God’s Journey with Vedat

It has been a long time and a lot has happened..

Some of you may know that I was trying to get into college and praise God I
was successful and got in. The college is an hour away from Zagreb..

I would also like to share with you about our trip to Montenegro to visit
with Vedat’s family.

Our team: Zrinka, my mom, two brothers from our Church (Toncek and Nikola)
and I, left on August 20th.

The trip was long, but we were so blessed to enjoy the beautiful nature of
Croatia and Montenegro. On the next day, we arrived to Podgorica, capital of
Montenegro.  There we met Sinisa, who helped us  find a place to stay, which
was a student dorm in the center of Podgorica.

This is us (Toncek, me, my mom, Zrinka and Nikola)

The next day our team had our first visit to Vedat’s family. They live in a
part of the city called ‘Konik’ which is a big community of gypsy refuges. A
lot of those people got there in the time of the war and continue to live
there.

(this picture is taken in Vedat’s neighborhood)

In that settlement, most of the families live in barracks and have very low
standard of  life. A few years ago, some German organization built a
building for twenty four families and that is where Vedat’s family is living
now.

(this is the building where Vedat’s family lives)

It looks like their conditions are much better in the sense of a place to
live in, compared to the barracks around it. They have a little flat and it
looks adequate.

The first day, when we came to visit with them, we brought Vedat’s family
some gifts. They seemed happy to see us and finally meet “little me”. I had my
laptop and some movie clips of Vedat that were recorded recently and we
shared all that with Vedat’s mom and family.

Vedat had sent some toys to his brothers and they where very excited to open
and play with them. It was so precious to see how they enjoyed getting
something from their older brother. Hatem (Vedat’s mom) was also happy but
sad at the same time as I  handed the gift Vedat sent her. He was saving
money in the States to buy his mom a watch and a silver ring, and when he
got it I was in charge of delivering it to his mom. My mission is now
completed It was very busy at Vedat’s house that day as everyone came to
see us and hear news about Vedat. We had coffee and after talking with
everyone for a little while we left, saying we will come again tomorrow to
do some things with the kids.

(this is Hatem with her new ring and a watch, and on the other picture are Vedat’s brother’s with the toys he send to them)
I was very thankful with how God was leading  us during that time. He is the
only One that knew how long we needed to stay with them, what we need to say
and do while we where with them. And it all turned out great.

The next day there was a nice atmosphere of new friendships and it was just
amazing to see how the kids were so open to us. That morning Sinisa and
Hatem met with us and we went to the big grocery store and bought a lot of
stuff for their home. I was surprised how Hatem was so decent and not greedy
but shy and thankful. That was a nice bonding time for us.

(this are Vedat’s friends in his house and his brothers with me)
Soon after that, we came back to their house and started with the kids
program.
We took them out to the street and started with the games and playing of the
guitar. The guitar was just the perfect hit. Everyone got interested in what
is going on and they were joining the event in such a simple way. It almost
seemed like we had been there for months and they trusted us.

The weather was extremely hot (112 F) and after the games we had to sit down
and cool out for a while. Thankfully we had plastic cups and water to give
out to the kids so they sat down. That was a God given moment for a story
that we had prepared for them. We shared a story about Jesus feeding the
five thousand and as I was finishing the story they were still looking as if
it had just started. I praise God that a lot of those kids understood the
language and where able to follow the story. I knew God made a way for us to
come and reminded those kids about Him and his great love for them.

Hatem was a great host and she was constantly calling us in the house to get
away from the heat. So when we finished the program we went in the house and
there was Turkijan (Vedat’s brother) ready to show us his brake dance. As
soon as the show started, he had his brothers joining him in this
performance. They were so cute as they where trying to impress us.. You
could tell that Vedat is a part of that clan.

In the afternoon we escaped to cool off on the coast for a little while.
Before long we had to fight the big waves. But it was still good.

On our last day with Vedat’s family we changed the strategy by coming in the
evening to avoid the heat. That night was very special. As soon as we got
there the kids started singing the song that we taught them. They were ready
to play and were begging me to play the song again, and again.. Soon after
that we had a puppet show for them and some of the older boys there helped
us. The story was about a unhappy girl that can’t read and a book without
words that her Grandpa gave to her. As he was explaining what the book means
the story of the Gospel was unfolding. After the story puppets sang a song
”Jesus loves the little children” and it seemed like there was a lot of
distraction and disorder but there were some children that where listening
closely.

The rest of the night we just stayed and played there with the kids and had
some conversations with the younger guys there. One of them even took a New
Testament that we had in Cyrillic letters. We also had a lot of CD’s with
christian gypsy music that we gave out that night. One girl said that they
had some Christian’s visiting them from Albania so she knew some of the
songs that we sang.

(on this last picture is a young man who is holding a New Testament and a CD with gypsy praise music)

It is so hard to put things in words and not being able to really describe
the whole picture. I was so blessed to see that the one and only message we
gave out to those kids is that God loves them, and that He is the one that
cares for them and will provide for them and watches over them as they trust
Him.

How special it is to be a messinger of God. The one that takes the message
of love to the broken world lost in sin. The eyes of the children were
revealing the need of that generation there. There is a need for a shepherd
to lead them and it was heart breaking to see that, but not hopeless because
there is One.

Our trip there was mainly to visit Vedat’s family and for them to meet us
and finally see this Vedrana that was with Hatem’s son, for so long. But
with God, you always have to expect more and we did, and we got it. It was
more than just a visit and more than just Vedat’s family, it was really
special.

(This is Hatem, me and Hatem’s friend that would often talk with me on the phone while I was still in the States with Vedat. We finally met.)

(This is Vedat’s family and I, and on the other picture the kids where runing as the car was taking off-that was so precious)

I hope that sometime in the future God will make a way for more people to
come more often and I know that He is faithful and rewards those who seek
Him.

Just yesterday I spoke with Vedat and he is doing much better. What a
blessing it is for him to see his family and friends. They asked me to take
so many pictures so that he could see them. I wasn’t able to see his face
when he was looking at the pictures but I know that his heart was beating
faster as he was watching faces of people that he has not seen in almost two
years.

I just praise God for who He is and how wonderful his love is for us. He is
a big God with a big heart for everyone, and this is so visible in this
whole story with Vedat. The people, the time, the effort, the finances, all
that has been put together to have this happen is such a visible sign of the
love that Jesus has for us. Nothing stopped Him from loving us, not even the
death.

God is good and I love Him, there is no one like Him.

I praise Him for everything that he has done in my life, and I praise Him
for everything that will happen. And I praise Him for everyone of you and
the great picture that all of us make when we stand together as small pieces
of a puzzle that are connected.

It is a blessing to be in the Kingdom of God and a part of His family.

OK, I hope I was able to up date you on how things went in Montenegro and I
haven’t talked much about my life at home but to put it in a few words
everything is good.

My sister is getting baptized in the next few weeks and that is very
exciting. I will start college soon and a new life style will take place. My
little niece started school so now she is in first grade. With occasional
ups and downs the family life is good.

My Church is having a guest speaker coming and there is a lot of preparation
for that (prayer and evanglzing) and it seems that everything happening in
life is going by fast.

I miss you and I hope that all of you are doing  well.

Be blessed and stay close to the only One that gives meaning to our life.

Jesus is the Truth, the Way and the Life.  (John 14:6)

Love you.