7 men and a lassie

Yesterday was quite a day. After a night of coughing and plain old not sleeping well, I met 7 gents at 7.20am to go to a prayer conference. I sat in the back of a Pajero for 2 hours and 15 minutes each way with 2 younger guys with my knees practically up by my ears. I've known the one guy for a year and a half, and I still can't follow him. I, for the most part, understand the words he uses but usually don't have a flying clue about what he's getting at...which made 4 1/2 hours of conversation rather comical. The rest of the vehicle’s occupants were 5 gents in their 40s and 50s – all quite interesting characters. One gent was Uncle Shifty. I call him that in my head because he’s the type who usually has a smirk on his mustached mouth and slowly turns with his shoulders instead of his neck to look at something or someone – a good guy, but looks a little shifty. Anyhoo, every time my colleague accelerated or passed someone, he’d dryly say, “Ha.le.lu.ja.” He comes pretty regularly, but I’ve never heard him sing or pray or any of that “religious talk stuff.” It cracked me up.

Another gent, Uncle Jimmy Hendrix (the dude from other pics with the dark glasses), would be totally silent for an hour on end…and then he’d talk without stopping for breath. On the way back, he was wiped out and napped nestled in his buddy’s armpit – looked something like a 15-year-old happy-as-a-clam girlfriend (only he’s a 60-year-old beat-up-by-life survivor dude).

On the way, we stopped for coffee at a little roadside café, and all of the gents were quite taken with the Albanian-pride artwork. One in particular whipped out his camera phone and was snapping right and left. He insisted that I pose by a UCK emblem (the illegal Kosovar Albanian army in the ‘90s). Then he asked that I take his picture – by 6 paintings, 2 stuffed birds, and, of course, the UCK emblem. Weirdo :)

I suppose I should be writing about the prayer conference instead of the idiosyncrasies of our goofy infant church family. It was, after all, a really special time of worship and prayer with church leaders from around the region. There were many pastors from Kosovo, Macedonia, and Albania. There was an emotional, beautiful, courageous apology from a Serb pastor. Many, many pastors and church leaders were prayed for, and it was an exhausting yet glorious time of worship and intercession. I was and am thankful to be able to participate and witness the humble, earnest prayers of church leaders in this area.

The most memorable part of the day, however, was seeing the deepening friendships between these 40- to 60-year-old baby believers from our crew. Stats: 3 have either black or no teeth; 4 are unemployed; 2 are serious smokers; 1 has a jail record; 3 make racist comments; 2 have moustaches; 5 have never been outside of this area the size of Connecticut. Yet, shoot, maybe these are the equivelent of fishermen and tax collectors...chosen and dearly, dearly loved.