Serbia may just be the surprise hit of my World Race. Because I barely knew anything about the country, except a vague recollection of it's recently war-torn past, I would be lying if I told you that I was excited about coming here. I'm pretty sure that I'll be sad to leave.
We are spending this month living in a church and doing a lot of different tasks here. (I know you're curious: by “living in a church” I mean that there are a few rooms in the church set up to house visitors. We even have a bathroom with a shower. The shower might not have hot water; but, at least it exists!) We have been received warmly all around the world, but, the feeling has been especially strong here. On the race, sometimes we talk about our “love languages” (it's a book by Gary Chapman if you haven't already heard of it), and I frequently like to joke that my main love language is food. If that were the case, Serbia loves me. We have been either given a dessert, meal, or drink in every house we've been in, and everything is delicious. It's only the beginning of the month, but, if we visit multiple houses on 3-4 days each week, well… this might be a good time to mention that a monthly gym membership here is $7.50 USD and there's a gym within walking distance of our house!
Food has played a big role in our first few days here. The girls on our team spent much of this weekend in the kitchen preparing meals for the pastors who are attending Bible school here, as well as surprising Matt with a half-birthday dinner. (Matt originally missed celebrating his bday on the race because we were on a plane from the US to the Philippines and the entire day disappeared.) You learn to improvise and adapt on the race, and probably never quicker than when you get dropped into a foreign grocery store to buy ingredients and then have to prepare a meal in a kitchen that has none of the amenities that you're used to from home. I'm pretty sure that when I get back that I'll be able to host Thanksgiving dinner for 32 people using only a toaster oven and ingredients bought at the closest 7-Eleven.
During the half-birthday celebration, Matt was telling us about something that one of his friends back home likes to say: we want the recipe, but God wants to give us more ingredients. God gives us flour and sugar and eggs, and we think, “cool, I'm making cookies.” And then all of a sudden we get some onions and think, “what the heck?!?” Sometimes we have to wait to see what God will do with all the ingredients that he's given us. And sometimes we think we have all the ingredients that we're going to get and then we start wondering why God isn't doing what we're expecting him to do. I think that sums up a lot of the race for me. I keep thinking that God's done giving me the ingredients and I want to see what He's making, but God keeps telling me to hold out my hands because He has more to give me. And not all of it makes sense from my limited perspective. But, I'm learning to believe that it makes sense from His perspective, and that I can trust Him.
Sometimes in life, it can feel like nothing at all is changing. We might be stocking up on ingredients, but, there's no recipe in sight. Last month we had excellent internet at our house, and one of the things that I liked to do was watch the webstream from the prayer room in the International House of Prayer. During one of the sets, they were interceding for the Tibetan people. And as I watched, I knew that I was different now than I was 6 months ago. I've slept in a nomadic Tibetan family's tent. I've toured a monastery with a Tibetan monk who served us tea in his humble room and then started to cry as he told us about the hopelessness his people feel. I've seen firsthand how the Chinese government has the power to oppress Tibetan communities simply by failing to acknowledge their very existence. I have names and faces and memories that will forever impact me. Free Tibet is no longer a trendy t-shirt, it's the cry of God's heart for a people oppressed and forgotten. When I hear prayers go up for Tibet, my heart cries with His. My time in China with the Tibetan people changed me forever, but at the time, I remember being frequently cold, often scared, and miserably homesick. But experience changes things, and having faith means believing that we're being changed for the better whether or not we feel like we're changing at all.
I say all that to make this point: today you may feel like nothing's changing, or even like things are getting worse. But, sometimes God's just passing out the ingredients, and when it's time to make something big, you'll find He's given you every experience you need. Keep your hands open, even if you're not sure what He's going to do with all those onions. It'll be worth it. He promises it.
Cold Shower & Coke Count: 31 & 19
