When I decided to do the World Race, my concerned mother sent me a barrage of e-mails about ISIS in the Balkans. She sent article after article, and rhetorical question after question. Are you sure you want to risk your life by going to areas where ISIS is recruiting? Is the World Race a wise life choice?
Living in New York, I think I had already recognized the threat of ISIS in my life. It felt like an inevitable aspect of our world today, but it seemed distant and unlikely to affect me. ISIS seemed almost inhuman to me, a nebulous group that I heard stories about but would likely never meet.
Throughout Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria, I did not hear any mention of ISIS.
Then, the Lord redirected our path and sent us to Kosovo instead of Macedonia.
The Lord had been preparing my heart for coming to Kosovo since September in Romania. In Romania we prayed for a missionary family in Kosovo, and I was struck by the darkness of this country. I could not imagine living in a country that is 96% Muslim, where you could possibly be one of the only Christians in your entire city. In a country of about 2 million people, there are only 2000 Christians. When the leadership team approached me and shared that we were having a route change to Kosovo, I immediately felt that this new path was directed by God. Never before had a country interested me as much as Kosovo.
We arrived in Pristina (the capital of Kosovo) on November 4, and I immediately felt a connection to this place. The culture feels oddly similar to New York—it has the big city feel, many American influences, and the population is 65% young people. But in New York, the threat of ISIS feels distant. Here, the threat of ISIS is felt on a personal level.
Of all of the countries in the world, Kosovo sends the largest percentage of its population to join ISIS. By 2020, Muslims are hoping to make Kosovo an Islamic republic, taking an entire European country under Islamic control. While Islamic does not always mean ISIS, turning Kosovo into an Islamic state would only fuel ISIS’s presence here, while oppressing the residing Christian population.
This information was shocking to hear upon our arrival, but still felt like learning statistics without understanding the full impact this information has on the people around me. Until last Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning our host asked for two people from our team to volunteer to do children’s ministry in Kaçanik, a city near the border of Macedonia. Jenna and I volunteered and hopped in a car with two people from the church to begin our hour-long road trip. During our car ride, we were told that Kaçanik is one of the primary cities in Kosovo that is training people to join ISIS. As we drove into the House of Hope center, a NGO run by people from the church in Pristina, we were told that ISIS had used the mountains directly in view to train kids for ISIS. Our friends shared that after those camps had happened, tons of kids had disappeared, either dead or in the Middle East. I cannot fully describe the eeriness of looking up at these mountains, knowing that we were in the midst of a darkness we only hear about on the news.
Sitting in the House of Hope office, our friend from the church pointed to the news on the TV. There was footage of ISIS on the screen, and she pointed at the man speaking. “This man is from here,” she said. “His nephew comes to House of Hope to learn English.”
As we saw kids streaming into the center, I could not help but think of the burden they and their families must feel. How many of these kids will be recruited by ISIS? How many of them have seen family members sucked into this radicalization? How many of them have encountered violence from ISIS’s presence?
But at the same time, I was overcome by how God was at work amidst the work of ISIS. To have the nephew of a major ISIS leader coming weekly to a center run by Christians without any harm coming to him or the staff, seemed simply unreal. God’s protection covers this center, and He is clearly working to bring hope and restoration to a community that seems bogged down by destruction.
Working alongside Christians in this atmosphere has taught me so much about what it means to truly battle for Christ amidst an atmosphere of oppression and looming darkness. Christ brings the hope that ISIS and war try to take away.
The Lord has been shaping an amazing community of steadfast Christians in Kosovo since the war that took place in 1999. During the last war, God protected every single Christian, which at the time was only 200-300 people who remained in the country. The pastor of the church we are working with experienced moments that I can hardly imagine. He was held at gunpoint after the Serbian army discovered him hiding food in the church’s underground baptismal. He went in hiding for over 50 days of the 78 days of bombings. But never once did he give up on fighting for the Lord’s presence in his country. And to this day that is his mission: to build up a generation of believers who will stay in Kosovo and share the gospel, even if it means giving up their lives to this cause.
Every person in the church here comes from a Muslim family. Given that most of these families do not approve of their children’s decision to follow Christ, the Christians cling to their community at the church. Every time I pray for them, God keeps putting the picture of soldiers in an army in my mind.
The Christians here are true soldiers for the gospel. They work crazy hours, trying to reach as many people as possible before the environment of the country changes and makes it illegal or too dangerous for them to share the gospel. One man from the church confided in me that he sleeps at the church several nights a week and only eats one meal a day, because he is so busy. How can they even continue to function with such little rest? God has clearly been empowering them with supernatural strength.
Earlier this week as I sat exhausted in the church sanctuary, I came across Colossians 1:28-29:
We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy which so powerfully works in me.
What a reminder that we are not working as Christians serving God with our own strength. He is equipping us with supernatural strength, energy, and the Holy Spirit, which is so powerfully at work in us that we can’t help but continue to serve Him through the physical and spiritual exhaustion.
The Christians in Kosovo could give up. They could move to another country where they will not be persecuted for their beliefs. They could conform to their culture’s norms, and submit to being culturally Muslim.
But God is building them up as an army of hope, while ISIS is building an army of destruction. God is working in the hearts of hundreds of young people who are coming weekly to youth group meetings to hear about Christ, while ISIS is trying to recruit these same young people to bring violence to the world. God is illustrating the urgency of the gospel through a generation dedicated to serving Him despite the circumstances.
So here I am, so close to the danger we hear about on the news. My team and I walk a specific route to the church every day, purposefully avoiding walking past a radicalized, illegal mosque. We do ministry with kids who may personally know members of ISIS. We have heard that some Sundays the church is under police protection due to threats of attack. This sounds terrifying (sorry, Mom), but in all honesty, I have never felt more safe.
We are serving a God who is our refuge, our protector, our victory. In Exodus 17, God brought victory over the Amalekites by having Moses raise his staff, supported by Aaron and Hur. I feel like this image mirrors what God is doing in Kosovo. He is building a tight community centered on Him, and through supporting and strengthening each other in God’s plan, they will find victory.
Our 20-year-old friend from the church who lives a crazy life full of 8 university courses while leading worship, leading kid’s ministry, translating for us, and being active in nearly every event at the church told us last weekend, “It is an honor to wake up early to serve the Lord.”
It is such an honor to be in Kosovo, watching God work powerfully to build an army of people who are dedicated to sharing the truth. It is an honor to see what it looks like to fight for your faith. It is an honor to be amongst people who will sacrifice everything for the salvation of their friends and family. It is an absolute honor to be serving the Lord.
Thanks for reading! Some quick updates:
- I have a slightly new team! At the end of last month I was asked to become a team leader for the girls from both of the co-ed teams on our squad. So I am currently leading United Zeal (read Romans 12), made up of Abbigail, Alexis, Catie, Faith, Jenna, Morgan, and Patricia.
- More big changes are coming! On November 27 we are heading to Skopje, Macedonia for debrief, a time of refreshment and sharing before moving on to the next continent. At debrief, I will be placed on an entirely new team. With this new team, I will be heading to Zambia to begin our time in Africa! Please be praying for this transition, both with team changes and with the major culture shock that is sure to come!
