This winter, if someone had been to ask me, “Where do you live?” my reply probably would have been, “Great question.” My home is in Florida, in a small town of just over 1,000 people. However, I moved last summer to Peja, Kosovo, a city of about 200,000 people in the Balkan peninsula. Peja is my home away from home, and my heart is very attached to this city.
For the past few months, while the family I work with in Peja has been in the States, I lived in Prishtina, Kosovo’s capital. I stayed in a house with five other ladies with whom I worked at Prishtina High School. I bounced around to wherever the school needed me at the moment, whether it was elementary school PE, high school English, or anywhere in between.
On top of living in this new city and working in a school where upon moving I knew exactly one other staff member, I was not fully living in Prishtina. On the weekends, I would travel back to Peja and stay in an apartment near our church so that I could help out with the ministry. This means that every Friday night or Saturday morning, I hop on the bus to Peja, spend my entire weekend there, and then arrive back in Prishtina on Sunday night before starting my week over on Monday morning.
Throughout the winter I felt very untethered to any particular place or home or bed. And honestly, it was tough. It was wonderful, and I enjoyed my time spent in this living situation, but four months without really ever feeling “settled” was hard on me. It wasn’t the constant excitement of traveling somewhere new, and it wasn’t the deepening experience of establishing life in a new home. At times I felt that I was floating between homes and cities with my feet barely touching the ground in between, but the Lord used this time to teach me some very wonderful truths.
Truth #1:
God is our solid ground.
This concept is usually spoken of in the context of emotional turbulence, but for me this winter, I found this truth to be comforting throughout my season of physical “wandering”. Floating between between two temporary homes is manageable when you can ground yourself in the steadfastness of our God. It didn’t matter where I was sleeping or how comfortable I felt somewhere- if I am in God’s will, then I know I am where I should be.
Truth #2:
It’s good to be a part of the Family of God.
Even though I was not with my family in Florida, or my family I made at my college, or my family I live with here in Peja, I had family. The Lord provided me with an opportunity to deepen relationships with others in Peja. This was one of the biggest blessings of these four winter months. When we are a part of the Church, we are automatically a member of an inter-continental family that crosses over borders and through languages. The family of God breaks through cultural differences and brings together believers from every corner of the globe who have one common goal: to love and worship God and exalt Him through our lives. And I am SO happy to be a part of it.
Truth #3
Relationships are valuable.
When I first moved to Prishtina, I had the wrong mindset when it came to making relationships with the people there. I thought that because it was only a temporary “filler” situation, I should just keep my head down and do my work, and not bother with making connections since I would be leaving so soon.
This was such a bad attitude to have, and if I had stuck with it, I could have missed out on making some wonderful friendships that truly brightened my time in that city and school. God blessed me by giving me wonderful roommates and co-workers who became very dear to me; I am grateful that I did not miss out on these relationships!
Although this winter was definitely a challenge, it caused me to grow in ways that I would not have pushed myself toward on my own. I am entering this spring carrying fond memories and new understandings that could only have come through time spent in my home away from home away from home.
Traveling Truly 