the team of ten from Cedar Crest Baptist Church departed this morning at 620. after a fast and full week, i am sure the return to their own cozy beds will be a sweet reunion at the end of their long travel time.
day one:
we walked up the crooked and crumbling steps of the fortress Kale
to overlook the city and to pray. "As I stood along that wall, I could really feel the presence of God like never before." - Gaylord.
then we had street vendor burgers and split up to walk through a few of the main Roma communities. it was a lot of walking. the group with me got bombarded with snowballs from some little Roma kids. they were playing - but really persistent, even when we didn't play back. then we walked through a gang of 6 year olds whose hands found their ways into our pockets. fortunately they came out empty. then we had worship and fellowship at my apartment.day two:
we walked the streets again, praying for hours. in the afternoon we worked on making paper bricks. i am going to go ahead and give kudos to greg for perfecting the art. he came up with a great method of forming the brick with the available materials we had.
day three:
the majority of this day was spent at the two Roma schools. praying. observing. teaching english lessons.
*** funny story***
the team is from Louisiana and with that comes the sweet southern accents.
mary was teaching the word ball.
the students would repeat after her:
'BAAOWL'
hahahah.
****
the rest of the afternoon was prayer walking around the schools. my half of the group got invited to the home of igber. it was her birthday and she wanted to have company. so we got to visit with her for a while. it was sweet.
this night we enjoyed fellowship over a big and delicious traditional macedonian meal:
tavche gravche, village meat, macedonian meat, shopska, lebche... and some had hot figs with ice cream for dessert. we all about had to roll out of there. my my.
day four:
we prayer walked as we went to the market to look around and buy souvenirs. the five that were with me were forced (by me) to try boza. a mystery drink that is really popular here. i was sort of disappointed because it's usually pretty gross, but this one was actually not bad at all. oh well.
after the market we went to Matka for coffee and a debrief.
then it was called a night so that everyone could rise and shine in time to leave the hotel at 4 am.
God moved in some really sweet sweet ways. He was with us every step of the way. I am praising Him for hand picking this team and bringing them here and for their hearts being called into battle in prayer.
please pray for them as they continue to fight along side us on behalf of the Roma.
