Do you speak English? (Yes)
Can I have a minute of your time? (*insert hesitated/confused face*)
Have you lied? (Yes) So you are a liar.
Have you stolen? (Yes) So you are a thief.
Have you looked at someone with lustful desires? (Yes) So you are an adulterer.
Have you ever used God’s name in vain? (Yes) So you are a blasphemer.
If you die today and have to face the judge, where do you think you will end up – Heaven or Hell?
(Awkward Silence)
That’s pretty much how almost every conversation started on Friday mornings when we go out for street evangelism with our host this month. While it was very uncomfortable for us to be that direct as that is not acceptable in the American culture, the locals were receptive to the bluntness.
Skopje is such a beautiful and unique city. Situated right at the heart of the city is the Stone Bridge (see picture below). On one end, the Macedonian side, is modern and primarily influenced by the orthodox church. On the other side, the Albanian side; is traditional and primarily influenced by the Islamic mosques. It’s a completely different world once you cross the bridge.
Team Twined by the Vine partnered with Qendra Qiriazi for our month 4. Our ministry site was a combination of a community center, a cafe, a language school, and a music school. On Mondays to Thursdays from 10AM – 4PM, we hung out in the center to teach the english classes and practice/converse with those who come by the center in between. Coming from unsung hero month in Bulgaria, having a host was such a blessing.
There were many interesting stories from this month but I would like to share particularly the story of a man we met named Jovan (Macedonian for “John”). On the first Friday, after our host demonstrated how he approach people a few times, we were split into smaller groups. I was paired with Liz and we targeted the university students because the likelihood of them understanding English is much higher. While there were some who ignored us, pretended they didn’t speak English, or they truly didn’t speak English, there were also a few who we had amazing conversations with and they even let us pray for them on the street! I met 2 female electrical engineering students, 1 software engineering student, and a guy from New Jersey!
Around noon, while we were crossing the Stone Bridge to the other side to meet up with the rest of the team, I was stopped on the bridge by a man, his friend, and his friend’s dog. He simply said, “I heard that you are speaking English and I just have to ask, what are you doing here?” After approaching people for the past 2 hours, it was so unexpected to have someone approach me. Since I have already explained myself and what I was doing in Macedonia over 10 times in the past hour already, I just repeated the introduction to him.
As I was introducing myself, I noticed that his response was different from everyone else’s I had come across on the street. Instead of even asking him about his thoughts about going to heaven or hell, I turned the table on him and asked him about what he believed in and if he knew anything about Jesus Christ. His response was that he only believes in himself. For a period of time, he went to an (orthodox) church when he was growing up but how the church treated his mother did not leave a positive image of church for him. All I heard in that conversation was that there was a lot of hurt and that he was searching even though his words initially sounded very closed off. He is such an intelligent man and I really wanted to continue the conversation so I gave him a flyer and invited him to come to the center. Awkward moment, the flyer was in Albanian; he is Macedonian and I had no idea how to describe where the center was. I had to ask my host’s wife for directions.
Since then, he was on my mind. I didn’t know if I would ever see him again but I prayed that we would meet again. On the following Monday, before the english class began, our host challenged us on our thoughts on how to approach an atheist on the street. In return, I told him the situation from Friday and I asked him how he would approach someone on the street who was once hurt by the church. The only way I could think of was to invite him to a community and let that show him through the body of Christ. However, that is not something that can be easily done on the street in less than an hour, if at all. His response was, “that’s a tough one and it’s so situational”. We prayed about it and in less than 5 minutes, he walked through the door of the center.
We offered him a seat and a drink. He sat down but refused the drink; he told us that he does not trust people ever to drink something outside of his home. We kindly said it was completely fine and began a conversation with him. After a little bit, our host took him aside to have a much deeper and personal conversation with him. Day after day, he returned to the center to chat with us and then have a more in-depth chat. As we were cleaning the center at the end of Thursday, our host told us that he will be coming to church with us that Sunday!
After church on Sunday, when we went back to the center for some worship, testimony, and a short message from our host, he accepted Jesus Christ in the midst of us! While it was hard for him to say that prayer, it was so much more meaningful because he does not say something he doesn’t not believe in. Afterward, he turned to me and told me that I captivated him on the stone bridge on that Friday. He saw that I was full of joy. He wanted that so much he had to ask! Hearing that made my heart full. That meant so much to me because month 3 was a month of release so that I can be filled with more. This was more.
Our portion in Eastern Europe has officially come to an end! It’s hard to believe that it has been 4 months since our launch! After 3 days of travel, I am sitting in a cafe in Livingstone, Zambia with 30 minutes of wifi. (They are playing How Great is Our God in the background!) I have a new team coming to Africa and we will be based in the YWAM base in Livingstone this month. More to come on that in the next blog! Mostly because I have no idea what this month looks like yet!
Prayer Request
- Pray for Jovan as he is beginning his journey to get to know the Lord. May he too be filled with joy and other fruits of the spirit.
- My new team (Hallelujah) – it’s a mixture of my new and old teammates – pray for the new team formation and dynamics
- Financial Support – I need to be fully funded by the end of the year. I am less than $2,000 short of the goal at the moment and am trusting that the Lord will provide.
- My heart – wifi will be very scarce in the next 3 months, which means there will be a lot less social media scrolling. While it may be hard, I am excited because that means there will be more room for Him.
