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.