Trust & Clean Clothes

Zdravo (hello) from Macedonia!

Thank you all for all your prayers – it’s been a crazy several days for me. I’ll share the details, but first, thank you thank you thank you for all the prayers and notes on face book, etc. It’s meant so much to me and encouraged me so much.

This past week has been one giant lesson of trust for me. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a do-it-myself, take-charge kind of girl. I like to do things my way, and get them done right and quickly. A character trait that I need to modify, and believe me…my character has got a once over this week haha.

I left church Sunday morning, all excited and ready for my trip. Everybody had just prayed for me, and so many hugs and promises to pray….it was a perfect day for an adventure.

Enter, United Airlines.

To make a very long (and I mean 6 hours long) story short, I went through security twice, my family stood their ground at the service desk, threatening not to leave until I had a good ticket, and I ended up with a completely different flight plan. I took off about 6 o’clock that night, on a plane bound for Chicago – Frankfurt, Germany – Zagreb, Croatia – Skopje, Macedonia.

Flights were smooth once I was actually on my way, and I met some awesome travel buddies. Helped an elderly Iranian lady buy her lunch because her English was too broken to order it herself – she was so cute…she kept calling her daughter on her phone and giving it to me so that I could assure her and her daughter that she was indeed on the right flight and would be home soon. Fell asleep on the plane to Germany next to a new-found Moroccan friend – the two of us had an entire row in the back of the plane to ourselves so we were able to stretch out. 🙂 On the plane to Skopje I met a college student from Colorado on his way to visit his mom in Kosovo…and we lost our luggage together. 😛

I finally got my luggage today, and was thanking God for clean clothes at dinner tonight. Simple things, yes? But this morning I read that “He clothes the flowers in the field”. God knew all about me and my luggage and my lack of a swimsuit for four days when I’m surrounded by crystal clear beautiful water. I think everybody even remotely my size offered anything and everything they had brought to me. It became a camp wide game – whose clothes is Rachael wearing today??? 😉

It’s hard to trust. Hard to trust that your luggage is going to get there. Hard to trust other people for basic things like – let’s be blunt – clean underwear. Hard to trust that God has a plan for all of this. I know He does, and it was a much needed lesson for me to learn.

So here I am, on Macedonian time, kicking it on the front porch watching the sun set over Ohrid lake. It’s gorgeous here, and the mountains surrounding me are a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness, strength, power and creativity. I’m in the middle of orientation and preparation for the camp – campers arrive Saturday so we’re doing a lot of cultural study, etc. at the moment. Oh, and the worship is fantastic – I’ve had the chance to play with the staff and am loving it. The lack of a carryon to bring my fiddle was 110% totally worth it J

To end, here are some pictures from the trip so far! My fellow tutors are Gloria & Vern, Olivia (my room mate), Brian Stout (I’m holding his daughters in some of the pictures haha) and Keith. 😀

Love to all! Caio!
Rachael

^Hopeche “Little Hope” My buddy ❤ One of Brian’s sweet girls.

^Everyone wanted carried…Left, Keith has Benji & Nathan and I have Gracie 🙂

^ Adam & I – he’s the one who got me excited about coming the first time!

 

^ To give you an idea of how clear the water is. This is taken from the edge of the dock, which I don’t touch bottom even when diving off of. Yeah.

^ and finally, a Shopska salad – I’ve been craving this since I left last time – it’s just cucumbers and tomatoes smothered in this awesome Macedonian cheese made out of who knows what but it’s awesome. 😀