Y’all asked, so you will receive! Are you wondering what I usually do with my team every-day? Or at least, wondering about a rough idea/a blue-print looks like? Wonder no more because here we go!
I try to wake up between 7:30 and 8AM; that’s usually the norm because I can’t sleep past 8 (I blame years of waking up at 5AM for school, only to end up waking up between 7 and 7:30AM for online school and/or worship band at church, amongst other jobs that I’ve held). It’s the same for Sabbath too; I’d hope to sleep in since it’s the day of rest, BUT that’s not usually what happens and that’s okay. I’ve accepted it, and I’ve moved on. Anyways, I start the day with some yoga; I try to do it for at least 20 minutes, sometimes 30 if I’m feeling a little bit more adventurous (and energized). Afterwards, I make time to do some God and I time before we come together as a team. I’ve been reading through Isaiah, and I finally resumed my Beauty for Ashes devotional. After journaling about what I got from the devotional and rewriting Isaiah (chapter-by-chapter) in my own words, (that’s a form of worship by the way), I end my time with prayer.
Coffee shop in Prishtine; pray for ministry to set place here because even after our last week ends, debrief will still be occurring near here (with our whole squad) and who says ministry stops during debrief?
We have team worship between 9 and 9:15; our team leader has been taking us through a couple different forms of worship. We’ve done good old fashioned worship, prophetic art, having music play while we spend time in prayer with God, etc.; I love all of those different ways to worship because there’s so much variety, BUT they all serve the same purpose. Worship is anything that brings praise, honor and glory to God; that’s why there’s so many ways to worship, and I look forward to keep learning all about them. That would take about 20-25 minutes usually, unless we get really caught up in God and it ends up lasting a LOT longer. Since we moved to Prishtine, Kosovo, we end up going into fundraising/logistical time for a little while, seeking after Jesus, blogging, basically anything and everything we can do to make the most of our given time until 1. We make lunch also within that time span, or we go down to the local restaurant (which is VERY cheap, yet also VERY delicious) and eat lunch until we meet inside said restaurant/coffee bar for Bible study.
Now, when we were in Junik, Kosovo, I’d get up sometime between 7 and 7:30, do 10 minutes of yoga, make instant coffee so I could do a quick God-and-I time (hence why I haven’t kept up with my devotional on a regular basis and why I’m behind) to still have the day covered in His presence, then we’d have team time at 8. A lot of changes occurred in Junik, and we had the vision of coffee ministry, worship inside the same place we do Bible study, in order to make His presence known through our praise (even if the people had no idea what we were saying) and to minister to both the students (because the coffee shop was THE hang-out spot) and to our server (who we saw EVERY time we went in). I trust that even though our presence is no longer physically there, that they will feel an overwhelming presence of Him where we sat and sang praises to Him, where we sat and talked about how GOOD our God is! We left a hand-written note for our friend Adriatik and his mom (yes, they knew we were leaving, but we wanted to leave a small blessing for their hospitality and kindness), as well as a small note for our server. We had wanted to do in-school ministry, but we came to the realization that the principals at said schools only wanted the fame we were bringing them by being in their workplaces.
Interview #3: We did get to interact with the kiddos. It was a super sweet time because we made time, out of the interview, to love on them and we got TONS of little letters from them (they wrote us in class, and gave them to us when we were leaving).
For those who don’t know, we did get interviewed three times during the first week in Kosovo; it was a blessing to share about God over their local news station, but the last two became more interested in having us bring more fame to them and not to God. That, and we found out we couldn’t share about God within the schools’ walls, and that’s our whole purpose of being here. Needless to say, we were glad to come to that realization, but of course, we will still shower them in prayers, hopeful that God will come to them in some other way in our absence. It’s very important to listen to God because we all had the same ministry vision during our week of being sick (hence part two of the reason we moved to Prishtine) of worship, a coffee shop, praising Him in the public view and praying for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within the spaces we come into. But, we wanted to please everyone around us more, to do whatever THEY wanted us to do and we ended up taking our eyes off of God’s vision, changing it into something else.
“So I continued, ‘What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?’” –Nehemiah 5:9
Because God blessed us with a week of sickness, not able to leave our house because if we did, we’d be told to go do this and that, even after we politely told them that we were sick and didn’t want to get them sick, we were ABLE to see how muddled our “willingness to serve and be an example of HIS LOVE” became “just trying to please”. That time became a treasured time of God checking and refining our hearts, Him turning our COMPLETE focus to Him and not just a half-hearted focus and honestly, just a sweet time abiding in Him ONLY and truly seeing how important it is to be alert to His voice at ALL times, not just when we want to hear Him. It was a time of seeing how much we put words in God’s mouth, claiming that they came from Him when in reality, it just came from us and our desire to have something, even if we have no ill-intentions. Funny, I thought I was just going to be writing about our daily life in Kosovo; but, God clearly had other plans. Pray that our team stays focused on GOD, not on trying to please ourselves or to please other people. After all, that’s what the Race is all about: showing AND sharing His love to all those who’ve strayed from Him.
“They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” –Acts 4:28-30
The middle/high school where we met the youth.
Taylor absolutely love this update getting to hear some about your actual experiences in ministry, complete with the challenges, victories, worship gratitude and growth. It depicts a clear picture of God’s presence and guidance in you and your team and the work he has for you. I can in these words you’ve written how God is at work in you and how much you’ve grown in Him and as a woman. Keep following in faithful obedience and it will all become more clear. And please Keep these kind of update coming and how we can pray for you and your team!
Taylor, you covered a lot in this blog.It is so easy to get caught up in our own ideas, to set our own agendas and think God told us these things. They are usually good things and thankfully the Holy Spirit has a way of getting our attention back on Him.
Excellent snapshot, Taylor! The Holy Spirit moves and leads when we allow Him to flow, and sometimes we don’t see or understand His plans. Love that Scripture! Yes, boldness!
See you soon!