Last week, we were visited by several teams from Sweden, Poland, and the Czech Republic here in Skopje, North Macedonia—to evangelize together and reach out with the gospel to the young people in the city.
It was an absolutely fantastic week! Many people got to hear the gospel, and young believers were encouraged to live boldly for Jesus.
On Saturday, we held an evangelistic event with a soccer tournament. We invited many people so we could share God’s word with them, but unfortunately, very few showed up. When the day was over, everything felt a bit like a failure, and Ruben, one of the team leaders, suggested that we go back to the same place where we had evangelized the day before.
I was very tired after a long day and was close to saying no and going home to sleep, but since everyone else was going out to evangelize, I chose to go along anyway.
When we arrived at the place, several guys from yesterday’s evangelism recognized me. We immediately started talking and joking together. One of the guys borrowed my guitar—he didn’t know anything about guitars—and everyone around found his attempts to play amusing and entertaining. Suddenly, more and more people started gathering around us. After he finished playing, he gave me the guitar and I began to play a worship song.
Pretty soon I realized that there was a relatively large crowd around us. “This is it! I have to preach now…” was my first thought.
I shouted “Prevaduvach,” which means translator. A guy I didn’t know at all offered to help. As soon as I started preaching, a police patrol arrived wanting to disperse the crowd. “We can’t go against the police, but what choice do we have?” I thought. Suddenly, one of our Macedonian friends stepped out of the crowd. “You can just keep going, I talked to the police and they have the whole situation under control, everything’s okay!”
So, I continued.
“You’re probably familiar with all the crosses you carry,” and even the one that stands up on the mountain above the city. But I’m here to tell you that Jesus is alive!”
I honestly didn’t know what to say, so I just shouted out the first thing that came to mind. Some just stood there laughing, while others listened quietly and reverently.
After the sermon, we started singing some worship songs, and the crowd slowly began to disperse. At the end, some stayed behind, and we had the privilege to pray for them, share our testimonies, and give them Bibles.
The final blessing that evening was that one of our Macedonian friends managed to arrange a minibus for us and drove us all home. What a day! I still can’t fully grasp what happened that night. This was definitely orchestrated by God. We can never plan for something like that, but God can!
/Jan Marek
