Adventure is Out There Pt. 2

One week down, ten(?) to go. I am absolutely loving my time in Skopje! After a full week in ministry, I can firmly say it is nothing like what I expected. Remember when I said I was going to be working in a coffee shop? There hasn’t been a coffee cup in sight (besides the copious amounts that my teammates drink each day). Instead, I am serving in a community center where they offer formal and informal English lessons.

Since it is the beginning of the semester there has been a lot of downtime as we rebuild the base of students who come to the center. This has offered us a very exciting opportunity for us to leave the center and visit the local university to tell people about the classes and the center. Another opportunity we offer is a chance at a cultural exchange between the Americans (us) and the Macedonians (them). While we haven’t managed to set up any meetings yet, I am very excited to see this come to fruition because I believe it will bear much fruit. If you told me when I was signing up for this trip that I would be talking to strangers (with a language barrier) I would have run for the hills and never looked back. God has really used this opportunity to grow me and I have experienced true joy in work I would never have imagined I could do. In our downtime, we have also been able to bless the center by helping them revamp their social media (Qendra Qiriazi hit us up on facebook and instagram 😉 ). While social media is not my strong suit (have you seen how often I post?) I have been blessed with a team who flourishes in it (I mean with six girls ages 18-20 there have to be a few, right?) and have been glad to help where I am able.

Friday was a big day for us because it is the day we spend out in the square evangelizing. Again, not something I am very comfortable with, and on top of that, we learned a wordless drama to perform. Needless to say, as we lugged all of our equipment and literature to the square, I was quite nervous. After we had everything set up, a couple of my teammates and I grabbed some salvation story pamphlets and took to the square. In this case, the language barrier actually helped me. Since we don’t speak the language all we could do is say “porvaleta” (that might be how you spell it…) which means “for you” and hold out a pamphlet. All in all we probably handed out around 200. While some of those we saw left on bench or crumpled on the ground, who knows how many seeds we planted or hearts we laid questions into. I can’t wait to get to heaven and see the fruits of that one day on the streets. After that fairly long day of walking, Maddie (one of the girls on my team) and I were treated to a night at Rose’s house.

Rose is one of the long term missionaries who works at the center with us and has now been dubbed our mom-away-from-mom. She is the sweetest lady you will ever meet. She cooked us a traditional Albanian meal (delicious chicken and a sort of corn bread stuffing that was to die for), made us tea, and even bought us ice cream (she really knows the way to my heart). We also played more games of sequence then I ever had before (granted I had never played sequence before this trip, but it was still a lot) and then headed off to bed. The next day, Saturday, was our off day. We slept in (what a blessing) and then some of the team met up and we headed off to Canyon Matka. The drive there while beautiful was also quite stressful (let’s just say the roads in Macedonia are not quite what they are in America). Once there we marveled at the beauty. It is more what I would call a valley then a canyon, but it was a large river between two wooded mountains. It was a breath of fresh air (literally and figuratively) to get out of the city and back into nature. Of course I love the city, but there really is not much green space near where we are and I don’t think I had realized what a drain that had been on my spirit. We then took a small boat to a nearby cave (the deepest underwater cave in the world… kind of (they just haven’t found the bottom yet)). The cave was breathtaking and we got to see some bats too! In true American fashion two of my teammates tested out the amazing acoustics by singing the national anthem (the irony took a second to hit). Then back to the main area of the canyon for a delicious lunch by the water. After we took a short hike along the river and found a place to jump in for a very short time (it was so cold!). Unfortunately then it was time to head back to the city.

Dinner and a little time with the whole team was the perfect end to a great day. I used my time Sunday after church to get some much needed alone time (well as best as I could when I have to be in the same location as at least one other team member…) and made myself a very pretty schedual for the coming week. That evening I made tacos for my team (gotta rep Texas) or at least the closest I could come with the supplies we had (no beans, mexican blend cheese, or sour cream, but I think the seasoning was pretty authentic).

The next day I was not feeling well and actually spent most of the day in bed, but after a day of rest, I was back on my feet and into ministry! Wednesday we had our first make-a-ministry day where we partnered with a local missionary who is working with the gypsy population. We were able to help here with a kind of mini VBS of the kids with songs, games, stories, and snacks. After we got a small glimpse of their living conditions and we all walked away full in spirit from serving, but broken hearted from what we had seen as well. I am excited to see how this and our work in the community center will continue to grow and change while we are here. If you could pray for my team’s health (many of us have been feeling under the weather), that the community center would see a big influx of students, and that we would be able to most effectively serve the gypsies whatever that looks like.

Many thanks, Lillian Storm