[This is the second part of a blog about Toshe – read the first blog here.]
Toshe wasn’t as distant after that meal, and I loved that.
Two days after we had our glorious meal, once all the leftovers had finished and we were preparing to leave, we had the opportunity to spend time with Toshe again. It happened by chance, but I was just glad to see him.
We had just locked the door to the church, and we were getting ready to go to one of the church member’s houses. Toshe showed up and we told him that there was nobody at the church to hang out with. Toni, the man who had invited us over, decided to invite Toshe as well. He accepted the offer and we all started walking.
All of our conversations were more in-depth. His words were stronger now, and they carried some sort of conviction. A few days before, he had been weak and apprehensive. Now he was on his way to being confident.
We got on the subject of drugs and alcohol, like we did in a lot of conversations this month. It is something that is very relevant to the community and it is a topic that all of the guys can relate to in some way. During our charade-style conversation, Toshe started saying, “Drugs? NO! Alcohol? NO! Cigarettes? NO!” I affirmed him and made sure that he knew that he had good ideas. It was really cool that he was bringing up those things.
I must regretfully acknowledge the fact that I doubted his abilities in that moment. I immediately thought “he has probably said this before” and “I don’t know if he can just quit like that…”
When we got to Toni’s house, we sat and j chilled (just chilled. haha) together. About 20 minutes in, Toshe started to look really nervous. He spoke up and said (in Macedonian), “I haven’t really prayed before. Can I pray?” We all got SO excited and said “Yes! Of course! Yes!” We all bowed our heads and he started to pray. It was a prayer that seemed slightly difficult. He sometimes struggled to find the right words. We had no idea what he was saying… but it was for God, and he was being bold in his faith. It was awesome!
Throughout the rest of the night, Toshe made efforts to make and keep conversation with us, even if we had to resort to using our limited Macedonian knowledge and he had to mime everything. He talked to me about drugs making him weak and God making him strong. He talked about his brother that had recently gotten clean in jail and was doing a lot better now. It was amazing to see this side of Toshe that we hadn’t seen before.
Toshe was being changed right in front of us. It was a transformation that could have only come from God… and it wasn’t over yet.
[to be continued…]
