We arrived in Novi Sad, Serbia last night! The people here have been warm and welcoming.
When my team and I were in New York and Norway, I joked about if I lost my bag I would just simply laugh. Only because we had long travel days at those points.
Well y’all, I really did lose my bag. Four from my squad including my squad leader realized the airlines had misplaced our bags and weren’t quite sure where they got left behind.
When I counted the bags and didn’t see my braided bandana tag on any of the large black backpacks, it slowly dawned on me this wasn’t a drill. It really was gone. This really does happen. That practice at training in Georgia in August is now the real deal..
Welcome to the World Race. Welcome to month one.
When something doesn’t go ideal or like we want, we have options on how we are going to react. I could have got angry, cried, started blaming, or feeling sorry for myself. Those all made “sense” in the grand scheme of things.
But I know God asks of me to a higher place than what makes “sense”.
Internally, I felt at first this sinking exasperation but then I thought “okay, let’s go. This is just the beginning of a year of scenarios that will be less than ideal and will challenge me. This won’t deter me.” I really did laugh too.
We lose things. I know what it is like on a deeper level for things to fall a part or the plan to not go as it was meant to. As I said in a recent blog, a theme that is reoccurring in my life is that plans don’t go as expected. When they don’t, I want to be able to react from a place that I trust the Lord in all that happens and remain grateful for what I do have.
I’m grateful for teammates willing to share what I need even when it is difficult to ask for help. I’m thankful I thought to pack backup medication. It’s a blessing to have a warm bed this month and don’t need my sleeping pad and bag right now. I’m grateful to have packed backup toiletries in my daypack.
It always seems to become the small things when something is lost in our lives like luggage, a person, or dreams. That security of having my stuff isn’t here right now and I’m learning to be okay with living these first days without it.
With that said, I am sure you all are curious of what this first month will look like regarding bare bone ministry structure! Today we sit down with the pastor to chat about his vision and what his goal is this month. From the bits and pieces I heard last night, it sounds like we will be diving into ample opportunities to serve the youth in their community from around ages 6-16. I will let you know the details of that after we get specifics today!
For prayer, please pray Lindsey and I who are currently in Novi Sad, Serbia would receive our bags in due time. Also that we are able to serve and invest in the youth here well and without hesitation since we are experiencing first month newness and are still finding our feet in this journey. We don’t want that to get in the way and do not want to miss out on what the Lord has for us here!
