I was discouraged, I was scared, I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to count the minutes until we could go home and mark off another day of failed street evangelism. But the Holy Spirit had other plans.
We had been in Serbia for just 2 days at this point, we had been partnered with a small church plant in the centre of Belgrade and our main focus of the month was street evangelism. This was a huge challenge for me. The idea of talking to anyone in the street is terrifying, add a language barrier and trying to tell them about Jesus, and I was officially petrified.
We were walking around Kalemagden, the fortress in Belgrade, ready to start our second day of street evangelism. The previous day had been hard, people hadn’t wanted to stop and talk, or had claimed to speak no English. So I started the day discouraged and nervous about ministry, but you can be sure that’s not how I ended it. We split off into pairs to evangelise as normal, and started to walk round the fortress, asking the Holy Spirit to guide us and show us who to talk to. However my main aim was to try and avoid speaking to anyone for as long as possible, and I was praying that Deb (my ministry host who I was partnered with) would do all the talking when we did.
I had noticed her on our way into the fortress, she was sat under an umbrella at the entrance to one of the tourist attractions, I was jealous of her being able to sit in the shade when I was out in the blazing sun. But when Deb also noticed her and decided to go and talk to her, I tried to say that there were too many tourists coming up the hill and that we would not be able to get through them, trying to convince myself this was a sign that we shouldn’t go over there. Deb luckily didn’t listen to me and decided to climb over a grassy bank to get there, avoiding the crowded paths and heading straight towards Milica.
When we got to Milica she was a complete breath of fresh air, she spoke pretty perfect English and after a day of people not being able to talk to me this was so wonderful. We started talking easily as we discussed the fortress itself, my main problem of starting conversations was easily overcome. We spoke for over half an hour, she was excited to have someone to talk to as people don’t normally stop to talk while they’re sightseeing, and this was such an encouragement for someone to want to talk to me.
What hit me the most was that she was interested in talking to us about the bible and asked us what our church was like. Serbia is predominantly orthodox Christian, which means most people will identify themselves as being Christian, but will rarely attend church and feel that they already know everything they need to know about Christianity. It is often hard to get people to engage in conversation with you about religion as being an orthodox Christian is linked so tightly with Serbian national identity and often born again believers are viewed as being part of a cult. So this conversation was so unexpected, it was such a blessing to me and reminded me that God had a purpose for me in Serbia and was directing my steps that day to allow me to talk with Milica.
As we were preparing to leave she asked me more about why I was in Serbia, I explained quickly about the World Race and that we were trying to live as Jesus did. She seemed amazed at the description, she shared that she would love to be able to do something like this and that it sounds just like something Jesus would do. We were then taking a photo together and arranging to meet again when she asked for my phone to take a photo on as well; in an effort to remain present while I am on the mission field, I have left my iPhone at home. When I explained this to her she looked at me and shock and simply stated “wow! I think Jesus would have left his iPhone at home too.”
Milica and I met up a number of times while I was in Belgrade, she even came to our gospel concert! We had many really good conversations and have become friends, she doesn’t yet have a personal relationship with Jesus but I continue to pray and talk to her. The main reason for sharing this story is to remind people that God always has a purpose for us, and he is always wanting to use us. We don’t end up in places by chance, but instead are often placed there for a reason, one specific conversation, one prayer or one friendship. I want to rejoice in the fact that the Holy Spirit chooses to use us in this way, even when our heart is not in it, even when we think we cannot possibly make an impact or a difference. The Lord has a plan for each of us that only we can do. She won’t know this but Milica was such an encouragement to me during my time in Serbia, she made me feel at home and like I had a reason to be there. Month 1 was so far outside my comfort zone that I couldn’t even see it anymore, but it was so wonderful at the same time.
