfume(haven’t seen it anywhere since leaving the states), my favorite candy, my favorite drinks and wrote me sweet notes.
Thank you team Relentless for loving me so well! I love you all so much and I had the best birthday ever.
