Have you ever been praying and really needed an answer as to where to go next and then what you feel like you are hearing doesn’t work out? That happened to me and my team while we were in Bosnia. We had the freedom to find our own ministry and housing, and our leadership told us to ask the Lord for direction. We prayed for weeks about if we should stay in Bosnia or go to a different country and multiple people on my team felt like we were being called to Split, Croatia. When we got to Bosnia we researched for hours to find churches or organizations that we could partner with and to find housing in our budget. The only housing we could find was super expensive. We found a few church websites to contact, but it was slow going. We came back together as a team to pray again and we still felt like we should go to Split, but we were running out of time at the house we were staying at. A few days later we got an email back from one of the pastors we emailed and he sent us to a specific website that had more affordable housing and said he would like to meet us. So at the last second everything came together and we jumped on a bus and headed for Split. It was a huge answer to prayer and I had big expectations about what God would do.
But things didn’t happen exactly like I thought they would… We would walk an average of six miles a day to get down to where all of the people were, but most of the locals were very closed off to us and would not even respond if we greeted them on the road as we were walking and basically wanted nothing to do with us. We started a free yoga class on the beach so we could meet more people and no one would join us. I would sit on a bench and pray for the people and the city and maybe have two conversations with people all day. It was so frustrating! I felt like after all that God had orchestrated to get us to Split that He would have more for us. I realize now that it is all about perspective, and while I was in Croatia I was looking at things from an earthly perspective instead of a heavenly one. Looking back I can see all of the ways that God worked through us, it just looked different than what I thought it would.
We found out that there are only three Christian churches in Split. The pastor at the Baptist Church that we reached out to had a huge heart and burden for his people and the community, but was feeling burnt out and discouraged. The pastor asked us to lead worship at the church and share our testimonies and they were encouraged by what we had to share. Everyone at the church were completely different from the other Croatians we had met and were very welcoming and excited to get to know us. One lady invited all seven of us over to her house for tea and cake twice and showed us some of her favorite places to walk near her house. She is the only Christian in her family and was very lonely and it was such a gift that we got to walk along side her and encourage her. Another woman was a retired English teacher and she just really needed a friend that would care and listen to all of her stories. My teammate, Vanessa, and I got to spend an afternoon walking and swimming with her and I could tell that it meant a lot that we wanted to spend time with her.
Vanessa was also able to share life with the little granny and her family next door and tell them about Jesus. Then on one of our off days Vanessa met an American woman that had been praying for God to reveal himself to her and then the very next day she met us and we shared Jesus with her. Another teammate, Amber, prayed for an elderly lady that had severe pain in her knee and God completely healed her. It was amazing!! Some of my teammates and I got to hang out with some of the young people from the youth group and watch Croatia play in the World Cup. We even got to attend a chello concert that the pastor’s daughter played in. Our time in Split ended up being really good, but it was nothing like what I thought it would be.
I learned to love and see the people that God puts in front of me, and that it is worth it even if it is just one person. Even though we weren’t super busy and productive every day in the way I was hoping, God still worked through us to bring His light to that dark corner of the world, and reminded the church how much he loves them by sending us to encourage them.
Please keep Split, Croatia in your prayers. It is a very lonely and difficult place for the Christians there, but God is still moving and He has all of them in His hands.
In Him,
Heidi
