WE MADE IT!!! After travelling for two and a half days, my team finally made it to Kosovo. But let me backtrack a little and talk about the journey. My team was notified a couple weeks ago that we were not going to be staying in Serbia like we were originally told. There was not enough room for all three teams, so leadership decided that our team would go to Kosovo.
All of the teams on my squad travelled together to Serbia. When we landed at 4:00 PM, my team scrambled to find a bus that would leave from Belgrade the same day. We struggled to find information, so we decided to head into the city and find a bus station. Thankfully, Megan sat next to a man from Serbia on the plane, and he taught her a little Serbian. She spoke to the shuttle driver, Momo, and he promised to take us to the bus station.
We chatted on the shuttle, though we were all exhausted. A woman a few seats ahead of us looked back at us a few time. Beyond making eye contact and smiling at her, we did not communicate with her. About a half-an-hour later, Momo told us that the bus station was coming up. We got off and headed into the station. Megan and Nettie approached the counter to buy the tickets. While they were gone, the woman from the bus approached us. She asked if we spoke French, but unfortunately none of us did. She kept asking us questions, we think about travelling, but we were not sure what she was saying. She smiled and waved at us before leaving. We thought she was leaving the station, but instead she went up to Nettie and Megan. She spoke to the ticket seller for a moment, helping the girls buy the tickets. She came back and said, “English,” while giving us the okay symbol. It was so sweet that this woman was looking out for us and wanted to make sure we could get our tickets. We thanked her and waved good bye as she left for her bus.
We were blessed once again by the people around us when we stopped in a cafe for food. By the way, food abroad is super cheap. The waitresses did not speak English, but they did their best to get us great sandwiches. As we were leaving they stopped us to ask us where we were from. We explained that we were from America and going around the world for a year. The women offered to fill our water bottles for us. Before we entered the cafe, Nettie mentioned that we would need to make sure we filled them before we got on the bus. It’s crazy how God provided even for our most basic needs.
The trip to Pristina (pronounced Prishtina) took us about seven hours. I could finally lay down and catch up on some much needed sleep. We really had no idea what we were doing, but God sent us yet another person to guide us on our journey. A man sitting a few rows in front of kept us in good hands. He explained why were stopping, when to take out our passports, when to keep them out, and when our stop was coming up. He made us feel at ease even though we had essentially no plan and were winging it up until this point.
The entire time we were travelling from the U.S. to Kosovo, God held us in His hands and protected us. He fulfilled Megan’s prayer to send people that are honest, kind, and have great intentions. Even though we are travelling through countries without our squad leaders, we all handled the situation really well and made it to Kosovo with ease.
My team got to the bus station in Pristina at around 3:30 AM. We couldn’t contact our host besides emailing them at the airport because Kosovo and Serbia have a tense relationship. We made contact with one of our hosts and they took us to our apartment for the month.
Guys. Kosovo is amazing! We are definitely being spoiled and blessed for our first month. Our apartment is lush. We each have our own beds, a full kitchen, a flushing western toilet, and a beautiful view from the terrace. Our hosts Leonora and Artur are incredible. They have such a love for God and His creation. Kosovo is 96% Muslim, but the religion is nominal. Walking in the streets, I couldn’t pinpoint characteristics that would have made me realize this was a Muslim country. Artur explained to us the history of this new country and how the religion was established. I’ll post more about that and Artur’s story a little later. It deserves its own blog post. But I can assure you that his and Leonora’s resilience and faithfulness are inspiring.
Leonora gave us a schedule for our three weeks:
Mondays: Adventure Day!
Tuesday: Outreach
Wednesday: Warehouse
Thursday: Outreach
Friday: Warehouse
Saturday: Children’s Ministry
Sunday: Service/ Rest Day
Oh, and there’s a German team coming next week and they’ll be working with us. I’m pretty excited to meet them!
I am so excited to work alongside these people. I know that they have much to teach me and I hope I can lift them and their ministry up. I’ll keep all of you updated about the other amazing God will do this month!
