When we arrived in Kosova the church that we were working with, Fellowship of The Lord’s people, hosted a huge week long evangelism outreach to the community called Impact Kosova. This event was a big deal because Kosova is a predominantly Muslim nation and only about 7% of the population professes to be Christian. The church invited Christians from all around the world to help with this event, and there ended up being about 400 of us total. We would all gather in the mornings for worship and to hear people speak, and then in the afternoons we would do street evangelism and invite people to church. I was surprised when a lot of the people that we talked to were actually interested in what we had to say and would read the pamphlets that we were handing out. We traveled to four different cities and prayed, talked to people, picked up trash, and did whatever we could to share the love of Christ. I don’t know exactly how many people accepted Jesus from that week, but it was a lot and it was really encouraging.
For me personally it was a very challenging and stretching week because it is exhausting for me to talk to and be around new people all of the time and street evangelism was something that I had ever done before. But it was so cool to see how God was moving and I got to have quite a few really good conversations with people and I got much more comfortable and confident talking to strangers. I really enjoyed working with the Kosovars from the church. They put so much effort into organizing Impact and helping all of us non Albanian speakers with translating. I got to know an incredible young woman while I was there named Visare. She stepped up to serve with all of the behind the scenes stuff, helped translate, and shared her testimony at the church with hundreds of people listening. Visare encouraged me with the way that she loved me and everyone around her, and she continued to step into the things that God was calling her to do even when it was uncomfortable, and it gave me courage to do the same.
This was month seven of the Race and we were past the halfway point to when we would go home. It was encouraging to look back and see all of the things that God had done and all of the places that we had been, but at the same time it was a little overwhelming to think that we still had four countries left before we would go home. During Impact Kosova my team and I served with a group from a church in Texas and they spent a lot of time getting to know us and hearing our stories and even took all seven of us out to dinner several times. It was so refreshing to be around other Americans and to have them pour into us and care for us was a huge blessing.
After Impact Kosova finished my team and I worked at a daycare that the church ran. Having us work there allowed the teachers to go on a much needed vacation while continuing to keep the center open and generate income. Because Kosova is predominantly Muslim we were not able to use words to tell the children at the daycare about Jesus, but we showed them through how we loved them. I was in a room with kids that were between two and three years old and they were so cute and sweet!! They were also quite the handful at times, and I learned a lot of patience, but I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with them. Here is a video that my squad mate made about our time in Kosova and it shows some of the kids at the daycare.
I really enjoyed my time in Kosova and it was so awesome to be a part of what God is doing there. I am thankful for all of the awesome people I got to meet and the time with all of the little kiddos. On our last Sunday the pastor gave us t-shirts that said “a piece of my heart is in Kosova” and that is definitely true. Thanks for reading!
In Him,
Heidi
My teammate Amber and Visare 🙂
Kids at the daycare
Friends from Texas
