Sunday, June 26, 2011

Last night’s message went well. I spoke about the power of being a Christian versus the powerlessness of doing the Christian things. I explained how only Christians can walk like Jesus and that the a bad tree cannot bear good fruit, and so it’s worthless to try to be like Jesus unless you have the same life that He has and that same seed of God in you. After the group ended, Zivko got together with the young adults who normally lead worship and who are leading the worship time at the youth camp they have in a couple of weeks, and I hung around and met different people from the youth. Many of them were 19-20-21 and in college in Skopje. They are studying IT, Computer graphics design/marketing, agriculture technology, etc. I found out that we were going to go out for dinner as a large group (the young adults) and so I went to my room and read and sang a little while I waited for their meeting to finish. For dinner we went back to the Corzo (that long street where people gather), and we stopped at a restaurant whose owners were friends with Zivko and one of the younger brothers with us. At dinner I learned that this younger brother’s father (his sister and cousin were also with us) is one of the primary businessmen in Macedonia. They attend the local Methodist church, but come to the youth group because they have all grown up together and gone to school together and play music in the worship band together. It was a good time of fun, relaxation, and lots of joking. As I’ve mentioned before, I see the people in the Balkans most happy around the meal table and when telling a joke. But, be careful, if you aren’t one of the minority parties and try telling a joke, you’ll probably be seen as an oppressor. I haven’t had that misfortune yet, but I did notice uneasiness once when I cracked a joke about one of the countries. It’s like the use of the n-word in the States. If you’re using it and you aren’t black, then you’re racist. It’s not a parallel situation, but it’s analogous. After dinner, we dropped off a brother and Zivko’s sister and headed back to the church. There I cleaned up and went straight to bed in order to get a few hours of sleep before preaching in the morning.

Okay, so I wakeup after 3 hours of sleep and get to work making sure my message is clear. I’m giving a straight Gospel message – God’s character, man’s character, The dilemma of God’s justice, the God’s self-motivation to save, the required response of men, what true faith is, and bearing fruit (including baptism and sharing the Gospel). After finishing my preparation and getting ready for the service I went downstairs and met a few people who had already arrived. I continued to meet people until it seemed that no more would come and grabbed a seat in the front. Pr. Toni came and sat beside me and I asked him to pray and he did. The service began with singing. I knew a few of the songs by heart and was able to sing along in English. Otherwise, all of the songs were in Macedonian and not transliterated (in Cyrillic). Their soundboard/mixer just broke, and so they are without the ability to have their worship band play. Thus, Zivko played the piano and Pr. Toni led in singing. Zivko and his sister are incredible musicians. They both have been ranked at the top in Macedonia among musicians. Zivko was once the #1 theoretical musician in the whole country, and his sister, Ellie, was one of its best pianists (though she had an undiscoverable nerve problem in her right hand that forced her to stop playing daily – and so she stopped going to music school though she is still phenomenal). After we finished singing, Pr. Toni invited me up to preach and Zivko and I gave the Word (he translated). We sang some more after the message and prayed before leaving. Pr. Toni and I said goodbye to everyone as they left the church. There was quite a bit of hanging around afterward (This was the 9:00am service in Monospitovo). From there, Zivko, Stephanie, and I drove to Strumica for the 11:00am service there. I didn’t have to preach. Instead, another brother from the U.S., from Chattanooga, TN, was there giving the word. He is a worship leader at The Net church. It’s a North Point styled plant a few years old. He and I were glad to connect as the only U.S. citizens we’d seen in awhile, and I found out that he has a good friend who travels around the world helping churches and church-planters get setup with microfinance businesses. He’s going to send me this friend’s contact information. He preached on God’s life-giving love out of John 4 (the Samaritan woman at the well). He also shared his testimony which was pretty amazing. He was a missionary kid in Germany until moving to the States where he was constantly picked on, had his leg broken by a jealous upperclassmen, was told he was worthless and should have been aborted by a music teacher in front of the whole band, and sought satisfaction and fulfillment in all the wrong places. It was a strong message. After church, Stephanie, Zivko, headed to Pr. Toni’s home for lunch (with Desi, Ellie, and Philip). Pr. Toni loves bluegrass music, especially the Gaither album. HAH! He shared that with me and we had a great lunch afterward. Then they asked me to show them a little breakdancing as they don’t see that anywhere in the country.

Hilarious story: So I go to the restroom in the home and lock the door. Interestingly, the lock didn’t work the best – meaning it didn’t consistently unlock when you turned the key back. I proceeded to try and leave the bathroom but was unsuccessful in unlocking the door. I knocked and called for Zivko and told him the situation: The keys are on the inside of the bathroom, the door reaches to the floor and so you cannot slide them under or pass them over the top. We’re on the fifth floor of the apartment complex, and there was no ledge. Thankfully, the bedroom window was close enough and about parallel so we were able to pass the key on a broom pole from the bathroom window to the bedroom window and I was out in 10 minutes or so. But it’s always an awkward situation when you get locked in someone else’s bathroom and need a mission impossible scenario to leave.

While chatting, I found out that Ellie was into computer graphic design and marketing (and so was another brother in the young adult group). Given what I’d spoken with Zivko about (regarding the film festival organizer position) and Nicky and Stef from BL Bulgaria, and Ivaylo, Hari’s son, I realized the importance of connecting these brothers to see if there could be a partnership that could harness the competencies and passion for Jesus these young Christians have with the newfound opportunities to affect the culture through audio/visual media. I wrote an e-mail to each of them later in hopes of helping initiate some dialogue and action. Zivko, Stephanie, and I left for the church and I took some time to read and rest. Pr. Toni was going to pick me up around 6 or 7pm to go to Bansko, a nearby village, so that we could visit some sisters and a brother in a hospital for the severely disabled. We took time to talk with them and just hung out, sharing stories and hearing about what was going on in the ward. Some patients were trying to commit suicide, and some are manipulative to others. It was very interesting to say the least. I shared a word about the purpose of God in suffering and sanctification for His glory and our joy. Then Pr. Toni and I sang a song. For the most part, we relaxed and shared – while I listened and Pr. Toni would translate from time to time. I prayed at the end and we left. When I returned to the church, I had some dinner with Zivko and Stephanie and then showed them some videos. Then I packed to go stay at Pr. Toni’s house for the next night as Zivko and Stephanie were headed to Greece for a few days. We said goodbye as the evening ended (the would leave very early), and I went to sleep.