Taking Every Opportunity

We finished our time in Sarajevo, and we are now on a bus making our way to the small coastal town of Neum. We will spend a few days there before flying back to Dublin on Monday for our debriefing. We are looking forward to our last few days of ministry here and seeing how God will use us.

We had an amazing time of ministry in Sarajevo. We were able to have several conversations in which the great news of Jesus was shared clearly. We even got to visit the site of the 1984 Winter Olympics on top of the mountain overlooking the city of Sarajevo - complete with a Cable Car ride up and down the mountain, with incredible views of the city! Another highlight of our week was the one-day trip by train to the city of Mostar. Mostar is a beautiful old European city nestled in the mountains and includes an iconic cobblestone bridge.

Five things to know about our day in Mostar:

1. It was very hot that day.
2. Very few people were out in the heat.
3. The team had great attitudes and chose enthusiasm in the midst of doing drama and dance ministries with very few people around to watch - because of the heat.
4. Before taking a long walk back to the train station in the heat of the afternoon, we were blessed with some fantastic ice cream from our friend, Biram, who owns “I Love Mostar” ice cream. He has been serving the best ice cream to Royal Servants since we first visited four years ago.
5. Did I mention how hot it was that day!

The real ministry happened as students interacted with other tourists and shopkeepers while walking around the city. Our team saw that it is not as hard as we think to engage in Gospel-centered conversations with people if we are willing to be intentional with our time while going about our lives each day. And for many of our students, that aspect of our ministry, in the heat of Mostar, will be the highlight of the summer! Even on the late afternoon train ride back to Sarajevo, God provided some great opportunities. One of our students, Brooklyn, had an amazing experience that I asked her to write about so we could include it here…

“The Lord provided an amazing opportunity to share the Gospel when we were on the train ride from Mostar back to Sarajevo. Grace and I were sitting next to two young women, and we had a very exciting conversation about faith and what we believe.

They were both very kind and also open to talking about their own beliefs, which was very encouraging and an answer to prayer. The train ride was over two hours long, and we talked about a variety of topics. They eventually asked us to talk about our Christian faith. The Lord was clearly opening the door for us to share the Gospel.

We discussed many of their questions, especially about the differences between Christianity and the Islamic faith. We also talked about the reliability of the Quran and the reliability of the Bible. We recently had a teaching about the reliability of the Bible, so I was able to share my notes from the RS manual with them. They were interested enough to take pictures of the notes and the page that contains resources (websites & articles) for further study.  They were very curious.

Throughout the whole conversation, the Lord was working in all of our hearts. It was amazing for me to listen to the Holy Spirit’s direction and to see how God steered the conversation and planted seeds of curiosity.

Because of how I have seen God at work during this trip, I will definitely be more aware of opportunities to talk about my faith in the future. I understand now that God will use our willingness and that the Holy Spirit is always prompting and guiding us. We must be sensitive and responsive to His leading in everything we do!  God will use us in mighty ways if we are willing… He will provide courage, words to speak, and wonderful opportunities to share the Gospel.”

Amen Brooklyn!

Thanks for encouraging and challenging us all to think about being intentional in talking to people about Jesus when we are going about our daily lives. As you can see, God is at work in and through our Europe family. Thanks for your Prayers! Our bus driver just told me we are about 10 minutes from our destination in Neum…Time to wake up the team so we can unload the bus… in the heat of the day here in Neum! 😅

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