Do you ever find when driving down the road that you come up to a detour that you just don’t trust it? Like maybe the people who are constructing the roads might not actually know what they’re talking about, and I should find my own better and faster way around. The stress level rises as Siri spouts off “rerouting… rerouting” while the roads tend to go farther and further outside of what’s familiar, the drive time increases, and it takes forever to finally see something you recognize. I hate detours like that. Especially if I’m in a hurry. But then again, I have to trust that those construction workers didn’t move the cones and signs for fun… the detour had to exist for good reason.
When I first saw this route on the race, Serbia was THEE country I was most excited for. My answer for why is short – I really had no idea and I still don’t. Out of all the countries in the world and all the countries on my route, my whole heart was prepared for Serbia. I prayed into it and still had little reason to be so emotional, but all the feels were there. Could not wait. We switched teams in Peru and found out that we would be together through most of Europe, which was great until we found out that Rodolfo had a few visa issues coming up. He knew that Serbia might be troublesome, but we prayed and prayed, expectant for God to work miracles and provide us with some incredible testimony of how we got an El Salvadorian and three Americans into Serbia to share Jesus and initiate revival and save all the souls! Okay maybe not all that, but we were stoked to see what would happen when we finally got through and got there. In fact the LoRd had other plans… his visa was withheld.
Surely there was a mistake. Either I was on the wrong team or there was a mistake in all the visa paperwork… something! How could I be so excited for one country on the race and not get to go? Although disappointment sunk in, throughout Spain we had precisely 136 miles of walk time to think and pray on it, but we rallied together as a team in support of one another with encouragement and hope for something better to be revealed. When we got to the end of the Camino, our team decided to reroute through Croatia and maybe even split our time between there and Bosnia Herzegovina. We had barely researched our new countries but had plenty of time to mentally prepare while embarking on a three day bus journey from Burgos to Barcelona, through southern France, northern Italy, all of Slovenia, and through to Zagreb, Croatia.
(I’d say my one piece of advice to any inquiring travelers is to avoid all bus rides if they’re over 8 hours because of the smells, the motion sickness, the sleep depravity, the abrupt border crossings, the strange bus-mates, and the incessant smoke breaks, the four hour layovers in the middle of the night, etc., but some of the most insanely beautiful bits of God’s creation can only be seen traveling this way! And this is where some of the best stories come from. Don’t skip the journey – stink and all:) )
Before going into Croatia you should know that as a team, we had asked the LoRd for a time of rest after the Camino. We did all we could to keep up after partnering with a church in Cusco, befriending a refugee couple from Venezuela in Lima, spending time with the squad upon arrival in Barcelona, and walking alongside people from everywhere in the northern parts of Spain. After a few days in the capital city, we booked an Air BnB just outside of Zadar, a beautiful city on the coast! We arrived in a little neighborhood where every house looked the same, just painted a different neon, bright color. We were far enough out of the city that very few people spoke any English and in a neighborhood that was difficult to connect in. We found the people of Croatia to be quite cold and sick of tourists. The grocery store was a few miles walk and the coast was farther yet. There were some neighborhood kids that we got to play soccer with, but those ten days were the longest ten days of the race for me so far.
The LoRd brought us to a place where we were disconnected, we struggled to find tangible ministry, and He was allowing us to REST.
I struggled as a well-intentioned missionary, feeling responsible to team, to Jesus, and to my supporters for doing more, but not hearing anything clearly about the more we “should” be doing. It was hard to watch so much happen at home knowing that not only was I unable to help do and fix, but I was missing big things like Keaton Paul’s and Diana’s graduations from high school and college. I was missing other friends’ graduations, baby births, and bachelorette parties. In the middle of wishing I could be somewhere doing or fixing something, a friend shared that “sometimes the LoRd brings the doers and the fixers, the movers and the shakers to quiet places to be reminded of Who’s actually doing the doing and the fixing.” That stuck.
That time in Croatia ended up being a tremendous time of wrestling a few things out with the LoRd. It was a perfect time to learn more about and practice fighting battles from the posture of prayer while interceding for people I couldn’t physically be beside. He helped me understand the difference between sitting around doing nothing and resting well in Him both spiritually, physically, and emotionally. And it was also a great time of preparation for the next season. We decided to move to Bosnia and Herzegovina for the last two weeks before meeting the rest of the squad up in Montenegro where we will be switching countries, switching roles, and switching teams. Though it was a long, frustrating, and seemingly unnecessary reroute, the LoRd had a lot to be learned through that time. I still don’t know why I was so excited for Serbia or why our team wasn’t able to go, perhaps I’ll get a chance in the future or before we leave, but I’ve decided to trust Him through the detour. What a joy it has been to continue learning what it is to walk in a relationship with Jesus Christ, apply what I’ve learned, and live it out every single day.
Stay tuned for a blog about our time in Bosnia/Herzegovina. It may be shaping up to be one of my favorite countries so far on the race!
