After 65+ hours of traveling, we finally made it to Bitola, Macedonia last Saturday night!
Macedonia is absolutely beautiful, the people are so welcoming and the scenery is incredible. This month we are staying in the Evangelical Church of Bitola which is in the southern part of the country, about 7 miles from the border of Greece. The pastor and our host, Josip, and his wife Beljana have been so hospitable and kind to us. I think we are really being spoiled month 1 of the race haha. As I am writing this, Pastor Josip is sitting next to me cracking jokes and filling out our passport information for our stay here. He loves to joke, but sometimes his jokes don’t translate well in English so he makes sure to say “that is joke” after every one. Between Josip and Olivia there is never a dull moment in the Aka Esh household.
Sunday we had our first church service here and man was it good! The sermon was in a small room which held about 40 people and you could feel the holy spirits presence among the people. Worship was all in Macedonian but we recognized 2 of the songs (How Great is Our God and Bless the Lord Oh My Soul) so we sang along in English with the crowd. We expected to not be able to follow pastor Josip during the service because it would all be in Macedonian but about 2 minutes before he got up to speak, a man came in and sat next to us. He began speaking Macedonian and then stopped and said “hey. I’ll be translating for you. Oh, and I’m from Wisconsin”. This was a huge God send. Michael is Pastor Josip’s son in law and first came to Macedonia with YWAM (youth with a mission) 8 years ago. He decided to move here afterward and then married Josip and Beljanas’s daughter, Mona. It was SO good to have him there to translate for us not only because we wanted to hear Josip preach but also because I so desperately needed that sermon.
Josip spoke about the 4 chambers of the spiritual heart (sincerity, joy, fullness and the gospel). He referenced verses that command us to be set apart and filled by Jesus Christ not occasionally but 24/7. What really got to me was when he said “Did you know that your names have been written in the book of life? REJOICE! There is no greater treasure that this”.
If I’m entirely honest, the first couple days of the race were a little harder than I thought they would be. When you come on the race, many people will warn the introverts that it will be a rough year due to the lack of alone time. No one warned me that it would be difficult for the extroverts as well. Ive found that I get my energy from big groups and crowds… that speak English. Being with only 6 other people that speak my language has been a little difficult, especially our first few days. However, now that we have been here for almost a week we have made new friends and most of them (the ones in their 20s even speak some English!).
Our ministry so far has included a lot of preparing for the next few weeks. We have been meeting the church members, hearing their testimonies and making plans for this month. One of my teammates, Kirsten, has been working on making some fliers to hand out with the bibles we plan to give out in downtown and some fliers for an English class we are going to teach for the next 2 weeks. In Macedonia, time goes very slowly. Everyone is very laid back and when someone says they will meet you at a certain time, they usually wont show up for at least a couple hours afterward. Its actually impolite here to be on time or close to on time. Getting used to this has been very strange because we are all used to a fast paced American lifestyle but again, we aren’t here to change culture but rather join these Macedonians where they are…so we are learning to “hurry up and wait” haha.
Last night two of our new friends, Vladimir and Maria, took us out to dinner and to watch the World Cup Semifinals. We had SO MUCH fun and thoroughly enjoyed being a part of European culture as they passionately watched Holland fight their best to beat Argentina. Unfortunately, Holland lost and it seemed that everyone here in Macedonia was extremely disappointed. I for one can not wait to see the final game on Sunday when I am certain the streets of Bitola will be filled with cheering and music and parties ALL night long. Go Germany!
Random facts Ive learned over the last week:
- I never realized how much I took Air Conditioning for granted, sleeping in puddles of your own sweat every night is no joke!
- Many Macedonians have really pretty, unique blue eyes
- You can buy enough food to cook a meal for 7 people here for less than $5 USD
- Europeans get more passionate about Soccer than Americans do about all of our sports combined
- Macedonia does not get along with Greece….like at all.
- Its normal to put ketchup on everything here in Macedonia!! I LOVE THIS PLACE!!
