Macedonian People - Week 4

The title of this weeks blog comes from the time I spent at the youth camp getting to know a bunch of the teens better and some for the first time. The main reason I went on this trip was to go to the Tora camp and be able to make a stronger connection with my church and the church in Strumica through the youth group. Now for our last week...

Sunday, we went to both of the church services and then we went over to Filip's house for another wonderful lunch. Other than the people I've become so close to here, I'm really gonna miss the food! We went back home after lunch to do laundry, pack, and rest a bit.
Monday, we left home at 6:30am to meet everyone so we could all go together on a charter bus to Bulgaria for the camp. We had some problems at the border (one guy's passport was expired and the minors had to have a certain paper) but other than that, it was an easy drive. After we got to the hotel, we dropped our bags off in our room and went down for lunch. Then we had free time, dinner, and the opening program.

Every day after that until Saturday, we would have breakfast, devotional time, the morning program and small group, lunch, a "mission", free time, dinner, a team game, and the night program. My small group was Bethany, Lindsey, and the girls from the church in Skopje. Our leaders were Gloria and Stephanie. They were so sweet and welcoming from the moment we met them all. I can definitely say that it was God's plan to put us together. They always included us three girls and we got to know them really well. Again, I love that everyone I met there has already become so important to me and I know we'll stay great friends!

Tuesday night, Bethany shared and sang a song with Stephanie. Wednesday night, it was my turn to share and then Stephanie and I sang the song "Brokenness Aside" together. The youth were so sweet with their comments afterwords! Thursday night, one of the leaders shared about his trip to Africa and then we had lots of worship. It was a very emotional and moving night because we had been praying to feel the Holy Spirit. Friday night, Lindsey shared and 5 of us girls sang Amazing Grace. Saturday, we left the hotel around noon and traveled back to Macedonia. Before we left though, the leaders announced which team won and our all girls group did! We were so surprised and excited! Later that night, we met some of our friends in the center of Strumica for the Open Festival. Anastasia from Skopje was in a dance battle so we watched her and hung out for a while.

Sunday, we went to both church services and they prayed over us girls. After church , we went to lunch with our little family (Bethany, Lindsey, Stephanie, Zivko, Dorotea, Hana, and I) and then he youth group threw a going away party for us that night. It was a great night, but saying goodbye was really hard. I know that won't be the last time I'll see them! Right now, I'm sitting at home typing the rest of this post and I already miss being there so much! Of course I missed my family and friends here and some of the comforts of America, but I got so used to every day life and being with some of the best people I've ever met! It was an experience that I will remember forever and I want to thank everyone who prayed, gave money, and supported me throughout this whole journey. Also, thank you to everyone in Macedonia who made this trip so amazing! God changed my heart through all of you!

Macedonia Adventures - Week 3

It's crazy how fast time goes! At the beginning of this week, we were halfway through our month of being here and now as I write this, we only have one week left! So here's what's been going on this past week! Sunday, I went to the first church service and rested in between that and going to Zivko's parents house for lunch. After we ate, we just talked and looked at old pictures of their family. Then we hung out and waited until it was time for us to meet some of the youth at church. When we all got there, we walked to the park near the center of Strumica. We found a nice spot under some trees and we sang a few worship songs together. It's really cool hearing people sing in two languages and both worshipping God at the same time. After that, we walked through the park to one of the restaurants. We hung out there for a while and I tried the Macedonian version of pizza, which was pretty good!

Monday, we just hung out at home and watched movies. Stephanie and Zivko went to the spa to relax for most of the day so us 3 girls spent time together. Tuesday, we went to lunch with Stephanie's sister, her husband, and their daughter. Then for the rest of the day we hung out around here again.

Wednesday, we left early and drove to Thessaloniki, Greece! There wasn't much to see from what you read about in the Bible, but we did get to go in the White Tower, which is the only thing still left from the old city. There was a small museum inside and at the top, you could look out over part of the Mediterranean Sea. Then we sat down and relaxed at a coffee shop near the water. After that, we drove to a beach on the way to Philippi. Even though the water wasn't as clear as usual, it was still so pretty and we actually got to swim for a while. Then we ate lunch by the water and tried real gyros. After a tasty meal, we drove to Philippi to see ruins from the old city. It was really cool, especially seeing the spot where they believe Paul's prison was. We spent a good amount of time there just taking it all in and walking around the ruins. When we left, we headed home and planned to go through part of Bulgaria. We missed the road we wanted, which added an extra 2 hours to our trip back, but it was definitely a God thing because we had a really great conversation that probably wouldn't have happened otherwise. It was one of the best days I've had here so far.

Thursday, we met some of the youth at the church in Strumica to watch the movie, "God's Not Dead." Before we left the church, it started storming so bad that the streets were flooding. Friday, we were going to go to a waterfall, but it was still rainy so we stayed at home until it was time to go to youth group. We went to the city first and got dinner with Filip. Then we practiced our skit and we all hung out and played games together for the rest of the night.

Saturday, we went to see the waterfall in the afternoon. We took a taxi to the city and then we all walked up the mountain to where all the waterfalls were. There was the biggest one that everyone comes to see and then there were 9 more smaller ones that you have to climb up to. Four of us decided to climb up to at least the fourth waterfall, which was a lot of work but worth it! After that, we went back home before church and then we went to youth group. It was Lindsey's night to share and it went really well! My favorite part about being here are the people I've met and the new great friends I've made. The youth have been so welcoming from the beginning and I already know that some of these friendships will last a lifetime!

And by the way, shoutout to my Macedonian brother, Kiko!

Macedonian Travels - Week 2

After a week, my jet lag was finally gone and I've adjusted to what life could be like if I lived here all the time. Can't believe it's already been two weeks!! Sunday, we went to two church services, one downstairs in the church where we're living and one in the city of Strumica, where the youth usually hangs out. One of the things I was looking forward to most on this trip was experiencing their church and both services were really good. The pastor had the same message, which was about making sure we're listening for God's voice because it's so important, but the worship songs and singers were different. My favorite part was the worship because some of their words sound so pretty and combined with the voices of everyone singing in a small room, it was an experience I can't describe and I wish everyone could be a part of.

Monday, we relaxed at home because we were leaving early the next morning. We ate some more great food, hung out and talked, and enjoyed the day. Tuesday, we took the 6am bus from Strumica to Skopje, about a 2 hour drive. It was Bethany, Lindsey, Filip (Zivko's 18 year old brother), and I. We went to the church building there since that's where we stayed for the next 2 nights. We got to meet the secretary of the evangelical church in Macedonia and he talked to us about the history of the churches here. Then Anastasia, one of the girls going to the youth camp, took us around the city for the day. We walked to the center with a fountain and a giant statue of Alexander the Great, went to the Holocaust and history museum, ate lunch, went to the mall, and visited with Filip and Zivko's sister and her husband.

Wednesday, Zivko drove us to Ohrid, a city and lake in the bottom left corner of Macedonia. We parked by the lake and the first thing I saw besides the water was all the little houses on the side of the mountain. It was so pretty from the bottom, but it was absolutely beautiful from the top. We walked through the town first and stopped to look through an old house that used to belong to a rich family. Then we walked up to a few old churches and an old fortress on top of the mountain where we could look out over the town and the lake. We spent the most time up there because the view was so amazing. On the walk back down, we saw an old amphitheater, where they still hold concerts today. Then we ate lunch right by the lake and the food was delicious like always! After we left Ohrid, we drove to a monastery that was really close to the Macedonia-Albania line. There's a river that flows directly into a natural springs lake and we went on a small boat on the river. The water was so clear that you could see the bottom, even 12 feet down, and so clean that you could drink it. That was one of my favorite things that we did. After the monastery, we went to a museum that showed old wood pillars they found from before Jesus came that the people used to build houses on the lake. They built a replica of what the houses would have looked like inside and outside. The whole day was super busy, but it was something I'll remember for the rest of my life!

Thursday, we went to the mall to shop for gifts for our families and then we had to get back to the church to grab our stuff before we got on the 5pm bus back home. When we arrived in Strumica, we went to Filip's house for dinner and a movie with some of the youth group. Friday, we were supposed to go to Greece, but Zivko's car is broken and still hasn't been fixed yet. (On a side note, please pray that he will be able to find the right part and get his car fixed quickly!) So we spent the day at home and after Zivko and Stephanie got back from a wedding later that night, we had some girl time, which always means lots of good talks and laugher.

Saturday, we had the day to relax again and at night, it was my turn to share some of my life story/testimony during youth group. I was a little nervous and not as prepared as I could have been so I wasn't very confident, but they told me that I did a great job. We hung out for a while before and after the worship and speaking time, which is always really fun. To be honest, I wasn't that excited about going to youth group tonight, but as soon as I got there, God changed my attitude and I enjoyed the rest of the night so much! I'm really thankful that I get to hang out with some awesome people and they're already becoming great friends.
This week I learned a lot of things but these were the most important: how to still worship and focus on God even though I couldn't sing along with the songs at church, how important quiet and alone time is talking and praising Him, and how to not let exhaustion and sickness stop me from experiencing the amazing things i did this week!

Macedonia Arrival - Week 1

The hardest part of the trip is over, at least until the journey back home. After 15 hours of travel, Lindsey and I arrived in Macedonia! Our first flight was delayed by an hour which made us very nervous about making the rest of our flights. Once we landed in Washington, we had 30 minutes to get to our gate that was in another building. We accidentally got on the wrong tram that took us to the wrong building so we found a train that took us underground to the building we needed. With 2 minutes to spare, we actually sprinted to our gate and the flight attendants helped us get our boarding passes. After a 9 hour flight that was exhausting and uncomfortable, we landed in Vienna. We had a short layover for our last flight and then we were off to Skopje, Macedonia! When we landed, we went to find our bags and we realized that they hadn't traveled on the plane with us. We talked to one of the airport workers and he got our information to let us know when our bags would be delivered to where we're staying here. They figured out that they were still in Washington and after 4 days, we finally got our luggage.

The whole situation with our bags and almost missing our flight was frustrating, but God already taught me to not take my own things for granted and he continually is teaching me to rely on Him for guidance and peace. After our friends (Zivko, Bethany, Filip, and Tushe) picked us up from the airport, we drove for an hour and stopped at an old Roman city that is now mostly in ruins because of an earthquake a long time ago. It was cool to see and hear about all the history there that happened in the houses and the old church buildings, right when Christianity became the prominent religion. After walking around the ruins for a while, we drove for another hour to the city of Strumica and the village they live in was about 10 minutes from the city. Our friends, Stephanie and Zivko Barbutov and their two young daughters, live in the top of the church building since he is the youth pastor.

For the rest of the night and the next day, we just rested and hung out together. Friday, we got to relax during the day and at night, we met and hung out with the youth group. We played a game, practiced our skit for the youth camp, and got to know a little bit about some of the teens. It was a little overwhelming trying to know what to talk about since they talk in Macedonian most of the time, but it was also fun to finally meet some of them because I had talked to a few on Facebook already. We were all pretty tired when we got back, but us three girls stayed up and talked for a little bit. Saturday, we hung out around the house during the day, still getting used to jet lag, and our luggage finally arrived! We were really happy and it was a relief to finally have our own things here with us. I know a lot of people were praying about it so thank you! Saturday night, Lindsey and I took a taxi with one of the youth guys to the church in the city and we practiced our skit before youth time. It was a pretty good night and I felt more comfortable even after knowing them for one day. I've been tired and still getting used to being here, but I've tried to not let it get in the way of the new, great friendships I'm making and the many things God is trying to teach me. Tomorrow, I'll get to meet the rest of the people at church and I'll get to experience a Macedonian church service! I'm excited for this next week!

A New Season in Life

So every few months, I remember that I have a blog and I try to think of something important that's happened in my life that I could write about to be able to look back myself later and to share with whoever wants to hear. This time, I just finished my first week of 2nd semester and let me tell you, it has been crazy, but also really good. Before I go into that though, I want to go back to last semester. My first college semester is over. WHAT. It's very relieving, but I'm also happy about all the life lessons I learned and how much I grew in a short 4 months. My post in August was about my first day of college and the peace God gave me when handling such a big change, which I'm not usually good at. Although it was a hard semester change wise, the work was fine and I really enjoyed getting used to college life as a commuter. Some of the best things that I learned were:

• The amount of free time you get is really really nice, but managing your time is important.
• Keeping in touch with friends is hard, but if you both put in effort, it's easier to stay close.
• Having a long distance relationship makes you more thankful and it's worth it if you're with the right person.
• God uses your worries and fears to help you trust in Him. He will work things out perfectly and lead you in amazing ways that you didn't know were possible.
• Blessings come from even the littlest things.
• Most of the time it's about your attitude. If you change your mindset, you open yourself up to lasting happiness.

With that said, there are many other things that I learned and continue to learn every day, but those stood out the most to me. Moving on to this semester so far, I can tell it will be a little bit busier, but it should still be really good. This past week, I wasn't nervous about starting classes again, but I knew that it would still be a big change because I got my first job the week before, the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Akron U's campus. Originally, they only needed people to work for one week since everyone would be buying their books when classes started, but they also said that sometimes they keep a few people after. I was hired temporarily, but they did schedule me for 2 days this week too so I'm really hoping they want me to stay. Anyway, I had class every day last week from around 9 to 12/1ish and I worked 4 days in a row for 6-8 hours after class. It was weird going from a nice relaxing break to full, busy days again, but I'm very thankful that I got a job even if they don't decide to keep me.
This semester my goals are to continue to learn new things every day in and outside my classes, to continue to grow closer to my family and friends, and to seek God in all that I do. It's a new season (semester), but it will be a great one. I'm excited to see what will happen as my freshman year of college comes to an end. Hopefully I'll remember to write again soon!

It's been a while...

Life changes so much in one year. Last year at this time I was in my second full week of senior year and this year I'm a freshman in college. Crazy to think about, but it's been a great journey so far. I'll spare the long story of how I ended up where I am now because the only people reading this probably know my story already, but I really wanted to share about my first day of college. After an emotional morning of trying to find a parking spot and driving around the University of Akron campus for about 30 minutes, I walked into my first college class. As the class went on for the next 40 minutes, I started feeling God's peace more and more. By the time the class was done, I was filled up with His peace and love, which cannot be explained. The only feelings I had this morning while getting ready at home were those of fear and nervousness. God replaced them with confidence that I can make it through my first year of college at the school that wasn't my first choice, and with comfort that I would do just fine here. Those feelings lasted and even kept growing during my 3 hour break and walking into my 2nd/last class of the day. They even kept growing when I got to talk to my best friend on the phone walking around campus before I left. They even kept growing when I picked up my siblings from their school and got to catch up with another best friend on the phone a little later. Right now as I'm finishing typing this, I can't explain how different I feel from just this morning. The only answer is God and I'm so thankful that He is my Rock!

Blessings

School. I have been so grateful for CVCA last year and this year. This year I'm a senior and we have the privilege of sitting in the front of chapel. The first real chapel of the year was this past Thursday and it was so wonderful! During worship, I opened my eyes during the last song and it was an amazing feeling to see so many people with their hands raised in the air, truly giving it all to our Lord. I love that we can all worship together as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Cool opportunities. Back in May, my mom found out about transfer students at my school. We talked to Mr. Shilling, the director of the international students program and found out that there was a guy and a girl coming from Norway that would be here this school year. It would have made more sense for us to take the girl since I have the bigger room, so we talked it over as a family, but never really made a decision. Then, we found out that the girl already had a host family set up and a family friend of ours was going to host the guy. So it worked out. Then, last Wednesday my mom got a call from Mr. Shilling saying there was a girl from South Korea, Seung Woo, who needed a new host family within the next week and he wondered if we would be willing to take her. So, we talked it over again as a family and started to seriously consider it. Thursday night, Mr. Shilling came over to bring us more information about her and to answer any questions. We told him we would let him know by Monday. Friday, Mr. Shilling came into one of my classes and said I could meet Seung during lunch. So I got to talk with her for a little and ask her some questions. We talked a lot as a family this past weekend and did a lot of praying. By Saturday night, my mom was excited and we all knew that we would be saying yes. Sunday afternoon, we started talking about the room arrangements and it somehow came up that if my dad moved his office, my brother could make that his room and Seung could take my brother's. I went from having to share my room to not having to give up anything besides my time to make sure she likes it here. Sunday night, my mom called Mr. Shilling and Monday afternoon we found out that she would be moving in this Thursday. It's crazy how fast things can work out and it reminds me of when I got into CVCA last year in 3 days after 2 weeks of school. My family is very excited to have her stay with us!

Family. Since I've been back in school for 9 days, I've had a few quizzes and tests already. On a very busy, stressful night I had to study for 5 tests and it was already late at night. My dad offered to help me study and it was really fun getting to talk and hang out for a bit. He was a big help and it made studying seem better. Even greater than that, is seeing how much my family is willing to give up to make sure Seung will be comfortable here. We've told all my extended family also and many of them are excited to get to know her. I love how accepting my family can be. It makes me even more excited.