Many men have a desire for adventure. The World Race is full of adventures waiting to happen from climbing mountains, to riding elephants through the jungle, and exploring ancient and modern cities around the world! While I have been able to experience all of these amazing adventures on the World Race, the God led adventure this month began in a living room in Gjilan, Kosovo.
An amazing adventure Ryan Johnson and I had climbing a mountain to the beautiful Ostrog Monastery built into a mountain
Last month after church in Kosovo a few teammates and I were sitting in a living room talking with our contact and something caught my ear. My mind began to wander, my heart began to pound as God began to whisper to me one word: Bosnia. Bosnia, the complete opposite direction of our squad's intended destination, a country with little World Race contact. After some prayer and much thought I couldn't shake it. Bosnia was in my head for a reason and it was because God put it there to start an adventure. After a few emails and conversations and honestly to my disbelief it was decided that my team was going on that adventure to Bosnia.
The upcoming adventure felt much like God's call to Abraham in Genesis 12:1 when He said, "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you." I can only imagine the adventures Abraham had as he faithfully followed God to this new land to see what He had in store. I still wander about his adventures, but I can't help but think maybe this month is my "Abraham adventure" as my team and I boldly go to a new country for the World Race to see what God has in store.
We are currently en route to Bosnia and I absolutely can't wait to see what God has in store for the upcoming days, but God has done what He often does. On this adventure He had a surprise for us and that surprise is one word: Montenegro. This beautiful hidden gem is a small country on the way to Bosnia that we didn't think much about, but now we spent half of the month here. This country has about 150 evangelical believers with a population of around 700,000 people! Needless to say there is much work still to be done here and we have got to be a part of that work for the past 10 days here.
I can relate to Paul in his pioneering adventures to Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, etc. a bit more now. Often throughout Paul's letters we can see him setting an example of how to be a Christian to non-believers and small church congregations, we can see him encouraging believers in their faith in a time and place that would have been difficult to be a Christian. This month my team's ministry is simply to meet with Christian contacts to get a feel for the heart of their ministry, to encourage them in their ministry, and see how the World Race can possibly partner with them in the future.
Standing with a potential future Christian contact outside his church in Podgorica, Montenegro with the team
This month as we have met with amazing believers and missionaries I can't help but feel like Paul- encouraging missionaries in their work and personal faith, setting an example of how to live in relationship with Christ daily to the surrounding non-believers in the area. It has been an amazing month where I have been so encouraged by God and the missionaries we meet and a month we have seen God time and time again provide everything including direction of where to go and even places to sleep for free!
Adventures and pioneering work like this month happen when we simply listen to God and say yes to the whispers of guidance He puts in our hearts. God has new lands waiting for you like Abraham, He has pioneering missions for you like Paul! Don't get me wrong the adrenaline, "touristy" adventures are fun stories, but the adventures of God are much more grand!
