Zadar, Croatia - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Zdravo!

We just finished up our month in Montenegro and we’re currently in Nis, Serbia for several days. After Nis, we will proceed to Bulgaria and from Bulgaria to Istanbul, Turkey to fly to Indonesia. Indonesia wasn’t originally on our route, but due to logistical reasons we will be spending some time there. I cannot believe how fast our time in Eastern Europe has gone. I have enjoyed it greatly and without further ado the first country… Croatia.

After El Camino de Santiago, we bused back to Barcelona and from there we had a 30 something hour bus ride to Zagreb, Croatia. If you can avoid being on a bus for 30 something hours, I’d highly recommend it. Serbia was our next country, but due to a visa issue we could not enter at that time. We spent about a day an a half in Zagreb before we made our way to Zadar where we stayed for a week and a half. Team Philly Philly had been going non stop since the team change in South America and the team had asked the Lord for a time of rest and to slow down.

Croatia was the first country where Rodolfo’s and my Spanish didn’t get us very far. We started to learn the key words, but we were missing the Spanish language.

For me, my time in Croatia was slow. It was restful, but I started to grow restless. Our Airbnb where we were staying was located in a neighborhood 2.5 miles from Old Town Zadar and few people spoke English. It was difficult to connect with people or find tangible ministry. We contacted volunteer agencies and asked our Airbnb hosts if they needed anything done, but nothing came up.

In the words of my teammate Haley… “The Lord brought us to a place where were disconnected, we struggled to find tangible ministry, and He was allowing us to rest.”

Weeks after leaving Croatia, as a team we reflected on our time there and some of our teammates found some great rest in Zadar. I was encouraged to see God’s heart in providing rest for those individuals and for me personally He helped me redefine my definition of ministry.

“I feel like I’m on a vacation”, I said to one of my squad leaders. I felt guilty because people paid money for me to travel the world and serve others in Jesus’ name and all we did that day was eat breakfast, have Bible study, go to the grocery store, eat late lunch, team time and dinner. She told me about her race last year and how there were seasons where ministry slowed down and the team had time to rest. She then told me that God gave the team time to rest because the next season would be full of ministry and it would get busy.

Slowly my perspective began to change, I realized I was trying to kick down doors looking for ministries and things to do when God just wanted us to take it slow, rest and spend time as a team.

My view of what ministry looked like changed in Eastern Europe as well. I had a really close-minded perspective on what missions consisted of. For me ministry on missions trips looked like building schools, distributing water filters, having VBS or coaching soccer.

These are all great things that I loved doing. However ministry in Eastern Europe didn’t look like that because there wasn’t that same need. The common need all over the world is Jesus.

There’s a quote that was shared with us at training camp that says, “Life is ministry and ministry is life.” It was so over said it didn’t mean much to me. However when it was said several months later and it finally clicked for me.

We were asked to define ministry and I wrote: Loving people the way Jesus did and bringing God’s kingdom to earth. We don’t have to be overseas or on a mission trip to do ministry. We just need to be available and interruptible.

When we look at Jesus’s ministry, He didn’t have a rigid itinerary. He just loved the people in front of Him. Jesus sat with people, walked with people, ate with people and built relationships with people.

“When people asked Jesus for a plan. He reminded them about their purpose. Love God and the person next to you.” – Bob Goff

I like production so when I hear about trips that have a set goal and schedule I gravitate to those. But after 6 months with Fusion and not having ministries it’s cool seeing who’s on Gods heart on a daily basis and also giving up that control and desire to do do do and instead seek and trust Him.

One of my favorite memories from Zadar was meeting Antonio and his furry dog friends. One morning we stepped outside to prayer walk the neighborhood and go to the park. We had a soccer ball and Rodolfo and I were passing the ball back and forth and out of nowhere comes a fluffy white dog chasing after the ball. We start playing keep away with it and then Antonio the owner comes over to watch. We included him in the passing and it turned into a keep away triangle. After his pup had his fill we introduced ourselves to Antonio and got to know him the best we could with the language barrier. He had played soccer back in the day and enjoys walking his dogs.

Another one was playing soccer with the neighborhood kids one night. Rodolfo and I walked over to the lit up soccer field and asked some of the youth if they wanted to play. They gave us the work and Dominic put me on skates but it was a blast, laughing and playing the beautiful game despite the language barrier.

My final memory is probably my favorite. The house right next to us we had seen kids playing soccer with makeshift goals. Walking past it going to and from the store we noticed a soccer goal made of wood that had fallen apart. We decided to attempt to fix it but there was one slight problem. None of us were carrying a hammer and nails in our backpack. We went upstairs to ask our hosts if they had any hammers or nails that we could use to reassemble the goal. They came down with a mallet and machinist hammer with a couple nails and some screws. For being on the World Race that was pretty good and we could make it work. Haley and Chris played games with the kids as Rodolfo and I worked on the goal. We were able to get the goal standing and let the kids loose on it. It was a fun evening of kicking the ball around, laughing with kids and attempting to learn Croatian which got them laughing even more.

Stay tuned for a blog about Bosnia & Herzegovina…

Please be praying for…

Traveling mercies for upcoming travel days

Funding for those who still need it

Healing for Alex’s and Josh’s injuries

For seeds to be planted in Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro & Serbia