Dobro Jutro!! (Good Morning!)
Today is my turn to lead our morning devotion. We gather downstairs in the church every morning to share stories from the Book of Mark. It is our last devotion together as a team before we leave this place and the people we have come to love so dearly. We are reflecting on Jesus' words to His disciples in Mark 10 that He came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life for many. We wondered aloud if it is harder to die for someone or to live for them...
Before we even left home for this trip, we prayed that we would be the hands and feet of Jesus to those we would be with. We desperately wanted our hearts to be prepared to love, serve and bless the Serbian and Roma people with the love of the Lord. We shared many emotions and thoughts of the week that we have spent together here. We all are a bit numb with emotion and are processing all that we have experienced in a short amount of time.
I find that it has been a week of extremes. We are laughing with great joy one minute and weeping with sorrow the next. We have continually emptied ourselves and at the same time been filled with God's Spirit to love. We have been overwhelmed by their generosity to serve US with so much when the reality is they have very little. Even so...they give all they have so freely to us. Life is very hard for the people in this part of the world. They are so very poor by the world's standards and yet, they are so rich in faith. The joy they have in Jesus is their strength to live life in community with each other. They are people of tremendous faith and prayer. They are free of the worldly distractions and "stuff" that hinder us. "Give us this day our daily bread" is not a foreign thought to these precious people. I greatly admire their courage and steadfastness to trust God for everything they need.
Just as we were about to wrap up our time, Pastor Bata joined us for prayer. Before we started to pray, he said he wanted to share something important with us. With great emotion and heartfelt tears Bata said the Lord woke Him up early in the morning to tell us that this team of seven was hand picked by God---10,000 miles away and months ago---to minister to Him and all of the people in the region (believers and non-believers). He wanted us to know that we did not just come to represent Jesus, but WERE Jesus because of how we loved, blessed and served them. It had nothing to do with the money or the things we brought...just our hearts to love them. With a grateful heart he told us, "This you have done." To us that was huge confirmation that our team did what the Lord asked us to do; individually and collectively. There was not a dry eye in the room. My heart is so full that the tears just flow.
I wrestled often before we left on this trip with what I could bring to the people here and how I could make an eternal difference for them and God. I guess our hearts of compassion and love were enough. God is so faithful and we are so humbled and blessed! I loved how we all encouraged and strengthened each other in the Lord. It was a time of sweet refreshing and connecting within the family of God so many miles away from Oregon.
Soon we will be leaving and another extreme comes to mind. I feel as though I have been away from home for a very long time and yet the week just flew by. So much packed into the time we have been in Leskovac and the surrounding churches. I am going to miss everyone SO much. God willing, we will see one another again before long.
Our time in Serbia has drawn me close to the heart of Jesus. My heart is full to overflowing...
Slava Bogu! (Praise God!)
Lael
Today is my turn to lead our morning devotion. We gather downstairs in the church every morning to share stories from the Book of Mark. It is our last devotion together as a team before we leave this place and the people we have come to love so dearly. We are reflecting on Jesus' words to His disciples in Mark 10 that He came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life for many. We wondered aloud if it is harder to die for someone or to live for them...
Before we even left home for this trip, we prayed that we would be the hands and feet of Jesus to those we would be with. We desperately wanted our hearts to be prepared to love, serve and bless the Serbian and Roma people with the love of the Lord. We shared many emotions and thoughts of the week that we have spent together here. We all are a bit numb with emotion and are processing all that we have experienced in a short amount of time.
I find that it has been a week of extremes. We are laughing with great joy one minute and weeping with sorrow the next. We have continually emptied ourselves and at the same time been filled with God's Spirit to love. We have been overwhelmed by their generosity to serve US with so much when the reality is they have very little. Even so...they give all they have so freely to us. Life is very hard for the people in this part of the world. They are so very poor by the world's standards and yet, they are so rich in faith. The joy they have in Jesus is their strength to live life in community with each other. They are people of tremendous faith and prayer. They are free of the worldly distractions and "stuff" that hinder us. "Give us this day our daily bread" is not a foreign thought to these precious people. I greatly admire their courage and steadfastness to trust God for everything they need.
Just as we were about to wrap up our time, Pastor Bata joined us for prayer. Before we started to pray, he said he wanted to share something important with us. With great emotion and heartfelt tears Bata said the Lord woke Him up early in the morning to tell us that this team of seven was hand picked by God---10,000 miles away and months ago---to minister to Him and all of the people in the region (believers and non-believers). He wanted us to know that we did not just come to represent Jesus, but WERE Jesus because of how we loved, blessed and served them. It had nothing to do with the money or the things we brought...just our hearts to love them. With a grateful heart he told us, "This you have done." To us that was huge confirmation that our team did what the Lord asked us to do; individually and collectively. There was not a dry eye in the room. My heart is so full that the tears just flow.
I wrestled often before we left on this trip with what I could bring to the people here and how I could make an eternal difference for them and God. I guess our hearts of compassion and love were enough. God is so faithful and we are so humbled and blessed! I loved how we all encouraged and strengthened each other in the Lord. It was a time of sweet refreshing and connecting within the family of God so many miles away from Oregon.
Soon we will be leaving and another extreme comes to mind. I feel as though I have been away from home for a very long time and yet the week just flew by. So much packed into the time we have been in Leskovac and the surrounding churches. I am going to miss everyone SO much. God willing, we will see one another again before long.
Our time in Serbia has drawn me close to the heart of Jesus. My heart is full to overflowing...
Slava Bogu! (Praise God!)
Lael
We are so blessed by hearing what is flowing from your hearts...as it is happening! What a deep, rich, fruitful and faith-building trip it seems to have been! Praying for safe travels back! GOD BLESS TEAM SERBIA!! Love you!
ReplyDeleteSo thankful for how God has so obviously worked in and through each one of you!
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