Unsung Heroes
These two little words have come to mean so much to me in the past few weeks.
I remember the first time I heard these words, thinking “the Un-what Who-now’s?” while picturing some peculiar missionary competition to see who is the holiest hero in all the land. It sounded odd.
I then found out about the branch of the World Race where we connected with ministries around the world who could benefit from partnering with us and receiving future teams to help in whatever capacity needed. We also hope to encourage the believers we find who may feel hidden or cut off from the rest of the Church. This made a lot more sense, and relieved the images of holier-than-thou-Olympics in my mind.
Obviously consisting of some pretty serious sword-drills, I’m sure
When I found out that our team would be traveling in the opposite direction as the rest of our squad to do Unsung Heroes in Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina, I had some mixed feelings. I had heard many stories from other teams about how their time with Unsung Heroes left them feeling discouraged, stressed, unsuccessful, and unfulfilled. While I was excited about pioneering these new countries for the World Race, finding the ‘hidden’ ministries, encouraging the believers, and uniting the body of Christ all over the world; I was nervous.
Would our team succeed, or would we succumb to the reputation of Unsung Heroes: trapped in team disunity, frustration over difficulty finding contacts, and going grossly over budget to afford housing and food?
Honestly, in my mind it could have gone either way.
The good news is that, in all reality, Unsung Heroes is no different than the rest of the World Race: It comes with many challenges, but it’s what you make of it. We decided to not let our predisposition define our experience. After all, being in our seventh month together as a team (for the most part) has put us in a place where we know how to fight for each other and use everyone’s strengths to work together in unity.
Stepping out in faith this month, God has not disappointed. I feel like we have experienced a bit of what the early apostles must have felt in their travels: heading into unknown lands to find and encourage the believers in the Lord. I’m humbled to step into that same role and experience all God has to offer through these heroes who could so easily be left unsung, unheard, and under-appreciated. While their ministries may yet be small, their hearts and their passions are very, very large.
We decided to stop in Montenegro for the first leg of our journey, mainly because the country stood between Kosovo, where we were, and Bosnia, where we were planning on going. The World Race has never entered Montenegro, and we were not quite sure what we would find in terms of ministry.
The Lord led us to the city of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro for the first leg of our journey. We met an amazing man called Pastor John, but whose real name is Jovica. He blessed us with free lodging (every unsung heroes’ dream) and had an amazing ministry with a huge heart for the Montenegrin people. Being a Serb himself, this is a huge deal that people won’t fully understand unless they live in the Baltics region. He spoke so much truth and life into us during our stay with him, and hearing his testimony, I knew that our small group of missionaries here was indeed an answer to a prayer that he’s had for many years.
Feeling beyond blessed from our stay in Podgorica, meeting Pastor John, visiting another church in the area, finding a group of Americans here on STINT with CRU, and meeting another amazing ministry in the neighboring city of Nikšic’, we left on a bus through the mountainside, past the beautiful cities of Budva and Kotor, to stay with another American man who lives here on mission. In a country with only about 120-150 native believers we have been beyond blessed to meet so many amazing potential partners for the World Race and hear their untold stories of incredible faith and perseverance. And all in a country with so much natural beauty! God is really outdoing himself this month, and I am so excited to see who else He wants us to meet in Montenegro and in Bosnia.
The view from our stay in Kotor
