"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."
-2 Corinthians 5:20
We wanted to let you guys know that great things have been going on since the school supply team headed back to America. As you may remember, they handed out about 700 bags of goodies to the kids headed back to school. We placed a lesson about God in almost all of those bags (depending on whether or not parents were present). These lessons could be filled out and returned to receive the next lesson and so on and so forth until the 4th lesson, when we will buy them a backpack. The first lesson is called (literally translated) "How is God?" The second lesson is on the Trinity. The 3rd though the 10th lesson are all about God, Christ, sin, salvation, etc. It is really a great resource and parents have to sit with the kids to fill them out. We really did not expect too many parents to allow their kids to do the lesson and return it for the second lesson, but we have had 10 kids bring back the first lesson so far and a few have even finished the 2nd lesson. This is great news!!! Rejoice with us for the 10 kids and their parents who are learning more about God!!!!
We made many contacts that week and ended up with a bunch of "digits." We have been in contact with a few of them regularly since the trip: Biljana and Lubco have become good friends. We met Biljana when she came in with her two boys. She is a wonderful lady and we have met for coffee several times and even spent the day in Kicevo (see below) together. Please pray for her and her husband to be saved.
Emilija has also become a great contact. She has become a regular at the coffee house, and is very open to talking about spiritual things.
Vlado and Ane came to the coffee house for the concert the team did that week. Brian has since started a Bible study with them in their home. They are always inviting their neighbors to come. We are really enjoying getting to know them and are excited to see what God is going to do with this couple.
There were several other contacts that we made, but we have not been able to get in touch with them yet. Pray that we will as we had many good conversations that week and really want to follow up on those. Praise God for what He is doing in this city!!! Thanks for always praying with us and for us.
In order to understand this post, please read the last post, Kicevo 1 of 2, first.
So today was a completely different experience than yesterday! They still had all the same things going on, but add about 1000-1500 people and it gets crowded! Here are a couple pictures:
Just after we parked the car it was Mandy, Karen, and Kate's turn to get in a picture.
While we were climbing up to the monastery, many people were coming down. It was a constant flow in and out the whole time. When we got there, we went into the church first and the priests and the bishop were singing. It just so happened that they finished and were going outside to conduct one of the three communion services. There was one in the church, one behind the church, and the one in the common area was the big one. Below are pictures of the people in the common area. The priest are the group of white robes in the middle. The ceremony was about one hour!
This last picture below is the soup tent which was being made the night before. After the communion service had finished, it was a race to the tent. They were serving hamburgers and sausage outside of the monastery on the road, but they were insistent that we eat some of the soup because it was made by the church and therefore it would be "for health"
Today was not much different than yesterday, but the line for the hole and the amount of candles was tremendously longer and bigger. It was good for Mandy and Karen because they got to see it for themselves as well. I was able to record this video which shows clearly what people try to do to receive blessing and health. I thought of this verse as I was watching it and decided to call the video "Praising the Bishop" instead of praising the King.
Matthew 14:35-36 (NKJV) "And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well."
Sorry about the shaky camera, but it gets settled.
The month of September has given us a great opportunity to meet and become friends with two other couples in Ohrid. As our relationship has grown, they both separately invited us to go with them on a trip this weekend. Why?
This Sunday is the day they celebrate St. Mary and everyone will go to a church or monastery named after Mary in order to celebrate. Nearly every single church or monastery in Macedonia is named after some kind of saint and almost every single day of the Orthodox Calendar is given to celebrate a saint. The days on which you celebrate the saints who are the most honored in Macedonia have become holidays and a good reason to party/get together. Since this weekend we are talking about Mary, the mother of Jesus, it is a big deal and nearly everyone will be celebrating. There is a monastery named after Mary about 6 miles in the mountains outside a town called Kicevo and it is one of the few areas where everyone in the western half of Macedonia will go if they want to go somewhere outside of their local church named after Mary. Both couples invited us to go to this monastery and fortunately one wanted to do it on Saturday night, and the other wanted to do it Sunday morning. Tonight Mandy and Kate stayed home and I went with the first couple. It turns out it was a great night to go because tomorrow they are expecting over 10,000 people to visit the monastery throughout the day and there was practically no one there when we got there. The absence of a lot of people gave me a good chance to look around and take pictures. First let me show you a couple of pictures of the monastery:
This is the entrance to the monastery. The compound itself is not that big, but it is high in the mountains which makes for a beautiful view.
This tent is where they have three HUGE vats of soup that they are making for Sunday. The table one the left is covered with bowls that they will use to serve the people.
Here is a picture of the church right after you come through the main entrance. The church is so tall that this was the only spot on the compound where I could get a picture of the whole church!
Here is a picture of me with Vlado and Ane in front of the entrance of the church. I made a mistake when I smiled ... you are not supposed to do that in pictures over here.
This is what I always call "the money changers table". When we got there, this table had not been set up yet. You will notice the box in the background and the person on the very right is unwrapping more candles. In the period of about 20 minutes, they had already made over 10 dollars in sales from candles. The reason this is so sad is because they believe that by lighting the candles they are actually giving good health to others as well as helping the dead by honoring them. I almost recorded the conversation I had with a couple of these people, but that would have been strange to them. We all pray for peoples health and it doesn't matter to me how you express that, but the people I talked to distinguished between the prayers and the candles as if the candles themselves did something
This is the living quarters of the monastery
This is a spring and above the spring is an icon of Jesus and the Woman at the Well. (This picture is going to become a tool!)
Here is the backside of the church and the end of the living quarters. This is a beautiful and well-kept compound.
While we were there, the "Vladika" or bishop of all the churches in the area came to the monastery along with an escort of other priests. The bishop is the second black robe from the right with the white beard. You will notice a the head of a man who is returning upright after kissing the bishop's hand.
We ran into one of the friends of Vlado and Ane and were invited into the kitchen for coffee. We spend about 45 minutes in the kitchen talking with about 20 people about life in the villages in the area. It was one of the best experiences of the year for me because I learned a lot about their life and a lot about their beliefs. They are in many ways different than the people in "big-town" Ohrid and it gave me a huge heart for them.
I was able to enter the church and inside the church was much bigger than most churches, but still was nonetheless normal. They had several stands for lighting candles, several icons for kissing and gifting, one special area where there was "Blessed (literally "crossed") water, and a hole. A hole? Yes, see below:
This woman was a part of a LONG line of people waiting to pass through the hole under the icon of Mary three times in order to be blessed by Mary. People were lined up for so many different reasons, but they all believed that passing through the hole three times would give them a better chance of getting what they wanted/needed. Some people were passing through for relatives, some people were passing through for friends, but most were passing through for themselves to get health as well as something else. This was one of the saddest parts of the day for me. This old lady was complaining about her knee hurting (and she touches it at one point in the film), but she had to do it the third time to be heard. At the same time (at the beginning of the video) you will see a beaded necklace/loop passed three times over the body of the lady on the right. This is supposed to represent the transference of blessing from Mary to her. That is why she kisses the necklace as well as crosses herself to Mary at the end. I am sorry for the dipping camera, but although I was allowed to record this, some people were offended that I was recording this very serious event so I made it look like I was reviewing pictures.
This day was actually one of the more sad experiences I have had in Macedonia thus far. We traveled about an hour to get the monastery and while we there, the crowd started pouring in. I sat in the corner of the church and watched people light candles, kiss saints, drink holy water (after they paid for it), and climb through a hole 3 times. There were many people there who were doing it because others were doing it or it was tradition without meaning, but there were also several people who really believed in what they were doing. The reason this is so sad is because although they desire to please God, they are far from understanding Him and knowing Him. God is not reached through lucky charms and dances, and candles are not rabbit's feet. While I was there, they marched a sheep around the church three times and people were touching it for good luck. When everyone had touched it, "for health", they released the sheep into the herd to bless the herd that it might prosper... again "for health". The crowd had dissipated by the time I took this picture. A hireling for the sheep and these two women were the last to touch it.
I prayed hard for these people that someone would tell them that they could know God, that they could talk with Him personally, that they could know His will, that they didn't have to climb through a hole three times to be blessed or any other sort of hokus pokus. I really prayed that someone would explain to them that it was too late to do anything for the dead but it was not too late for them. I wanted to read Luke 16 and harp on the fact that their is no warning from the dead and the dead are fixed in their place, but there still is a chance for us. I also prayed that if God would allow us, we would come back here when our work in "big-town" Ohrid was done ... but I also prayed that people from Ohrid would already have carried the message here before we got the chance! It was a wonderful experience in terms of meeting people, drinking coffee, and learning more about their view of the faith. However, it was also sad because they live in such darkness and ignorance and they have a lot of lucky charms and lucky dances, which for the most part is guesswork as to whether or not it would work, when they could have the one and only truth and know their God!
Yesterday was a GREAT day at the coffee house. The team finished handing out the 700 packets of school supplies that they had made and enjoyed some fun times with the kids in the coffee house. Elley was the official capuccino maker for the day. She has mastered the art. Jeff manned the "ball toss" for awhile and did a great job letting kids throw a hackey sack at some cups. Liz did a great job of face painting and "tatooing" the kids. Mrs. Magaret did a great job at the craft table. I caught her taking a break. :0) Here is a little girl making a craft with Mrs. Magaret. All so that Brian and I could have conversation after conversation with the parents who came in with their kids.
Bradley, Misty, Doyle and Wilson were all out with Melanie and Karen handing some supplies out to the kids in front of the schools. They have some good, exciting stories from their day.
The team has been absolutely phenomenol this week. They have adjusted without complaint to the many changes we have had to make, and they have done it all with a smile. Today is their day off and Brian is taking them on a little site-seeing tour. Tomorrow morning they will do a little more prayer walking and literature distribution, and Friday night they will be giving a concert at the coffee house. We are planning on a BIG crowd! Pray for Wilson, Elley, Liz and Doyle as they prepare to sing. Pray that God would use this concert for His glory and renown in this city.
Thanks so much for praying for this team. God is doing amazing things in the people of Ohrid because of their faithfulness to go.
This is a group of hard workers. They put together 700 bags full of school supplies in 3 hours! WOW! We had an overflow of bags all over our house when they finished. Here they are lining the steps of our basement.
They are all currently at the coffee house giving out the bags and doing prayer walking and literature distribution. In the last 2 hours, they have already had about 30 kids with parents come in. Brian said all the parents have sat down and had coffee with them and the kids are busy making crafts with Mrs. Liz. Great! Continue to pray for a good response!!! And we will keep you all updated!
Bradley and Misty brought me some great stuff from the states. Blow Pops, cheese-nip crakers and Cheerwine. OH BOY!!!! What a blessing! Thanks so much guys!
For an update on the trip stay tuned to http://missiontomacedonia.blogspot.com This is a blog that Jeff, the team leader, put together to keep their prayer partners updated, and we thought you might want to take a look at it too.
The supplies. We are gearing up for the team from NC to come in Saturday night to distribute school supplies, (see post below) and I wanted to make one correction. The team is made up of 8 people: 6 from Stanly County and 3 from Philadelphia Baptist Church in Connelly Springs, NC. We are so excited about their arrival. Their first flight leaves from Charlotte tomorrow at 3:45 PM. Please be in prayer for safe travel and a wonderful experience for them here in Macedonia. Pray for the many people they will meet. We have already had several people come by the coffee house to ask about the group with the school supplies. Pray that we will see spiritual fruit from the labor and sacrifice of this precious group.
