It was the sight of His children coming to praise Him, and the smell of work, poverty, and a culture inside of a culture (Serbian Roma). Then came another reminder, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." He was right of course. It was so strong at one point that I could almost taste it. Second was the sights and smells I encountered in that tent. I should know that you are protecting me, even my feet.
Into my mind then came the verse that says "Blessed are the feet of those who bring the good news." So I thought, okay God you're right. I realized that probably was a bad move, and that I would probably end up either with something gross on my feet or an injured foot.
First, I only remembered to bring the shoes that were on my feet which were sandals. Two things that I thought about during my time there that I will share. There was over 200 people there, mostly women and children because the men were still working. These people have such energetic prayer and worship. I couldn't understand a lot of what was happening around me, but I couldn't stop smiling. They both are very involved with a large Roma church (for those of you that may not know what that means - gypsy is the less nice word for Roma). We got there, put our bags down, ate, then went to service. She graciously opened her house up to us for the night. Anyways, it was a 7+ hour journey to south Serbia to pick up another woman that was a long time friend of theirs and also used to be a missionary in Sarajevo for the conference. I also got to share a humorous moment with them along the journey as I encountered my first "squatty" aka a bathroom that is just a hole in the ground. One is a long time YWAM-er and the other the wife of our contact here in Sarajevo. I must say they are great, and I liked them from when I first met them. Less than 24 hours after finding out, I was in a little car headed for Macedonia with two women I had met the day before. A few hours later, while helping Kristie pack all her stuff for the conference, I found out I too would be going to Macedonia. Next thing I know my hand is in the air and a phone call is being made. Side note: when we were praying for outreach in the beginnings of March, one of the students was praying and got a verse that read "Come over to Macedonia and help us." As you know, neither teams are going to Macedonia as part of their outreach, but when this came up I realized it was Gods way of telling us to keep our eyes, ears and hearts open for Macedonia. Funny enough, my leader beat me to it and asked if she would like an extra set of hands. You've been praying for a children's program to work with, go for it." But of course, I wanted to check with my leader first. Toms way of explaining what was going on immediately made me think, "Carley, offer to help with the children. She had just arrived back from the States on Monday night and was leaving early Wednesday morning to travel again. Tuesday morning Tom (one of the main leaders of the house churches here) came to see us unexpectedly and asked if a few of us could come over to help his wife prepare for a children's program she was running in Macedonia.
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