Kamaneri, Montenegro - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Hello hello! We just finished a restful debrief in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Heres a brief recap of the rest of the time in Montenegro. It’s a longer blog, but worth the read in my opinion…

The next stop after Montenegro debrief was a small fishing village located across the water from Tivat, called Kamaneri. While Alex was in the hospital, she met a local pastor and his friends who had a place for us to stay. Staying with them allowed us to stay in the area, visit Alex and we also got to know Joel, Nicola, Huso and Devla, some of the most amazing people I’ve met.

As I’ve been traveling the world, it has been amazing seeing His hand in all the people He has crossed our paths with. Joel and his friends Huso and Devla were no different. I was blessed by their testimonies, their love and seeing their relationship with the Lord.

Huso is quiet man but a jokester. The first thing he said to me was its not good to be serious all the time. I knew we’d get along just fine.

Our time with them was incredible. Joel poured into us so much. He had been living and carrying out the Great Commission for almost 30 years in different parts of Europe. What an honor it was to partner with him and take note of how he “did missions” in the Balkans and his passions for the locals and for Christ. Joel also gave us the grand tour of Kamaneri and the areas surrounding. It was awesome hearing the history of the fascinating land.

During our time with them, we met a few of the locals, shared testimonies at church, poured into one young man with autism through many nights of basketball, and helped prepare the house for family coming into town. We continued going back and forth to visit Alex, worship and pray into what the next season would look like.

One day Delva shared her testimony of coming to Christ and it was absolutely incredible.

Here is a summarized version of Devla’s story.

Devla lived a good life growing up by the world’s standard. She was a good student that led to a good job at a hospital in Sarajevo . She then became the best nurse there. She had perfect health, perfect job, perfect love but she felt empty. Her and Huso (her husband) moved to Libya where they were also very successful. They had a large house, servants working inside and outside of the house. They had everything, but there was still an emptiness.

They returned Sarajevo where they opened up a restaurant. Their restaurant was a huge success. Everyone loved it. They had top of the top people from the hospital and government dining at their restaurant. She was so connected she had friends everywhere… government and hospital you name it.

In 1992, the war came to Sarajevo. Their restaurant had a large store room filled with reserve food and coffee. One day her and Huso went to the restaurant and they saw that their reserve was gone. It wasn’t stolen by the soldiers, but by her friends that lived above and around it. She kind and gentle though because she knew all the markets had closed and their were no places to buy anything.

As the war continued, her family came to stay with them. 17 people lived in a tiny apartment. The water, electricity were shut off and roads were closed and there wasn’t a lot of food left.

Her husband would go out in the morning and come back in the evening with the necessities he could find. At that time she didn’t know how he kept doing it and coming back with items, but she now sees the Lord’s hand in the provision. They lived on soup and whatever they could cook up. Her husband would also walk 8 km for water dodging sniper fire and grenades for 10 liters of water. God continued to protect and provide for them. She noticed older people who weren’t able to make the walk for water and her heart went out to them. She shared her limited water supply with them. With the war raging around them, everyday goods like oil and sugar went from being 1 euro to 50 euros for a liter of oil or bag of sugar. The people who stole from the reserve asked her to use the gas they had for cooking in the restaurant. She said yes and allowed them to use it.

The war ended and they were able to start rebuilding their life. The war had claimed a couple lives of her family members. She began having pain in shoulder. There was a tumor and after several operations the doctor told her she had roughly 3 months to live.

At this time Devla allowed her husband and son to visit her in the hospital, but no one else. However, one day a woman came to visit her and told her that the Lord loves her and that she will live. She was from a church in Sarajevo and people were praying for her and invited her to come visit when she got out of the hospital. The woman didn’t give her anything to read or anything, but Devla was touched by her words. She was also confused though, so many atrocities had been done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ during the Baltic War. Was this the same Jesus?

Time passed and she was released from the hospital. She found a job working with an Italian company. One Sunday morning during her and Huso’s daily coffee time, they decided they would go to visit their parents since they had gone their separate ways after the war. As she was getting ready, she heard the Lord say go to the House of Prayer in Sarajevo, the church the woman who visited her in the hospital mentioned. She told Huso about it and he was very surprised at the change of plans, but they went.

When they arrived, she walked into the service was overwhelmed. She started crying at the sight of the people standing and worshipping and singing. She hadn’t sung in her life because of the emptiness and tragedy in her life. She didn’t remember any of the sermon, but remembers feeling the Lord’s presence.

A lady introduced herself to Huso and Devla asked if they wanted to get coffee. Devla continued meeting with her and joined a bible study with her. During that time she received new life. She started using her work as a mission field to share the gospel. After 6 months she was baptized and accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She was finally full and satisfied. She told us, “The joy I received when Jesus entered my heart cannot compare to anything in this life.” She adds, “The Lord chose me and had a plan for me and nothing was impossible with Him. He saved me from sin, gave me new life and gave me a heart of forgiveness. You can’t live with Jesus in your heart if you have bitterness. No what happened in you past, its important that we”re new in Jesus.”

She then went to her mother to ask her for forgiveness and her mother was shocked. Devla also forgave those who killed her family members, those who stole from the reserve, those who turned off the water, electricity and who closed the street.

Her and Huso left their job to start a church in Sarajevo. They prayed for a pastor and the Lord sent Joel and Nicola.

Now they live quietly in Montenegro and continue to host travelers, friends and family and love those in their community. Hearing her testimony and her stories of experiencing the Father’s love has encouraged me greatly in my walk. I cannot wait to see them again.

What I enjoyed most about Devla’s testimony was her relationship with the Lord and the complete trust she had in Him and how well she loved those around her. We were sitting around talking with her one afternoon and she said her famous line of, “The Lord is so good, He is so good.” We smiled and agreed with that in fact He is very good. She continued with telling us how her family had contacted her recently saying they were coming for a visit. She was very excited, but the excitement turned to worry because she would have to get the numerous rooms ready in a very short time. Her family would be arriving soon and she didn’t have enough time to clean all the rooms, bathrooms and hallways.

During her time with the Lord, she shared her excitement of seeing her family, but worry of not getting everything ready and she asked Him for help with cleaning. She knew we were upstairs but had reservations of asking us due to our schedule and not wanting to interrupt. What was so cool was the Lord put to serve and love Huso and Devla on our hearts and when she came up to ask about helping out we were like heck yes. We spent the afternoon cleaning downstairs. I haven’t cleaned like that since Williamson and I was super thankful for the skills I picked up from my time there. I stopped using the word coincidence while being on the race because so many divine appointments were happening and instead of giving the credit to chance, acknowledging the subtle ways God was impacting my life and the lives of those around me. This story shows me the faithfulness of the Father and the love He has for His children. It blows my mind that He’ll send 7 people around the world, specifically to Montenegro during that time to help Delva prepare her house for her family. I was honored being a part of His intricate plan of providing for those who need Him.

Devla also loved people so well. She told us a story of her befriending a bunch of children that lived near her work place. She just loved them like Jesus loved them. She was intentional with them and built relationships with them. During her time with the children, she noticed that many of them needed dental work. She made some calls and after some time a group of dentists came to clean the kid’s teeth for free. By Delva being intentional and loving these kids, she created a ministry opportunity for the dentists who otherwise would have never known of the need for them and wouldn’t have come to help out. Simple obedience to loving those around her led to the children and dentists being blessed.

Church in Montenegro looked a lot different then church in the states, but it was one of my favorite services all race. We had service in the upstairs of Delvas’ place where we were staying. It was a room with a bunch of fold up chairs, we sung a cappella and there wasn’t more than 20 of us there but it was amazing. We went around the room and shared testimonies of our lives, what the Lord was doing currently and praying for each other. I was blessed to be a part of it. I shared the part of my testimony when I was hesitant to do the World Race because of the financial aspect of it and having to ask for support. What challenged me greatly was Doug and his friend whose name is eluding me were in town. They’re missionaries in the Balkans living out the great commission but with very very little. They walked into the service with just the backpack on their back on their way to the next location after the service.

During the service the topic of financial provision and trust in Him came up. This was big for me because I have different parts of my life where I trust God more than others. The area of finances is one of those places where I trust Him less. Its been a sweet process on the race of Him breaking me down in this area and encouraging me to trust Him completely with my finances. The money is His in the first place, its just my job to steward it well and give to those in need. I’ve been humbled by so many people’s willing to give to me in the fundraising process and even on the race. Doug went onto tell us a story about how the Lord asked Him to give some money to someone.

At this time, Doug didn’t have a lot of money, but he still gave it away. Wondering what he was going to do next, he turned home and stopped at his mailbox. There in the mailbox was a letter from the government saying they messed up with his financials and sent the money that was withheld. He had no clue there was a mistake and had no expectation of this money, but he had no doubt that the Lord would provide for him. He left us with, “You can’t out give God, He’ll repay you with more you can imagine.” I think it so true, there is no shortage of funds in God’s economy, He is always faithful to provide. I was challenged by this story to give more. But not to give expecting a reward, but to give out of obedience and trust in Him.

Serbia blog coming sooner than later! Hopefully…

We had a team change in Chiang Mai, the new team is Haley, Wade Christazia and myself. We’ll finish the race together. Prayers for pressing in as team early on and running strong till the end are appreciated. Thank you!