I have finally made it to Macedonia and after about 3 days of straight travelling, I am so happy to be here. We travelled from Atlanta to North Carolina to New York to Poland to Bulgaria, and finally to Bitola, Macedonia where we will be for the month. We are staying in a wonderful church called Evangelical Church of Bitola with a wonderful couple, Joshep and Biliana. They were so sweet and welcoming and had beds made for us, breakfast for the morning, and the futbol game on. (Macedonia will stay up until 2 am watching whatever futbol game is on) We have a kitchen where we are staying so we have to go shopping in the market and grocery store for our meals every day. I have even been helping cook meals, which for those of you who know me is a big deal! My team, Akal Esh, is great though and we have truly enjoyed goofing around with each other, learning more about each other, and sharing our stories. The church here is only about 6 or 7 years, so their main hope for us to is to meet people and invite others to church. They would like us to do some street evangelism, hand out flyers, and have encouraged us to come up with other programs to get more young people to the church. We have even already met a few people our age and have plans to hang out with them in the next couple of days. Josh also shared his testimony at church last Sunday and he did a phenomenal job. Our team sang Amazing Grace to the congregation and even though we are not the most musically talented, Biliana was thrilled and wants us to sing more this month, even to the people on the streets! We have gotten pretty familiar with the city and I feel at home because Macedonians love to drink coffee at pretty much every meal. (of course not as good as Community Coffee though, Dad 😉 We were also asked to lead English classes for a couple of weeks, so we have that to look forward to as well. I can’t wait to see what’s to come and how God will use our team.
I am excited for this first month and for the journey God has for me. He already began working on my heart at launch and I know He will only continue. The latest thing I’ve learned was while pulling weeds today. Joshep had asked us to water his lawn and garden twice a day. I then began pulling weeds. I love to work outside and pulling weeds is actually somewhat relaxing to me. I also love metaphors and began to relate this task to my life. My Dad always taught me that when pulling weeds, you can’t just pull off the leaves at the top; you have to get to the root. If you don’t pull out the root as well, the weeds will grow right back. This is a parallel to my life. There are so many times where God will reveal an issue, struggle, or sin in my life and I only deal with the surface level. To no surprise, the problem always arises again. I believe that is what this year is meant to be. Jesus wants to pull out my weeds, and He wants to get to the root. Getting to the root is not always easy, it may hurt and I may get scratches and scrapes from the thorns. He will always provide the tools, though; whatever rake, hoe, or shovel you may need. However, in the end, once the weeds are cleared out a beautiful garden may then blossom. In order to grow my garden, I must first pull out the weeds.
What are the weeds in your life that you need to get to the root of?
What do you need to let go of so that God may grow a beautiful garden?
