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The hall is dark save for a few artistically placed lamps on the edge of a small stage. The hope is that the darkness will disguise the drab communist interior, it works to some extent and that which it fails to hide comes across as retro-urbano so it all looks cool enough. Alpin, one of the leaders of the Glasnost Boiler Room has wasted a can of air freshener again hoping to temporarily disguise the smell of ancient tobacco and stale air.
Then as the evening begins and friends from across difficult international borders gather to worship, to pray and listen to stories of Jesus at work in our cities and nations the smell and look of the hall becomes immaterial.
I’m grinning as Alek launches into some pretty frantic worship, hardcore metal vineyard tunes never sounded so good.
Gathering over this past weekend to pray for and celebrate Jesus in the Balkans were friends from many of the Balkan countries. From Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania stories were told and connections made. As well as the ‘internal’ delegates a good handful of supporters from other European countries who also pray for and love this region turned up to encourage those working in this the difficult south eastern edge of europe.
It was still hot but the temperature which had been touching 40 (celsius) just a few days previously dropped 5 or 6 degrees to a relatively comfortable 32, in the days leading up to the weekend I had wondered how our friends from Finland and Sweden as well as the UK might fair in this sticky heat. But as we stood side by side in this sweaty hall it didn’t seem to matter, folks who had been traveling since the early hours were encouraged to crash out and tired, hot faces were also happy faces.
As I sat in my seat wondering about what made my 24-7 family so special, gazing around at my Macedonian friends as well as those from Greece, Albania, Finland, Bulgaria etc that this is where we find ourselves, amongst friends and family. Each of us has thrown ourselves on Jesus, we have accepted the invitation to follow him and are being blown around by the Holy Spirit, we’ve chosen to put aside our will and wants and accept that following Jesus will be an adventure. And once we’ve chosen as individuals to become disciples of Christ we open our eyes and become aware of the others around us who have taken that same path and find ourselves in community, in family.
This weekend it was wonderful to hear wise words from Jon Peterson, Ian Nicholson and Tommie Naumann, they are much prized wise old(er) sages and we treasure their input. It was also great to hang out together in the grounds of a 13th century monastery on the mountain overlooking Skopje and to drink many coffees and Skopskos at Cafe Anja by the Varda River. It stirred my spirit to hear of church planting movements in Greece and orphanages in Bulgaria and I had fun spying on Ian and Peter as they played movie stars filming one of the fantastic 24-7 prayer casts. But for me the highlight was a simple Friday night in a hot, stuffy, communist era building, looking across at my tired, sweaty friends worshipping this Jesus who has captured our hearts and our lives.
A friend of mine once asked how you join 24-7 prayer, he was told to come along to everything he could and get to know us. 24-7 isn’t an organization you can join, its a movement you become part of... and I love it!
It would be the easiest thing in the world to immerse ourselves in fantastic projects and initiatives. I've had many conversations now where my head starts to buzz and I start thinking about clever ways we can begin to help the church here in Macedonia. However we have to be really careful in our first 6 months not to pick anything up, no responsibilities, no new initiatives, (that doesn't preclude us from serving wherever we can though).
