Hi all back at home! I’m alive and well; QUITE well, actually! The whole experience has been so surreal so far. The long travel days, being in EUROPE, traveling through Lisbon, Bangladesh, the countryside of Hungary and Serbia; I’m just doing my best to catch up with it all!
So Serbia… it’s really already pushing me emotionally and spiritually… and in all the right ways.
I’m not exactly a social butterfly if y’all haven’t noticed. So what is the mission work for the first month?
Building relationships!
Yeah, from the standpoint of an introvert, this is more challenging than it should be. BUT that’s part of why I became a Racer; to allow God to mold me and and reshape me into a fruitful servant of His kingdom.
As such, I’ve been hanging on 1 Corinthians 2 a lot in the past several days. God directed me there and it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear! In it Paul is talking about how he initially approached the people of Corinth. Most people would concur that Paul was blessed with the wisdom of God and was both a great orator and powerful in his written word. But here he says that he didn’t greet the Corinthians with such language; in fact he didn’t know how to approach them persuasively and thus was trembling, feeling weak, and fearful.
Yup, that’s me, more or less!
So what did he do? He instead spoke what he simply knew to be true; that Christ had lived and died and rose again in compensation for our sins and the death we deserved. And he spoke in demonstration rather than conceptualization; he walked the walk in front of them rather than merely talk.
And what came of it?
He tells them that they have been enriched in every thing by God in all that they said and all that they knew; that the testimony of Christ was able to be plainly seen in them!
I may not be any great conversationalist, and I may at times hold back when I should lean forward, but seeing Paul’s example, I look to push forward past fear and concern to the heart of truth and love that is in Christ.
There is a whole generation here in Serbia that, much like in America, is empty and searching for something and needs to see that hope we’ve found in Christ! I hope that as I grow deeper in intimacy in my relationship with Christ I will find how to better convey that truth to others!
Pray for me, y’all! Pray for the relationships we’re building here!
My teammates have been so wonderful so far, really pouring themselves into me and looking to bring out the best in me and cultivate the gifts of the Spirit that God has planted in me; I hope I can do as much for them! Pray for them as well, for the discerning and cultivating of gifts and growth in their faith in this next month and year!
