Okie dokie so this month P Squad is having a little healthy competition. We are competing to see which team can blog the most in the month of April. This being said I have decided to post more regularly, maybe about 3 times a week. My thinking is to make my blog more like a journal, this way y’all can have more insight into what daily life is like for me and my team. I will be keeping the length short and sweet, around a paragraph or two at the most. Please feel free to ask questions about things you want to know! I may not be thinking of the same things that you want to know but I would love to tell you about anything you want.
So let me catch you up real quick on what has happened in this past week. My team (Team Avengers) and another team on our squad (Team Lioness) are partnered together this month in Sombor, Serbia with a church here. We arrived on April 3rd. The past couple of days we have been settling in and getting to know our wonderful hosts and the community around us.
This will be our rough schedule Tuesday through Saturday: (Sunday and Mondays = days off)
8:30 – Team Avengers morning prayer (I will be leading this for the team this month)
9:00 – Meeting with Zoli, our host
9:15-10:30 – Prayer Walk
11:00-2:00 – Practical Work
2:00-6:00 – Free Time
6:00-7:00 – Team time
7:00-10:00 – Café Ministry (there is a coffee bar at the church that is open for fellowship)
**On the Race we never expect things to go as planned, there is always something new and different that pops up. But also having a tentative schedule is highly valued!**
To understand more about what we are going to be doing this month first you need to know more about Serbian culture. The main religion here is Eastern Orthodox. Now I do not know much about their foundation of beliefs but one main barrier that the Christian church runs into here is the Orthodox believes we are a cult. If people hear about Jesus and then go and talk to their priest about it they will be quickly informed that what they have heard are lies spread by a cult. There is a belief that inside churches are dangerous. People here are superstitious and believe in witchcraft.
This being said our focus for the month is to build relationships with people outside of the church in our daily lives. Zoli is very intentional with helping us find a way to plug into the community with something we are passionate about so we are able to build those relationships quickly and easily. Then with consistency and intentionality in building relationships we would invite them to come to fellowship at the coffee bar at church and introduce them to Zoli and his family. Helping them get in the door of the church is a huge step because once they are inside they can see there nothing abnormal about it and that it is a fun and safe place to be. Overall long term relationship is of high value so we can gain the respect and the right to talk with them about their beliefs. It is hard to start talking about something so deeply rooted in fear when you first meet someone, building trust is essential.
It is new to encounter these strongly held values against Jesus and His church. I am looking forward to see how we can partner with the Holy Spirit to bring more light into this town than before.
Stay tuned for more about life in Serbia.
Martha Kuhn
Prayer Warriors:
- I am praying that myself and my teammates would all find our niche here in Serbia and be obedient to what the Lord has for us this month to make His name bigger.
- I pray over the community and the people that we meet that their ears would be open and their hearts softened to the name of Jesus.
