As promised here is my blog about my teams ministry for the month of September! So without further ado, here it is:
For our first month we are partnering with an American missionary named Tom* who lives here in Tetovo with his wife and 3 (soon to be 4) children, as a branch of an organization called YWAM (Youth With A Mission).
Tom has been in Macedonia for 12 years but only recently (I think within the last few years) moved to Tetovo. Here in Tetovo he has been “preaching” the gospel to Albanian Muslim Youth, mostly in coffee shops as that is where you meet in their culture. I put preaching in quotations because it is actually illegal to convert anyone here from one religion to another. So he must go about his ministering sensitively, lest he be thrown in prison! Since beginning his ministry here he has yet to have one person become a true believer.
Since arriving, we haven’t started any ministry just yet. Yesterday (Sat.) we went through some quick orientation after breakfast on how to present ourselves (since we can’t say we’re missionaries, as that generally conveys evangelism which is illegal), after which we went and did some community service by cleaning up trash at the local park (where nobody cares to use trash cans).
Then we went back home for some lunch. After lunch our host (Tom) took us on a small tour of the city, stopped at a few stores and had a cup of coffee at his favorite Café. We then returned home for dinner and some more orientation on the local culture and the differences between here and in the States.
Today my team and I had church with Tom and his family in their home, since there are no other true believing Christians here in Macedonia. After church we had more in-depth orientation on how to minister to Albania Muslims. Such as giving Muslim friendly testimonies, avoiding certain Christianese words, avoiding American cultural norms, and just being safe in general.
So we will be helping Tom with his ministry in 3 ways each day.
One way will be through Café ministry, in which we will go with Tom to a café and enjoy a coffee with his friends (who are Albanian Muslims, and some who are Atheists) and just build relationships and chat with them about religion and do our best to simply shine the Light of Jesus Christ to them.
The second way will be through park ministry, in which we will go and play games and hangout with the locals at the park nearby. And again just try to build those relationships and let Jesus’ Light shine through us.
The third way will be through what Tom calls Treasure Hunting, in which we will go out and do prayer walks and do our best to be attentive to the Holy Spirit and ask Him where He wants to go and to set up divine appointments for us to meet new people and, yet again, build a relationship and shine the Light of Christ, but also to get them connected to Tom so that when we leave at the end of the month he can continue ministering to them.
Tonight will actually be our first chance at ministry as we’re going to meet some of Tom’s friend at a café.
So here are some practical things you can be praying for me and my team and the city of Tetovo:
-We would be tuned in to the Holy Spirit, as everything we’re doing here is going to be accomplished by His leading.
-Divine appointments would be made.
-Hearts would be opened to hear the Truth of Christ.
-That people would finally come into a real relationship with Jesus.
I hope that you will take some time to pray for these things and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your prayers so far! They have definitely been felt!
I hope you will continue to follow me on this journey and I really hope you will support me financially so I can continue the work of spreading the gospel to everyone here in Tetovo, Macedonia and to the rest of the countries that I’ll be travelling to!
If you wish to give, you can click the ‘Support Me’ tab home page of my blog. I am currently at $10,510 and I need to have $13,000 in my account by Oct. 31st and the full amount of $16,267 by Dec. 31st in order to continue spreading the Good News!
Thanks for reading! And may God Bless you!
I changed our host’s name to protect him. 
