Homesick and Blessed

The feeling of being homesick is something that almost all humans can at least relate with a little bit. It’s that kind of achey feeling in the middle of your chest that (for me) almost causes some tears but then other times it’s just a feeling of pure “meh.” If you haven’t at least experienced a similar feeling there may be a problem….or you may be dead? (Just kidding; sometimes I try to make jokes and they aren’t funny so bear with me). Y’all. Being away from home and from loved ones is hard; and I’m not going to even pretend that it’s not.

At home I’m what society would call a social butterfly. Yes, I have a main group of friends (holla at my slomies), but I also value the interests and opinions of many groups of people. For this reason, I find myself hanging out with a variety of humans; and for that reason, I miss a lot of people. Lately, social media is how I’ve been keeping up with what my friends are doing, and occasionally have been able to FaceTime or Skype; but the WiFi is super picky on base so most of the time I have to go to a local coffee shop in order to have a non-glitchy conversation with someone.

I have been trying my hardest to keep things on the up & up, focusing on all of the wonderful things that the Lord has provided my team and I with, and less on the things that I don’t have. I think one of the traps that we fall into as humans is focusing too much on the negative–we have that habit of being like “yeah, I have this, but I want this” and so on and so forth.

When we fall into this trap we take value away from the things that God has blessed us with. And if I’m going to be completely honest, that’s 90% of the reason that I’m even writing about this; to let myself process through the feeling of “lacking” and diving into more of what the Lord has provided me with. So let’s just go over some of the blessings that I have experienced this past week in the wonderful, challenging city of Skopje, Macedonia (and if you’re still wondering how to pronounce that, it’s pronounced like scope-ee-yay, the ‘j’ sounds like a ‘y’ and yeah the Macedonian and Albanian languages are confusing, so, sorry).

Blessing number 1: My team

In my second post regarding training camp I pulled out Proverbs 27:17, which talks about iron sharpening iron and that’s how we should be sharpening our brothers and sisters in Christ. Well, I would be lying if I said I haven’t already been called out on some things. It’s cool. It’s done with love, kindness, and grace, and I appreciate my teammates partnering with me to make me more of a woman of God; and that’s only one of the reasons that these six women are blessings to me. Even beyond that, they are some of the most kind, goofy, intentional, loving, and grace-filled women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. They’re the kind of women who will challenge me, work through processing those challenges with me, keep me accountable, love on me without expecting anything in return, and will climb into my top-bunk with me while I’m crying; and either sit with me just to make sure I’m okay, or will talk in some ridiculous voices to get me laughing so hard my stomach cramps. These are the women that I will be living with for the next two and a half months, and I can confidently say that these women will be lifelong friends.

Blessing number 2: Ministry Hosts

My team has two official hosts, but three unofficially (again, I won’t use their real names, but for the sake of this blog let’s just call our main host David, his wife Isabel, and our other host Rose). Let’s start with Rose.

Rose is from Albania, she is probably in her late thirties or early forties,and is one of the cutest humans that I have ever met. Last weekend she had my teammate Lillian and I over to her apartment for dinner, sequence–10 games to be exact (to my family: yes, I actually played all ten of these games so you can keep your snarky comments about me hating games to yourselves, k thanks lol) and a sleepover. She made us a traditional Albanian meal called Bershesh, which is boiled, seasoned chicken that is then baked or fried, and then leeks are fried in butter and added to the stock, and then homemade cornbread that is crumbled and then is added and boiled with the chicken stock. Holy moly. I don’t think I have tasted anything like this before. IT IS SO GOOD.

She constantly loves on our whole team and is quick to joke, give hugs (I’m all about the hugs) and have deep conversations with us. She reflects the love and hospitality of Christ on such a personal level. When she served us dinner I actually started crying a little bit because the meal reminded me of something that either my mom or Oma would make. She made her little fourth floor apartment feel like home when my home is 6,500 miles away, and I cannot wait to continue to get to know her and her heart on a more personal level over the next two months.

David and Isabel. First off. Let me just tell y’all about how cute these two are as a couple. We’ve only been here for two weeks or so, but the amount of times that I have seen these two emulate the love of Christ to each other and within their relationship is incredible. Isabel is shy, and David is outspoken–wildly outspoken. The second time that we had service on Sunday morning, he walked to where she was sitting and sat and worshiped with her and prayed over her. He was giving the sermon, and left the front of the room to be in communion with his wife and the Holy Spirit; and holy moly, the way he looks at her makes all of our hearts melt. Christ is so palpable in their relationship, and it’s a massive encouragement for me in mine with my boy. The crazy part is that they just celebrated their first wedding anniversary, and they treat each other as though they have been together for much longer.

Isabel serves with a pure heart, and is crazily humble. She loves on our team, and can tell when one of our team members is having a rough day. She offers us tea and coffee, to make us lunch, and doesn’t allow us to help with the dishes–no matter how many times we insist on doing them for her. She loves the Lord so completely and so fully; and it shows in all of her relationships. I strive to be the kind of woman and (eventually) the kind of wife that she is.

Blessing number 3: Accommodations

The accommodations that my team is currently receiving is so much more than what we were originally told. Originally, we were under the impression that we would not have any WiFi, would be sleeping on cots, and would be hand washing all of our clothing. The reality, however, is much different. We have bunk-beds with sheets and pillows, a working washing machine and dishwasher, and we have WiFi in the apartment (now, whether or not we steal it from the cafe below us is debatable, but ya know, ya gotta do what ya gotta do).

Basically, we’re super super beyond blessed to have all of these things, and to be able to stay in contact with loved ones and have these accommodations is yet again another way the Lord has pulled through for us.

Overall, my goal for this trip is to continue to focus on all that God has blessed us with, both people wise, accommodations wise, and experience wise, and to be able to bring that gratitude and joy for Him back home with me on November 29th.

Until next time,

Mads

PS: in exactly 10 days I will be one third of the way done with my mission here in Skopje. How crazy is that?!