Today was long, hard, and fruitful. I left early this morning with a few other squad/teammates to head out to a village a couple hours away. All I knew about the agenda for the day is that I would be helping to fix the roof of a home. When we got there, I learned it’s actually a Gypsie village. At the particular home we were fixing, there were three young women living there with their children, 10 combined. I got to help take apart some of the roof that was caving in, and then the kiddos started to show up. One of the children in that house has special needs, and I got to spend a couple hours passing around a soccer ball and playing monkey-in-the-middle with her while we waited for tools. Soon after we got the tools, we heard shouting from a few houses down. A fight had broken out, and one of the men in the village had been hit in the head with an ax. Fortunately, he caught the wrong and end just above his eye and had a decent gash and amount of blood, but still had his eye. Unfortunately, he had been hit so hard he was clearly concussed. The man we were fixing the roof with had me and another teammate help him take the man to the doctor.
After being there for a bit the man was seen, and my teammate and I walked down the street to the church where we were having lunch. There they have a daily soup kitchen for lunch where they feed some of the gypsies from the surrounding villages as well as some other families. We got to sit and eat with them, play with the kids again, and meet some of the people who work at the church. From there we went to the house of a regular church family where we got to meet the family, fellowship, and listen to a couple worship songs. Afterwards, while they had a Bible study in serbian, we got to play with the kids of from the community. I had my hair done by a 4 year old, learned a new game similar to handball, and got to play soccer with a couple of the boys.
All in all, at the end of the day we had fixed the roof, eaten with the lost, done our best to heal the broken, and played with enough kids to cure my baby fever for a solid few weeks. It was a very long day and one I would choose to do over and over again if I could. I got to see these people today through God’s eyes, and my heart breaks for how much He loves them and how much He wants them home. Even if it’s just through a little smile or a game of soccer, I’m glad we got to help bring light to their day.
Still untangling knots in my hair,
Sum
