The clock ticks right past midnight as I sit on this sanctuary balcony, in the church I’m calling my home for the next month, my fingers hover over the keyboard as my mind swims with the reality of the past week. It’s been one of excitement, anxious waiting, competition, agitation, exhaustion, and ever present all encompassing joy. And apparently this is only my first week!?
We landed in Serbia on Wednesday the 9th, and man, have we hit the ground running. Ministry this week has been helping out at a summer camp for high shool age kids here in Novi Sad. That means 14 hour days filled with carpet ball, dodgeball, four square, street hockey, water balloon fights, and lots of futbol. That means your first Serbian language lesson includes mostly insults and sarcastic jokes. That means long, genuine conversations about where they’re at in their life and in their walk, and trying my best to show them that nobody has it all figured out, and that’s absolutely okay. That means nights filled with worship songs sung in both Serbian and English; lifted up to heaven with the floating embers of a campfire.
But most of all, this week of Serbian camp ministry has meant that a huge smile has not left my face the entire time. I’m just overwhelmed with joy. God has led me to love on the beautiful, amazing, sarcastic, short-shorts wearing people of Serbia this month, and for that, I couldn’t be more thankful!
