Closing Out Our Time In Skopje

Another Day in Topanna

Open Highways and Heavens

Today was another day full of unexpected events. We started by eating a breakfast that is traditionally a lunch or dinner, so it had about the same amount of grease to make it worthy of an evening meal. Then we went back to the center in Topaana and took some time to worship and hear from the word of God. After, some of the group went prayer walking while the others went and saw some of the poorer conditions of the Roma in a different part of Skopje. The prayer walking was just in between nooks and crannies of the Roma's housing and felt as though we reached more understanding of the Roma's living. After the walking and touring for a couple hours, and since we had no teenagers for "coffee discussions" or ESL programs, We returned to the playground that resembled a cage more than anything. Everyone was exhausted, and when the word "playground" floated back into our lives, there was unanimous displeasure. We were all discouraged and not the happiest of campers, but to hear those kids cheer when they found out we were coming back just warmed our hearts. Their enthusiasm made the trek back to the dreaded playground much easier. We spent the hottest parts of the day jumping rope and letting some little [volatile] children attach themselves to us.
But it was fun.
We spent the rest of the day going to five separate homes, learning more about the culture and about individual customs of the Roma families. There were some good conversations and interesting facts we learned about each family and their day to day lives. A tasty supper was served after we got back from the houses. The meal was made by one of our missionary's friend who is a strong believer. The meal was delish. and we were stuffed full of goodness. Then we headed back to thee hotel for a good night's sleeeep.

Topaana

A New Chance To Touch Others

Tuesday brought us to a new neighborhood, Topaana. The plan had us playing with the Roma children of this area for about 5 hours at their park. When we arrived, we had time in worship of our Lord to prepare. Prepare we did by blowing up balloons, making jump ropes and creating activities with whatever supplies we found. When we walked onto the blacktop that is their park, we encountered an area that was really unsafe to play. So, we spent some of our time cleaning up the area. We saw the Lord's hand in even this work because when we returned for our afternoon session, some of the older teens wanted us to join them in the court area for soccer. Since we had spent some of the morning cleaning the other section of the park, we were able to accommodate the teens and play with the younger children in an area free of trash and glass. After our play time, we returned to our new "center" for some coffee and discussion time with some of the Roma youth. While some of us shared with these children, others got to tour another Roma area of Skopje. When these activities were done, we had a less than traditional Macedonian meal, spaghetti, macaroni & cheese and salad. During our dinner conversation, we all shared that while our activities were similar to earlier in the week, the new neighborhood and individuals made it very different. Please pray for us to be able to overcome these new challenges, create a welcome environment with this new group and touch them with the hope and love of Christ.

Play, Eat and Dance with the Roma

Are we human, or are we dancers?

What a beautiful, clear day in Skopje! We could actually see the snow capped mountains in the distance as we walked to the center once again. We were stopped every couple hundred meters by people who wanted to ask a question or say hi. Once we reached our destination we met with the team for some worship time and extended prayer which helped us get on track before we ministered to the Roma people. When we had finished our time of worship, we were met outside by a mob of children who had just gotten out of school and wanted to play. We gave numerous piggy-back rides, hugs, kisses, and learned many new Roma/Macedonian words. After repeated goodbyes we split up into three groups to eat lunch at a Roma home. We all had great experiences with the food, conversation and hospitality. After we walked back to the center, some people went to play sports with the teens and some of us went prayer walking all around the city. We were all very tired at this point and were happy to find out that we could just chill for the next hour or so before the dancing started. We sat around talking, playing games and we even watched a bird fall from the sky and die before our eyes (we gave the bird a proper burial and funeral). At around 7:30 the dancing started and we learned their one step circle dance fairly quickly. It was becoming fairly monotonous when it suddenly got exciting as two Roma girls "fell in love" with one of our BFA guys (parents you will have to ask who it was when we get back). We arrived back at the hotel around 10pm. If that doesn't sound like a tiring day, I don't know what will! Falla (thank you) for all your prayers and support and may God bless you until we see you again!
Ciao!