My team spent the month of December in Kosovo partnering with a church called Fellowship of the Lord’s People. Coming into the month, we thought we would be working with the church and Samaritan’s Purse to distribute shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child (OCC). We arrived and discovered the plan had changed.
Fellowship of the Lord’s People has been partnering with Samaritan’s Purse for the last 10 years. The people in this church have been the contacts responsible for shoebox distribution for the entire country. Kosovo is a small country, but this is still a huge responsibility. They coordinated with OCC by receiving shoeboxes, accepting shipments, recording who received them, and following up with Samaritan’s Purse. The church was bearing the full administrative and financial burden of the distribution process.
Over the last several years, the church noticed a dependency that had developed in the communities receiving shoeboxes. The shoeboxes were no longer facilitating a way to build relationships, but were creating a sense of entitlement. The team at the church was tired. They were frustrated with the response from the communities and with the lack of responsibility people in their own church were taking to serve the communities. They decided to step back for a year and take time to seek the Lord’s heart for discernment on where to go next.
Instead of distributing shoeboxes, we spent the month doing life and ministry with different people in the church.
In America, we take the church for granted. We attend church on Sundays because we’re “supposed to” and it helps us feel bad for what we did during the week. We call ourselves Christians because it makes us look good.
In Kosovo, saying, “Yes” to Jesus can cost you everything. You don’t say “Yes” to Jesus because it will make you look good.
You say “Yes” to Jesus because He’s worth it all. You say “Yes” because the freedom found in Him is worth being ostracized by your family and friends.
The people in this church have said “Yes” and it has cost some of them everything. They told us stories of being beaten, held at gunpoint, harassed, and persecuted by the government. But they are some of the most joy-filled people I’ve ever come across. They are all-in to what the Lord has to offer them. They experience freedom in a way that most people can’t even dream about.
They’ve given up their families and jobs to bring Kingdom to their city and country. Kosovo has been the most difficult place to be a believer I’ve experienced thus far. Most of us can’t imagine trying to share the Gospel with our coworkers or friends, much less tell someone about Jesus in a country that serves Allah.
But that’s what these people are doing every day.
More often than not, it takes years to see the fruit of what they are investing.
We had the privilege to spend the month doing life with these people. They meet together every morning. They spend time drinking instant coffee, digging into the Word, and encouraging each other to keep doing what the Lord has called them to. Each person works in a different ministry.
The church is working in conjunction with an NGO funded by the Finnish government. They are providing the funding to run Youth Groups in 3 towns in different parts of the country. In America, youth group has the connotation of church. These are run more like a Boys & Girls club or after school program. They come together and play games, have snacks, and share a lesson. But Kosovo is a Muslim country and the programs are funded by governments money. They aren’t allowed to stand in front of a group of kids and share the Gospel.
But we watched them share the Gospel every time we met. They are choosing to build relationships with these kids. They are investing in them. They are getting to know them and their families. Through choosing to do life with people, they get to see Jesus in them. And sometimes, after years of investing, a door is opened and they get to tell them the Gospel and people come to know Jesus.
What if we lived our lives like that? What if we chose to preach the Gospel every day, in every moment just because we are living in relationship with Him? What if we let our relationship with Jesus shape how we do life, rather than us telling Him what areas He’s allowed in?
That would be radical.
