I want to begin this blog by saying that when my team all started this time together in Europe we all felt that God had two important words for us, which were to trust Him and have faith with everything we do and to have fun encountering really amazing things together as well. I hope to share with you the ways we have had to really trust God in our whole journey together and I hope this blog really shows you what my life has been like.
The first thing that I’ll mention is when my team “Chimichanga” all decided as a team to travel to Ohrid, Macedonia for 8 days and I have to say that my time there was absolutely amazing. It was cool because God gave us that destination while we were in Sofia, Bulgaria, which was when we all met up together towards the end of our time there one night and we all prayed about the next place and then started “Stage 1”, which was when we looked at the map and found the three closets countries near Sofia that we all felt were possibilities. Those three choices were Romania, Serbia, and Macedonia. We then all wrote the 3 country names on a piece of paper and put them in a hat. We then all prayed again and after that Hunter put his hand in the hat and all 6 of us agreed that the destination was supposed to be in Ohrid, Macedonia. It was an amazing feeling and I trusted and had faith that God was going to do some amazing things there as well and I was excited to be going to a beautiful place.
When my team arrived to Ohrid, we finally found the AirBnB house that we were renting and we were excited to be there because it was pretty much impossible to find at first and we actually needed to have someone help us find it. Then when we found it, we walked into it and the moment I arrived, I truly felt like God had everything in His hands and that He knew the reason why we were there and I was was ready to explore all of the things in the area that I was in because it was something that I felt could be my best month yet. It was also extremely cool that one of my old teammates, Jacob from the first 6 months on my “Guarder’s of Heartz” team was squad leading my group for that time and I knew it was really good for me to have him there for the time of transition into my new team. I was ready to see what type of stuff he would do with us.
Then the next day we all decided to travel into more of the town area where there were some restaurants and stores and I also wanted to check out the most beautiful and pure looking lake that I have ever seen called “Lake Ohrid” and I’m glad that we did that. While we were there we actually ended up talking to a guy who took people on boating tours around the lake and we all felt like we wanted to do it for my birthday gift, which was my best birthday yet. In fact, they actually surprised me with a birthday cake and a lot of Oreos that I really enjoy and Emily started to create a rap song for me, which was so touching that I will never forget it and will always be able to share that moment with them.
We also got to watch the final women’s soccer World Cup game on television because my team really connected with a bar in that same center area of Ohid and I loved that time too bonding over the sport and I have to say that it was an amazing experience.
The last thing that I did while I was in Ohrid that I wouldn’t have been able to do if my team didn’t trust God with the place was that I got to visit a fortress as a team and experience the amazing view from there and I really enjoyed that time with them because it allowed us connect really well as a team. Then a few of us decided to go jump of a cliff (I did it too) and I have to say that it was a very high jump, but it was very fun and I’m glad that I was able to do that and I hope to go back there again and do all of those fun things that I did with them with some of my other friends and family members and even stay for a few weeks and show them all of the awesome experiences there.
I will now mention to you about how we chose our next location “Stage 2”, which was a time where my felt that we needed to fully trust God to show up in the next place and I felt like we needed to really lean on His direction for it. Towards the end of our time in Ohrid, we all decided to look for all of the places near Ohrid and then we took a day to pray to God about where it was and we asked Him what we were supposed to do next. During that time of prayer, my team all agreed on feeling like we were supposed to go to a place in Montenegro and during that time we were thinking Budva because we heard it was a nice beach location and was really well known for Montenegro, but God gave me other plans for us. He said to me, “Daniel I want you and your team to stay in the next location for 5 days in a home and you need to trust me with what the time there will be like.” Then I told the rest of my team about what God had mentioned to me and after we all discussed it together we ended up finding housing in Bar, but we didn’t find any of it in Budva at all in our budget, so after we thought about it some more we eventually went with my idea, which was awesome.
The reason why I say this is because as we were staying in our AirBnB house, my teammate Hunter met a young couple who lives in the room below ours and they were from Serbia. Their names are Milos and Sofija and right when we met them I knew that we were supposed to encourage them and spend some time with them as well, which is what we ended up doing. I’ll now explain to you some of those experiences that we had with them.
The first one was when we connected with them, my team felt like we wanted to invite the two of them to the beach that was walking distance from the house we were staying because we all felt like that time with them was going to be impactful for us all and it would allow us to be able to get to know them more and we could really become really good friends with them. In fact, when I arrived to the beach I actually didn’t know where they were at first because I decided to eat a cheeseburger at a local store and before I went to it I forgot to ask them where they were going to sit at, so after a long time of being confused I decided that I needed to ask and trust the Lord with wherever they were. Then after thinking about the possibilities for the place for 30 minutes, I decided to walk down the beach to look for them. Then as I was getting tired of walking, some of the team said, “Hey Daniel.” and it was at that moment that I was thrilled to see them. Then I went swimming in the water with them and I had a really good conversation with them as well, which was really good.
We then got told by Sofija that her birthday was that weekend, but we were leaving before then, so my whole team decided to help surprise her with a “cake” and we also both got to share some American food and she gave us some Serbian food to try, which was really good.
As we were having the party we impacted her so much that she even started crying from all of the tears of joy that she had for us doing that for her and she said to us, “This is the nicest and best birthday party I’ve ever had because it has been like 7 years since I last celebrated my birthday with other people.”, which to me felt really good and kind of made me realize how important it was for her.
The last amazing thing that God did was that He sent us to Budva with both of them for a day and it happened to be on the fifth (last) day that we were going to be there. I was excited because even though we didn’t get to stay in Budva we still got to enjoy it with new friends of ours and have a meal together and just enjoy our day together. I’m so glad that God went before us even when we didn’t understand why we only had housing in Bar and I’m glad that the others trusted me and that God allowed us to explore both places and I look forward to adventuring those areas again someday.
We then had to decide on the next location and we decided to try and go to Split, Croatia because if we were able to stay there, we would be able to travel to our next destination easier than if we went somewhere else in Europe and also because a lot of my team felt that Croatia was the next place for us to be at, so I trusted their decisions with it and was okay with it. We then did as we always do with housing and went to look for housing in our budget on AirBnB and on Hostelworld and when we looked on them, we found absolutely nothing at all and we really felt like we were supposed to be there and believed that God would provide for us to live there, so then we decided to think of other options as well. What was interesting was that we ended up finding an opportunity to hand out flyers for a bar crawl through an app called HelpX and it was nice because we got free lodging for the 10 days we were going to be there. We all felt like it was a good opportunity to help people find Jesus even though it would be challenging as well.
I’ll now also tell you about what I learned from the experience that I can take with me to the rest of Race and also to my future relationships with others. From this time with the bar I learned that when you want to talk to someone and get someone’s attention, get to know the person and be friendly like by asking where people are from and just general things you like to do in life like sports and music for me and just be willing to have a conversation with other people. This experience also taught me how to be bold when I am trying to get people to do something because I feel like that it is a skill that I can use when I spread Jesus’ name around the world. It will be a time where I’ll now be able to talk to people without being concerned about what they might think of me and if I get denied from it, it won’t bother me now. I’m glad that I could grow in this a lot because it was helpful for me.
I also found that sometimes when you are doing ministry, you won’t necessarily like fully what you do or even understand why you are doing it until after the time is up. I realized that while we were there we weren’t just handing out flyers to get a place to stay, which was really nice to have, but it was because we got to interact and help some of the bar workers and even created a positive environment for them. In fact, my teammate Hunter who connected with them a lot, saw some of them and they told him that they’ll miss him and “The Americans.”, which made me very happy when we were leaving Split. If I’m ever around that area again, I hope to see the workers in the bar and just have a good time with them and I’m glad that I got to experience this difficult opportunity that we got. Here’s to knowing that Jesus will move in that even more now.
The last place that we had to trust God with was when we decided to travel to Turin, Italy, which the housing situation was like when we were in Split. However, we were actually pretty lucky that Ana had a friend named Fernando and she met her in Mexico City a few months before the Race started and they kept in communication and she told us that we were allowed to stay with her for some time, so that’s what we did. When we arrived to the apartment, we unloaded our stuff and a couple of us decided to go to the local fruit market and some vegetables too, which was really cool. We then started to talk to Fernanda and found out that she was kind of feeling alone because all of her friends and family are back in Mexico, so it was there perfect time for us to visit her. However, we were only able to stay there for 8 days because her landlord told her we couldn’t stay any longer, which we were disappointed about because she was fun to be with. I was glad to get to know her for the time that we did and I will visit her again and show whoever’s with me “The Church of The Shroud” as well, because it was just so interesting and cool to see and there were many other things I also want to see more in Turin. I believe God is going to bring me back, so I can experience even more great things.
In the end, you can see how God helped my team when we decided to trust Him and His decisions for our plans and I know that none of this would be humanly possible without His guidance in everything we did. As we continue on the Camino, I believe that I’ll get even more of these types of divine connections and I trust that God will go before us and make His path straight with all that we do during this 13 day hiking journey. Please pray for my team and I as we continue to use the things that God has gifted us with every single day. I’m so glad that I can trust God because He is always good for me. Here’s to more of God and less of me.
