Greetings All! Welcome to the blog for the October 2016 Macedonia Team! We are so excited to share everything we are doing and learning and experiencing! So here goes...
Once upon a time, early in the year of 2016, 8 people came together... from all different backgrounds, and for all different reasons... but all felt the same pull on their heart strings from God to travel to a far away land called Macedonia. There they would discover an orphanage full of beautiful children and one amazing missionary named Elizabeth, and all of their lives would be changed forever!
Well, here we all are... Jim, Jesse, Stephanie, Sheyna, Erin, Renee, Natalie and Lynn! After months of meetings and prayers and preparations, here we are... all wide awake and eager as ever at the (FIRST) airport! (Thank YOU Stephanie for bringing the selfie stick - No shame here!!!). The devil may have tried to throw some obstacles in our way... a broken foot, a heck of a hurricane, a team member accidentally being put on standby... but nothing was going to stop THIS Elite 8 from getting where we were headed!
3 flights and 16 hours later - we FINALLY landed in Skopje, Macedonia (with ALL of our luggage PRAISE JESUS!)... however, not quite as bright eyed and bushy tailed as we were in the initial photo in Atlanta (hence the lack of an "after" picture) - but excited and feeling awfully blessed to be here nonetheless!
Elizabeth met us at the airport to excitedly welcome us to Skopje with our driver and we then headed to our hotel. Elizabeth mentioned how quiet we were on the ride to the hotel - we are not really that calm or subdued of a group... we were just simply too tired to form complete sentences at that point! (Still super excited though :) We got checked in and grabbed a little lunch before resting up for a couple of hours.
***I will add what I have learned so far at this point in the trip*** I still am unable to sleep on planes. The Newark airport is not my favorite. My team is AWESOME and every single one of us brings something special to the table. I have a new favorite salad - It is called Shopska Salad and I am now obsessed. If you order "grilled cheese" off the menu in Macedonia, it is simply that - a block of cheese that has been grilled - not a sandwich. European bathrooms flood when you shower. All of them.
Ok - after naps and showers - we are somewhat 'un-zombied'... Able to at least form sentences now, and we probably at the very least smell a little better. We then head through downtown Skopje's City Center and get a glimpse of the town and some time to explore how beautiful this city really is! The statues, the view, it's really quite an amazing place! From there, we headed to SoulCraft Church to listen to the pastor Nikola's message. Our group was introduced to the congregation and was welcomed with open arms by everyone. It made our entire group feel wonderful about being in this new and unfamiliar city, and God's purpose for us traveling all this way was becoming more and more clear by the minute.
After a wonderful dinner with Nikola and his beautiful wife and daughter, it was time to head back to the hotel for some MUCH needed beauty sleep. We definitely needed as much rest as we could get to recover from our long couple days of travel and to prepare us for the following day's excitement!
We all hit the beds hard and were blessed with a good night's sleep...
Day One at the orphanage was actually today - but there is simply more to say about today than I can possibly write about this evening as my eyelids are getting quite heavy and tomorrow will be another long day!
On a more personal note before I close off for tonight... Can I just add what an incredible blessing this trip is to each and every one of us?! It's only the beginning and I just can't even believe how lucky I am to be here right now. It really just blows my mind how God has brought this all together - all the right people, all the right circumstances, and truly at the right time. I am so excited about how He is going to work through us this week with these children! Whereas fears and insecurities of all kinds plagued my mind leading up to this trip, now that I am actually here - in this city, on the other side of the world, away from everything I have ever known and been comfortable with - I feel more secure in my mind that I am EXACTLY where I am meant to be at this moment in time!
*~*~* Various team members will be adding to the blog throughout the trip... so forgive us if there is repetition of events or moments, but we thought it best to get various points of view and different perspectives along the way! We all hope you enjoy reading about our trip and the way in which God is using each and every one of us here! *~*~*
~Renee Doddington
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