Unknown:
City? Where to live? What ministry would look like? How to build relationships?
Known:
Our GOD is a faithful and miracle working GOD.
WOW! This month has been incredible and full of God’s faithful provision and love in the unknown. Our month in Serbia was different than the first 5 months on the race. My lovely team of wildflowers were doing this thing called Unsung Hero. The gist is that our goal is to prayerfully look for ministries and organizations that want to partner with AIM and continue to grow the kingdom. So here’s how that realistically looked for us….
We learned that our month in Serbia was going to be Unsung Hero a few days before we left Thailand. We were then given the freedom to GO wherever God called us. So we spent the next few days in prayer over what city. We felt drawn to Nis, which is in Southern Serbia. Now the question of where to stay?
We found a beautiful Airbnb close to the city center within our budget…but only if we booked it for the whole month. At first it sounded ideal! But then our fearless leader asked us to pray about our motives behind this place. Was it because of comfort? Security? A little piece of home? Or truly because God said yes.
After spending 3 days in prayer and surrendering our plan and emotions to God’s will we decided to book the house for 3 days, embrace the unknown, and see what doors God would open. And man oh man did GOD provide in BIG and AMAZING ways from the moment we stepped off the plane! Here’s a small glimpse of how God exceeded our expectations this month.
BLESSINGS
- Lady on the bus blessing us with 50 euros to treat our team to coffee
- Man at the bus station telling us about awesome food of Serbia and giving us beautiful coasters
- Julie (another team’s ministry host) being on the bus and telling Katie about Randi (missionary in Nis)
- Getting to stay in secret dreams! (a beautiful Airbnb we booked for 3 days)
- George (Airbnb owner) coming over and bringing us towels, toilet paper, and champagne and telling us we could stay at Secret Dreams for our budget but would have to leave for a week
- George offering to help us find a place to stay for that random week
- George coming back 10 minutes later after we prayed asking God to guide us and said we could stay in Secret Dreams all month!
- Living next to the river, fortress and city center
- Living in an affordable city
- Randi and Trey (amazing missionaries) gave us kiwi and toilet paper and serve alongside them
- Randi cooking us an amazing American breakfast
- All the relationships we made
- Being invited and welcomed to ministries and their events such as Rock Pop Choir and Amazing Race of Nis
- Using the 50 euros we were blessed with to have a pizza party for all the new friends we made
Psalm 46 beautifully describes what God did in Serbia and I am so excited to share it with you all!
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; He lifts His voice, the earth melts. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
While Nis does have a river and fortress in this scripture these words have a deeper meaning. River serves as a metaphor for the outpouring of the sustaining and refreshing blessings of God. Fortress signifies how God is our protector and provider. This month we invited God into every decision, big or small and were able to see His faithfulness. We went into this month with the intention to try things out of our comfort zone and take the risks where failure is an option. This month we began every morning in prayer together for God to renew our minds, willingness to be interrupted, and obedience to HIS voice.
“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm
Be still is basically God saying, “Enough!” or “Stop!” He is asking us to pause and take a step back. Pause our thoughts, agendas, emotions that seem to run a mile a minute and take the intentional time to acknowledge that He is GOD. The creator of the universe. That He is in control and working things out for our good and His glory. So as we took the time this month to just stop and rest in the truth that God is worth living in the unknown because He will reveal His perfect plan to each of us in His perfect timing, God was able to be exalted in our team, in our relationships, and in our thoughts.
As some of you may know I am passionate about loving and encouraging the kiddos but other age groups tend to be a struggle for me. I was given many opportunities this month to trust the Lord with my words and choose to either build relationships by seeking to hear people’s stories or to stay comfortable and serve behind the scenes.
As I grew to trust Him more this month, I allowed Him to fill me with joy and excitement. I found myself in a room full of people genuinely enjoying hearing about their life and desiring to love them well and encourage them. I was looking forward to continuing conversations and meeting up with people. Which is very new for me, because usually I’m content to just reach out to family, close friends or children. Yet God began to open my eyes to how He sees His children of all ages. He began to fill my heart with a passion to share His love and goodness to everyone that I meet. I am so thankful that I invited Jesus into this area of my life and that He chose me to be a part of sharing His amazing story.
I am so grateful that our God is so good through it all. That He never gives up and fights for us. That He desires to share His victory with us! Thank you for taking the time to read about how faithful He is and thank you for being a part of the amazing things He is doing!
