Macedonia--Conclusion

The Macedonia team is back stateside! Our last days is Eastern Europe were simply incredible. We saw God work not only in the big scheme of things, but also down to the smallest details. From losing passports and recovering them in the most God-authored way to developing lasting relationships. We could have chosen so many things to write about in our T5, but we felt these stood out the most:

1. Meeting Slave (pronounced Slah-vay) and touring the sports complex

2. Meeting Asteria

3. Reuniting with the med students 

4. Spending the evening in our hosts', Bob's and Becky's, home

5. London

First, in the town of Strumica, we met Slave, a local pastor who is so much more than a local pastor! Slave is a man of vision, the only evangelical pastor on TV in the country of Macedonia. It was Slave's vision to create a Christian sports complex--again, the only one in Macedonia--to use as a vehicle for the gospel. As we talked to him about our vision for Young Life, about how God has used Young Life to change the lives of millions of teenagers around the world, Slave began to formulate all kinds of plans for bringing YL into his city and how we could collaborate to accomplish that. Slave and his fellow workers have been continually persecuted by the local Communist government (The Republic of Macedonia is only 20 years old, and there is still much Communist influence). Their courage and determination to continue on mission with the gospel makes them heroes in our eyes. How privileged we feel to come alongside these brothers and sisters in Christ.

We were blessed to meet Asteria, a beautiful saint currently bed-ridden in a nursing home. As a young girl, Asteria, born in France, felt God calling her to be a missionary. She wound up in Macedonia. Her first husband was killed by the Communist regime because he was a Christian. She told us the police took great pleasure in telling her she would never see him again--and then they poisoned him. She continued to--in her words-- "preach the gospel" everywhere she went. Her second husband, also a missionary, died. Her son was murdered. She later approached her son's killer and told him that she forgave him. Asteria continues to "preach the gospel" from her sickbed in the nursing home. She said she would always "preach the gospel." And she prayed for us. It was a truly beautiful, powerful, and humbling experience to listen to her story.

On our last night in Macedonia, we arranged via Facebook to meet up with our med student friends that we had met in the park earlier that week. We met them at an Irish pub and then went for a walk around the city. We spent several hours just talking and laughing and hearing about each other's lives. It was a beautiful thing to be able to connect with people our own age from another culture. While there were definitely some differences, we found so many things we had in common. Their English was excellent and we had similar tastes in music and movies. Obviously all being college students, we shared ideas and desires about the future. Through the wonders of technology, we've been able to keep up with them and look forward to hopefully seeing them again when we return next May. 

After we left Skopje, Macedonia, we headed to Sophia, Bulgaria, to spend the evening with our wonderful hosts', Bob and Becky. We went out to eat at a local Bulgarian restaurant and then back to their home. It was a great night to worship and brainstorm ideas for the future of Young Life in Macedonia.

God is so good in that He likes to surprise us with fun opportunities. On our way back to the States, we spent the night in London just for fun. We only had about five hours, and London is a biiigggg city. We ate dinner and then walked around for a bit. After seeing Buckingham Palace, which was the highlight of the night, we headed back to our hotel for a few hours of sleep before hopping on the plane to Chicago the next morning. 

Our trip was incredible to say the very least. We wish we could write every detail of what God showed us and what He is doing in us as a result of the trip. We are so very thankful that He chose to share with us some of His plan for Macedonia, and we look forward to being a part of it for years to come. 

Macedonia Days 4 & 5

Day 4 and 5 Hey friends!  It's Barbara here to update you on two recent days in Macedonia. We are currently on a bus to a new town but I'm so excited to share with you about the days we spent in Struga and Ohrid! T5 of days 4 and 5:  1.  Leading the first ever YL Club in the town of Struga!  2. Eating dinner overlooking Lake Ohrid...nonstop laughter! 3. Exploring an ancient fortress and churches. Left in awe by how long our King Jesus has been worshipped. 4. Walking down a cobblestone street and  our whole team breaking into 'The Brady Bunch' theme song.  5. Sharing sacred ground with a couple hundred NATO troops from 14 different countries. Including an Army Officer from Georgia who has ties to Young Life. Wow... It's hard to know where to begin this blog entry! Friends and family- get your ears ready to hear a whole lot of stories when we return from this adventure, there is SO much to share! These two days (really, the whole week) can be summed up with one simple word- JOY. The past couple of months the Lord has continued to lead me to Psalm 16:11: "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Leading up to this trip my  prayer was that I would experience the presence of God wherever He chose to lead us.  I didn't want to come into this trip with my eyes only half open- I knew we would visit incredible sights and meet a lot of new friends, and I wanted to be intimately aware of the Holy Spirit's presence in every moment. The Lord has been pouring His sweet presence on us abundantly! Fifty years down the road, if I  remember nothing else about this trip- I'll remember tons of laughter! This joy is just a tiny glimpse into the eternal pleasures He has in store for us when we will be made complete in Jesus. We've had the privilege of touring several ancient churches, some of which date back to 800a.d. The Lord is revealing to all of us how BIG His love is. He has been worshipped as Lord for so much longer than my tiny human mind can comprehend. His Word has remained true through all generations and He is so worthy of all our worship! "Your word, O Lord is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures." Psalm 119:89-90 On Monday  we traveled to visit the town of Struga, the  most beautiful place I have ever laid eyes on. Don't worry- we have A LOT of pictures to share :). Our wonderful host, Bob, has connections to a middle school in the town and we were invited to come and host an "English Club". Well to us, that meant the perfect opportunity to introduce these kiddos to Young Life Club! We planned a condensed version of our typical club that began with teaching the kids how to 'Call the Hogs'. It was amazing how the atmosphere in the room changed after we all made fools of ourselves doing our unheard of hog call. The kids joined in the fun and were eager to participate in all the games! Martin, the Macedonian leader we mentioned previously, gave a short Gospel talk after impressing the kids with his magic tricks. The teacher requested that our club last 30 minutes at most...Well... an hour and 45 minutes later we  left the school in AWE of how incredible the experience was! I must admit, it's a bit tempting to stick around and begin YoungLife here! :)  Join us in praying for God to raise up Young Life leaders to carry His name to Struga! My words do no justice to all that we are seeing, learning and experiencing. Thanks for reading and giving me grace as I've only barely begun to process everything the Lord is speaking to me here. I'm praying repeatedly for God to cement on  my heart all that He is revealing to me. I am so thankful to be here, and cannot wait to share more with you soon! There is still much ahead! Thank you for your prayers! All is Grace, Barbara

Work Week!

Our team of ten college students got back from Work Week a few days ago. Work Week is a week where volunteers travel to camps all over the country to get the camp ready for campers during the summer. In Mark 10:45, Jesus says, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and be a random for many."  It's easy and natural for us to want it to be the other way around, but as our team found this past week, there is great joy in serving and giving their lives away. Psalm 100:2 says to "Serve the Lord with gladness..." Most of our girls were in the dining hall, which was not the most rewarding job because they felt as if they weren't doing anything that seemed to have lasting value, that years from now they could say "I built that!" or "I painted that!", but it ended up being an incredible experience. It was powerful in large part because they got to work alongside the Capernaum group. The unity and love between the groups was overwhelming. Their Capernaum friends were so amazing, fun, and full of life. They worked hard and played harder. They danced, told jokes, and always put a smile on everyone's faces. The second to last night, they put on a Capernaum talent show for the whole work week crew, complete with program, characters, and everything. They did dances, stand-up comedy routines, recited poetry, sang Justin Bieber, and did the infamous Banana song with strobe lights and the whole shabang. At the end, they turned on some music and, in true Young Life form, everyone had a huge impromptu dance party. The whole Fayetteville crew was on stage jumping up and down in a huge mosh pit with their new Capernaum friends. It was a beautiful moment of fun and laughter and that John 10:10 abundant life. Everyone on that stage was loving with wreckless abandon...loving each other like Jesus loved. The entire week was full of moments like those... When you're able to have deep and meaningful conversations with people you'd only met two days before, or having a dance party with hundreds of college kids that you don't even know, but you're all their for the same purpose; spending time with Jesus in one of the most beautiful places on earth, sharing life stories, finding ways to laugh hysterically even when you're cleaning disgusting bathrooms or picking up sticky plates for the 8th time, or playing freeze tag with the Capernaum group. It was moments like those made everyone so incredibly grateful for Jesus and the work He calls us to. It's not because He can't do it. It's because we experience Him so richly and completely when we experience the freedom of walking in His will. It made the team realize that He's the common denominator in so many lives. He breaks down all barriers so that we can work and play as one unified body of believers. Work Week is truly an incredible opportunity to serve with joy and gladness. It's an incredible opportunity to give your life away only to find it.

Macedonia Days 2 and 3

Hey there Young Life friends! This is Lauren Bevan coming at ya live from a teeny tiny hostel in Skopje, Macedonia. I'm one of the six blessed leaders from Fayetteville who hopped on a plane (or 5) to travel across the world and serve in whatever way Jesus sees fit.  Since our last blog update about this trip, we have been increasingly blown away by this place and the sweet people that inhabit it. Here's our "T5" from the last two days :)  1. Meeting Martin, a potential volunteer Young Life leader from Skopje.  2. Spontaneous hangout with 30ish med students from Skopje University. 3. Being apart of TWO bilingual worship services- both at a Youth Center last night, and church this morning. 4. Picnic and hike at the BREATHTAKING Matka Canyon this afternoon, with all potential volunteer leaders and our hosts.  5. Baklava. Enough Said.  While spending some alone time in the word today, I read this from Psalm 40:5-  "Many, O Lord My God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you, were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare."  This TRULY has been my heart's cry since we arrived here. God has surpassed any and all of my expectations I had going into the trip. And trust me when I say, I had very high expectations. I have been desperately praying for God to send me overseas for the past 3+ years. Also trust me when I say, if I could have imagined what my first international mission trip were to look like- this would NOT have been it.  Because this trip was, in many ways, such a mystery to all of us before we got here- I have to admit, the fear of the unknown threatened my excitement. While we were obviously aware of what our general purpose was in coming here, the specifics of our itinerary weren't clear until the night before this adventure began. But in this moment, I have a crazy amount of thankfulness for this. There was so much beauty in the unknown, just as there has been so much beauty in every second spent here. We have all joked over and over about how much we have already done in such a short amount of time. Our mission work has not been your typical restructuring of homes or feeding impoverished populations- but by serving God through developing relationships to create the framework of Young Life in eastern Europe. We truly are apart of something groundbreaking in this faraway country that the typical American wouldn't even be able to point to on a map.  I'll close with this: the world is so small in comparison to the bigness of our God's heart.  PS. Tomorrow we're headed to our second Macedonian destination: Struga! Check back with us for more posts :) 

Macedonia Day 1

Our team of six college students and staff members arrived last night in Skopje, Mocednoia. In just our first day, we are already blown away by the work God is doing in this country through Young Life and that he has called us to be a part of helping lay the groundwork. We're stoked about everything God will be showing us over the next week. We'd love to share our Top Five (T-5) of the day! 1) Breakfast with Macedonian pastor and his wife 2) Gypsy kids 3) Birthplace of Mother Theresa 4) Five century year old bridge 5) Sweet Home Alabama This morning we met a Macedonian pastor, Pavla, and his wife, Susanna, who are interested in starting Young Life Capernaum ministry for kids with special needs. They shared with us their vision for how Capernaum can help their daughter and other kids with special needs in Macedonia. We exchanged ideas on how to collaborate with them on how to make that happen. While eating lunch in the city square, we were approached by three modern gypsy children. We've learned that in part of the gypsy culture, parents send their young children out in the community to beg for money. Francis, a local Young Life volunteer, bought them food, and we got to hang out and talk with them. We were uncomfortable at first, but when Francis began to ask if they knew Jesus loved them, it became a beautfiul, living picture of the gospel in how Christ reaches out and loves the lowly and unlovable. We feel blessed to have our Young Life hosts, Bob, Biljana, and Francis, who are teaching us about the culture and history of Macedonia. In our explorations, we visited the birthplace of Mother Therea and walked across a five century year old bridge. This bridge seperates the Macedonian Orthodox side of Skpoje from the Albanian Muslim side. Finally, we ended the day at a coffee house off the square. There was a live band playing Sweet Home Alabama. They're ready for Young Life club!

Summer 2012

   In just four years, God has launched six ministries in Northwest Arkansas: YoungLives for teens moms, Capernaum for kids with disabilities, Wyldlife for middle school and junior high, Young Life at Fayetteville High School and Har-Ber High School, and Young Life College at the University of Arkansas. Between four staff members and 50 volunteer leaders, God has grown Northwest Arkansas beyond what we could have imagined. As this semester is wrapping up, we get to reap the harvest of the last four years with a pretty incredible summer.
   First, we have a team of six college students and staff members going on a mission trip to Macedonia where Young Life is getting started. In Acts 16:9, Paul has a vision of a man from Macedonia "standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.'" We could not be more thankful that the Lord is letting us in on what he is doing in Macedonia, and has been doing in this part of the world for thousands of years. The team leaves May 16th and returns May 27th.
   We have two high schools trips this summer. The first, from June 2-9, is a Wilderness trip where a small group of senior guys will be more intensely discipled. Wilderness is a backpacking trip in Colorado. Our second trip, from June 23-July 1, includes about 50 high school students and their leaders going to Windy Gap in Weaverville, NC. Some may be hearing the gospel for the first time while experiencing the best week of their lives as they do things they may have never done before: horseback riding, ropes courses, ziplining, etc.
   July 2-5 we will be taking a group of Wyldlife kids to Clearwater Cove in Lampe, MO. Also that week, from the 5th to the 7th, we will have YoungLives camp at the same property where kids and their leaders can sing, dance, cliff jump, play volleyball and other games, and hear the gospel.
   Meanwhile in Fayetteville... Taco Tuesdays! For college students sticking around this summer, we will be having dinner and a bible study every Tuesday. We'll cover things like apologetics, marriage, how God has gifted us, spiritual warfare, etc. Also, after our high school friends get back in town from camp, we will start a campaigner group and have a bible study for the remainder of the summer.
   As you can see, God has big plans this summer! Would you please join us in praying for these leaders, kids, and college students as they embark on their summers? Pray for safe travels and transformed lives. Pray that their hearts would be soft and moldable and that the Lord would reach each one exactly where he/she needs. Thank you!