For Month 7, our whole squad found ourselves serving in Pristina, Kosovo (Prishtina, Kosova as the Kosovars call it) for the month. For the entire first week, it was all hands on deck for the largest evangelistic outreach event the country has ever seen called Impact Kosova 2018. There were 380 people from 27 nations. This was also the 14th year and 14th different European capital that has seen this magnitude of city-wide outreach.
During Impact Kosova, we were able to share the gospel in the streets to the Kosovar population which is 95% muslim. Alyssa got to be a part of a team of Americans, Italians, Albanians, Macedonians, and Fins who gathered on the main walking street of the city to worship and praise our God while singing in different languages. I was more inclined to talk than to sing, so my group went out into the streets to meet people & listen to their stories, share our stories and faith with the ones that were interested, and invite people to a large event for non-believers that the church was hosting. Just having a good conversation with a local, respecting them and their religion while sharing the good news went a long way. We met a range of people around the city center, from a Jewish New Yorker, to Catholics, Eastern Orthodox people, Albanians, Syrians and even a few Islamic Extremists.
The rest of the month, our team was involved in the thrift store operations of the church. The main way that the church funds its different ministries is through the four thrift stores that they operate around Kosovo. Alyssa and I each worked in a different thrift shop, located just over a mile apart from each other. We spent our time there working alongside some amazing Kosovars as well as one other teammate.
During our last weekend in Kosovo, we got invited to our coworker’s house in a nearby city for a local specialty, Flia!
To see more from our time in Kosovo, check out our recap video that Alyssa put together below! The song playing is a popular worship song in Albanian that we sang almost every Sunday at the church during our time here.
We’re thankful for a month getting to know this country and it’s beautiful people. We are praying for God to do more great things next month!
