A Macedonian Taste of Fall

Some of you, ok one of you (but I know more of you are dying to know), asked what the picture of the jar of ajvar was that I put on fb.  Ajvar is the taste of Macedonia in the fall.  It is what you smell as you turn every corner around town.  Smoke billows from giant wood burning outdoor stoves as the Macedonians char their crops of red peppers on it. Kilos and kilos of red peppers are seared on all sides. Then they peel the peppers, grind the peppers and throw the peppers in a big pot to boil with some seasonings. And then you get ajvar--jars and jars of ajvar that are made in nearly every home to eat all throughout the winter months. 

This stuff! with some white feta-like cheese, called sirenje, as it's accompaniment. So SO YUM!

It's a staple in every Macedonian diet. And I guess like some in America would judge the arrival of fall by the pumpkin spice latte's return, it's not fall in Macedonia until red peppers are roasted and boiled down into this yummy paste. And while I don't love everyone's ajvar, our neighbor makes what I am sure to be the best ajvar in the country. Slather a big scoop of it on some bread--not WonderBread, but real actual fresh baked bread that will go bad if you don't eat in 24 hours, cut a piece of fresh sirenje, and you have a traditional Macedonian meal that is magically delicious!

And for a little TBT (throw-back Thursday) here are some more blogs on the deliciousness of ajvar and how it's made and Macedonia in the fall. Enjoy a pumpkin spice latte for me while you read about our little Macedonian world in the fall.

They Saw Beyond the Landmarks

Sunday, we met a couple that is new to Ohrid, Americans, CPers for the last 30 years in Mexico, and they think God may be calling them here. They spent a little time in Italy working on visa stuff before continuing on to Macedonia where they knew God was leading them to at least explore. They joined us for worship and then we took them for lunch.

After enjoying our meal, telling them about the city and hearing their heart, they said a profound thing--a thing that I think most people living in America don't realize, the thing I think the church in America needs to hear. They said, "We have worked in a very poor part of the world where people would never want to vacation.  Living there was hard. Since we've been here we keep thinking, living here will be easy, but there is such a spiritual darkness here. You can feel it.  Europe is a Godless place, and you can feel the darkness."

Yes. Easy to live. Mostly comfortable. No mud hut in the middle of a nowhere village with generators as your only source of electricity. WiFi is everywhere. The bathroom situation--well, it's not all that dramatic--most of the time. It's gorgeous. Even if you don't live in a city that is gorgeous, there is one just an hour or two away.  There is little to no threat of war in most places (or so that used to be). Alps and beautiful mountain ranges everywhere. Gorgeous beaches line its coastline. 1000 year old churches. Architecture with personality. Cobblestone streets. Beauty everywhere.

But It. Is. Hard. If you are in anyway walking in the light of salvation, you can feel the darkness. You can see the darkness everywhere. People are hard and cold. People are hopeless and broken. They are taught to not feel--or not to show their feelings. It's shame. It's only expected that the man of the house is looking at porn and most likely committing adultery left and right. Women are going on depression meds in exponential numbers. College educated men are driving taxis or sitting at home because there are no jobs. There is brokenness at every turn. The religious leaders only want their money. The saints they pray to can't hear their prayers. The candle they lit can't make them feel better.  The motion they made over their chest in the form of a cross is only a hope for some kind of good luck. "As long as you believe in something" they will say, while they really don't believe in anything.  They will proclaim themselves atheists as they drive by the church and cross themselves "for good health."

And so what our new friend said wasn't something that I had forgotten. It wasn't news to me. I live comfortably in a dark and broken land every day. What made it so profound to me was that she had only been here a few days, and she knew it. She felt it. She saw it everywhere and in everything. The lack of light. The need for hope. The need for God. And I thought, I wonder how many American Christians do their European vacations and miss it. They see a pretty church and think about the amazing church history here, but they don't open their eyes to see. They don't let their hearts feel that the history doesn't matter if the effects of it have died.

So when you plan your vacations on pinterest and save your pennies to go see Notre Dame, pray that God will do a mighty work in and throughout Europe again--one so mighty and so powerful that the enemy will not be able to hold it.  Pray that the hard concrete hearts of Europeans will be broken over their sin only to find joy and healing at the cross. Pray that they will be saved in mass numbers, that the believers will bear much fruit and that the glory of God in this part of the world will be displayed for the rest of the world to see.

For more info on work in Europe visit: Look Beyond the Landmarks or IMB Europe

A Little Poem

Almost everyday, Kate has a new poem to learn for school. This week, Macedonia celebrated its 23rd birthday, and so one of the poems this week is all about their country of birth or "Father Land".

(Thomas is waving the Macedonian flag he made at school this week, and while he looks less than thrilled, he really was quite excited to be waving his flag.) 

Technically this isn't Kate's 'father land,' but she was born here. We brought her home from the hospital in this very country. She took her first steps here. She said her first words here. She learned Macedonian right along with English. She learned how to ride her bike on two wheels on these streets right outside. This has been the only home she has ever known. Our beautiful Ohrid is the only home any of our kids have known. We love Macedonia and we are so very thankful for every moment we have had here.

The words of the poem are

The Picture of the Father Land

The picture of the school. 

The picture of the park. 

The picture of the birds.

 The picture of the air.

 The picture of the heart, the soul, 

happiness.

The picture of love is the picture of the father land.

Sweet, right?!  I can't help thinking of heaven. We live for the land to come, the home that Jesus is preparing for us in His Father's house. But here and now, the picture of those birds and the park and the heart and soul and happiness: it all points to Jesus. The picture of love: it IS Jesus. The land that we love so much here on earth can't begin to compare with what awaits us in eternity. We were made for more! And so, I remind myself of that, of Jesus, of His great love for us. And while I'm here, I will strive to tell everyone I can of that heavenly home where they, too, are welcome because they are so deeply loved by the Father. Oh that those around us would just taste and see the picture of His heart, His soul. There is happiness--joy and pleasures forevermore. Oh that they would see the picture of His great love!

Risk It All

This video is one of those that I could watch 100 times and it would still send a chill up my spine. It would still make the hairs on my arms stand up. It would still make me want to Risk. It. All.
Risking it all and following Jesus - A Future City - David Platt from IMB on Vimeo.

I understand that we can get really wrapped up in emotion and feelings, experiences and the hype that comes with them. We can have those "youth camp experiences" and go back to complacency and our 'spiritual formalism' tomorrow. And then, we can get wrapped up in the day to day mundane. There is nothing wrong with the day to day. Let's face it, there has to be some sort of daily grind to pay bills, to feed our kids, to educate them in the gospel. Shoot, somebody's got to clothe, feed, and teach these little rascals to read and write. And it is good and honorable to do these things. But y'all, if the Word of God doesn't move you, if the gospel isn't moving you to do more than the mundane, to step up and out of your comfort zone, to attempt some big fat out-of-our-mind-things for the one who left His throne to DIE for us, then maybe we need to re-examine our days, our hearts. That doesn't mean the same thing for all of us. I get that. But our God is the God of the nations, and His love for the nations should compel us to love the nations like He does. He is deserving of the worship of people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and it is time we stop fighting over styles of worship music and colors of carpet and start falling on our faces in worship on that very carpet to beg God to move in mighty ways among the nations. And then to offer ourselves, our bank accounts, our very lives as tools in God's hands.  He wants us to be a part of it.  We have been given much, church, let's be faithful in using it to advance the Kingdom of God in our homes, in our hometowns, and around the world.  Let's not let the excitement that we feel when we watch a video like this one dwindle into complacency by bedtime. Let's risk it all!!!

Summer Ends, School Begins (Kind of)

I just love the beginning of school. I love school supplies, lunch boxes, new shoes, sharpening pencils, packing backpacks, and the excitement of a new beginning. Yep, I am a nerd. Yesterday was the official end of the summer lazy days, and I am happy happy happy!  Summer is fun and long-awaited come May, but really, I need some form of structure and try as I may have, it just didn't happen this summer.

We tried to take last week and do a few things to end the summer with a bang.  In lieu of driving 3 hours to the nearest water park, we decided to just take the kids to the beach here that has a water slide and a dock to jump off of.  So fun!

Muscle Beach-- Davis Family Tradition

This kid seriously loves the water. He is also, by far the most dressed child at the beach.  We get all the stares cause our children wear bathing suits (most children run around the beach naked here), and Isaiah is almost completely covered cause we are all informed about skin cancer and terrified that if we don't cover every inch of him we have doomed him.  We don't try and explain that to the people who ask us why our baby is wearing a shirt, why he is wearing a bathing suit that almost comes to his ankles and why we lather our children up immensely with copious amounts of sunscreen. We just smile and say, "Oh, he's American." and that seems to be an ok answer for their inquiring minds. 

Out in the middle of the lake on a paddle boat.  Gorgeous!

You see their feet? The water is so clean and beautiful! Cold as ice, but bearable on a hot summer's day.

Brian tried to teach the kids how to do a cannon ball, which really just meant lots of entertainment for the Macedonians on the beach. :)

The day after our big beach day, we took the kids to the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain for a one-night camping trip.  Camping is one of those things Brian and I both did growing up, and we wanted the kids to have the joy of sitting around a campfire, roasting marshmallows, dodging spiders,  and sleeping on an air-mattress that deflates through the night leaving your bones grinding into the hard ground at 3 'o clock in the morning.  We were the only people for miles... well, other than a shepherd and one fellow riding through the fields looking for cows.  That's right ladies and gentlemen, there is no need to be afraid of bears or mountain lions, but you better watch out for the wild cows.  Truth be told, I think the sheep-herding dogs are some of the most ferocious animals I have ever seen. So other than one (ridiculous) encounter Brian threw himself into, we stayed as far away from the sheep as we could.

Wide open spaces and clean air made for one amazingly relaxing get-away. Isaiah was in heaven.

The boys loved the fire.  

We had a stash of marshmallows from the states. So we enjoyed boo-koos of s'mores. We even had s'mores for dessert after breakfast the next morning. Nutrients galore.

Yum!

Hiking with daddy.  

Hide and seek in the woods. 

We all had so much fun, but alas, the summer has come to an end (Amen!). School started back yesterday.  I love and hate the first day of school here. I love it cause it is the first day of school. I hate it because it is basically just open-house. The kids go for an hour the first day, get their supply list, say hey to everyone and come back home.  So today, we walked Kate to second grade (American 1st grade) to stay for an hour and a half. Ugh! Enough of this easing them in, already. Let's do this thing. Kate is ready to get started full-time. The child is ready for homework and book reports and science projects.

Thomas getting ready to go into his school for the beginning of his last year of preschool. What?! He was super brave walking into his school this year. Answered prayer!

Our cutie little Kate.  She had her back-pack all ready and was super disappointed they didn't get any books and that she didn't get to break in her new pencils on the first day.

Three beautiful babies!!!

Because of overcrowding, Kate's school runs on shifts.  For two weeks, she goes from 8-12 and for two weeks, she goes from 2-6. Second shift is my least favorite thing ever! Just when the day is starting to wind down into nap and then dinner, we are sending Kate to school. I suppose it is nice to get to sleep in for two weeks, though. So, we will just be really thankful for that! :) And maybe tomorrow she will go to school for more than an hour and a half. Here's hoping school really starts tomorrow! :)