Journey into the Mountains

Restelicë, Dragash Region, Kosovo.

It will forever have a place in my heart.

This little, unknown village in the mountains of Kosovo, sandwiched between Albania and North Macedonia with their own language and some of the sweetest people I’ve met on the mission field.

At the end of Albania; my team and I were given a region in Kosovo to pray into for ATL (Ask The Lord). It was Bullseye’s month 3 and it looked the opposite of the previous month both in ministry and in location… When I was praying into where to go; Restelicë came up and every time I looked for a place for us to stay, I just kept feeling peace about not having something planned.

I told the team and we agreed that we were willing to do whatever we needed to do; including putting tents on the side of the mountains in potentially frigid weather!

We arrived in Kosovo on a Friday evening and quickly realized the buses to the village closest to our destination only ran on the weekdays so we stayed the weekend in the city and geared up for going into the cold mountains. Every person we met that found out where we were going was very confused and couldn’t understand why we would want to go to such a tiny, unknown place (which just confirmed that Restelicë was where we were supposed to go)!!

On Monday afternoon, we took a bus from Prizren to the furthest southern village it would take us to; and immediately, we were found by a taxi driver that was not only excited to take us to Restelicë, but also had enough space for all 5 of us, our packs and we still had room to spare (we had become accustomed to needing 2 taxis to get anywhere)!

On our way into the village, our kind taxi driver (who didn’t speak any English) asked us where he should take us using translation apps, a couple of Albanian words we had picked up, and gesturing. I took a chance and asked him if he knew of a place we could stay… this guy!

He then pulled over on the side of the road and asked a random local guy who got all excited and *jumped* into the seat of the car next to me, telling me (through a completely unknown language and hand motions) that a place to sleep, shower and rest will be provided and not to worry.

Now, in Kosovo, when you say you speak English to someone who doesn’t speak English or not enough to make it work; be prepared for whoever you’re speaking with to stop every person passing by and call friends until they find someone who can translate for the two of you!

What happened from that moment until we laid our heads down that night was like something out of a movie!!

The local guy guided the taxi driver to this coffee shop and told me again that everything would be okay, not to worry. He got the men standing around to help us carry our packs and stuff over to the porch and proceeded to order us coffee (they even moved our bags off of the ground and onto chairs and tables and watched them for us). Up to that point, I hadn’t seen any females and every single man from the village was coming by to see the American visitors and several of them kept asking us if we spoke different languages (Serbian, Macedonian, Italian, etc.) and then giving up when we reluctantly told them we didn’t.

Finally, a man named Frics (pronounced Fritz) who lived in the US for a bit came in and spoke with us, told us how the village is completely Muslim and its a cultural custom that the men go out and work or go into the restaurants, cafes, etc. and the women spend their days in the homes or in each other’s homes. Knowing that piece of information further explained the strange stares we were getting from the men who wandered in and out of the shop!

After we finished our coffees, we were introduced to another man who spoke very little English but enough to communicate that his parents had a place for us; 2 bedrooms with just enough beds, a bathroom and a mini fridge that they usually have for their extended family to come and visit during the summer and the holidays. When he showed us the rooms, the price he gave us for staying there was going to be just over budget; and while Natalie (our beloved treasurer) was getting it all together for him, he actually lowered the price for us!! It was amazing.

The ladies and I talked that night and agreed that we needed to be culturally aware and try to spend the least amount of time as we could in the cafe and that we would try to befriend at least one of the women.

When we sat down to begin discussing what we felt like our ministry schedule should look like; it was the exact opposite of how the month before had gone! We not only had vision, but we all agreed on what it would look like, and why! ALL of us decided and agreed that we should spend the majority of our ministry hours doing a “prayer burn” or “prayer vigil” (depending on your background, you might call it something different) and what started as an idea for 2-3 nights ended up with 5 nights of devo/worship, followed by an hour of intercession all together and that would kick off our prayer shifts (Sabbaths and adventure days were our “days off”)! 

Most Muslims we’ve known of that have come to Christ have had dreams and visions of Jesus as the Savior and we knew that praying for that to happen in Restelicë was the most powerful thing we could spend our time doing!!

I’m still in so much awe of what God did in the 2 weeks that we spent there and I’ve got that blog coming up; but just the crazy ways He orchestrated us getting there was enough for us to be amazed and thankful!!

I’m back in the States now, my time alumni leading was only a short 3 months and I get to cheer them on as they continue on! I have updates and more stories to share; it’s been harder to form thoughts and blog posts this time and I appreciate your patience!

I’m still fundraising for my time spent on the field; I’m believing and praying for all of the funds to come in! Would you join me in praying for my trip to be fully funded?

I love you guys so much. Thank you for all of the prayers, encouragement and support you’ve shown over the past couple of years. For those that have been here since the beginning; thank you. Words can’t express what your support means to me.

For the newcomers; thanks for joining me!! I hope you find encouragement and empowerment and JESUS in the posts you read here!