Serbia would be our last month with a host for the race. We were partnered with a church called Protestant Christian Fellowship in Sombor, Serbia which is up near the Hungarian and Croatian borders.
At this ministry, our goal was to build relationships and encourage the church. We met every morning with our host to discuss the day ahead, pray and worship together. Then we would all go out for a prayer walk to cover the town in prayer.
Sombor had a heaviness in the air that is hard to describe. People seemed to lack joy and the atmosphere seemed to lack life. The spiritual oppression was tangible and interceding for the city was something our host felt was a very important part of our ministry.
Sometimes we would pray out loud in pairs, silently on solo walks or we would go sit in the orthodox churches or catholic cathedrals and pray over the men and women who would fill the pews each week and pray that they would look past religious tradition and see the truth of the person of Jesus and seek out relationship with him.
In Serbia, only 1% of the nation are evangelical christians. This means that 99% of the 7.2 million people in Serbia don’t believe that they can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ because of what he did for us on the cross and very few people are telling them about it. This country needs Jesus and the hope that He offers which means it needs more missionaries to come and proclaim His name.
After our prayer walks we would come back to the church for practical ministry delegated by our host, Zoli. This looked like cleaning out the church’s garage, staining furniture for the church, painting a mural in the backyard, upgrading the church’s social media platforms, and other miscellaneous tasks to serve the church well.
Once our practical ministry was completed, we had the opportunity to out into town and frequent our favorite coffee shops or markets and seek to build relationships with people we would see consistently. Some of our team even went to the gym at the same time every day and became good friends with the owner.
In the evenings, we would invite those we met during the day to coffee club. At coffee club, the church opens its doors to the community and anyone and everyone was welcome to stop by and grab a freshly made espresso, enjoy a game of ping pong or jenga, and have discussions with us. We played sports in the backyard, tons of card games and ping pong matches. This opportunity was appealing to the locals because they were interested in getting to know the Americans and enjoyed practicing their English with us. We hosted coffee club every evening except for our off days, so we were able to have good discussions about our lives, families, jobs, faith, and so much more.
On Sundays, we helped to lead worship, shared testimonies and sermons and prayed with the congregation. Then had off that afternoon and all day on Mondays.
We spent off days watching movies, lounging around, getting wifi at coffee shops, and we even took a day trip to Budapest, Hungary. Budapest is such a cool city with a lot of history. Highly recommend a visit there if you’re in the Eastern European region.
I also started running again this month which took me into some beautiful parts of Serbia. Down by the canal, through farms, on back roads that reminded me of home, and through the city.
We stayed in the upstairs children’s area of the church, with nine girls in one room with our sleeping pads lined up along side one another and the other three girls in a separate room. The guys set up their sleeping pads in the church’s sanctuary, which they cleared out every Sunday morning before church. We shared one shower among twelve girls and four boys, which surprisingly never really got that backed up.
Food this month was prepared by us in the church’s kitchen which allowed many of us who liked to cook the opportunity to make our favorite dishes for our teams. Local food I enjoyed was Byrek, Serbian burgers and Gelato.
Serbia ended up being the hardest month for me on the race. I had trouble connecting with the locals and had a lot of personal stuff going on. God still showed up in big ways even when I didn’t feel super close to him or super passionate about what I was doing in this country for His kingdom.
Some highlights for me was hanging out with our local friends, Nicola and Ivan, exploring around town. Getting to hang out with our host’s daughter who I enjoyed spending time with. A movie night we hosted and played “Case for Christ” and a bonfire we put on at the end of the month to say farewell to all of our new friends.
. . .
I’ll miss my long runs through the outskirts of town and down by the canal.
I’ll miss spending time in the backyard playing sports or spending time with squadmates.
I’ll miss playing games at coffee club and having fruitful discussions with the locals.
I’ll miss worshipping in the morning with our teams.
Songs that remind me of this month are:
- Better by Pat Barrett
- Multiplied by Needtobreathe
- Prophesy your promise by Bryan and Katie Torwalt
Want to know more? Ask me about:
- When God answered a prayer in a big way
- The card games I played this month
- How I set up for my first job interview
