Students serve alongside missionaries in Kosovo during Spring Break

 Nine Liberty University students spent their Spring Break in Kosovo serving and building relationships with missionaries already established in the country.

The trip, held March 11-19, was in partnership with Greater Europe Mission (GEM) and was led by Syri Pendleton, partnerships coordinator for LU Serve, and Pam Trowbridge, student development coordinator for LU Serve. While overseas, group members aided the missionaries in a variety of evangelistic classes and clubs for children and youth and worked with local Christian businesses.

“Our week was mainly focused on fulfilling some projects or ministry activities that were put out by the long-term missionaries there,” said senior Fabricio Fernandes, who is studying pastoral leadership. “Our goal was to come in, support their ministry, be an encouragement to them, and give them a week where they don’t have as much to do because they have help.”

Part of the work included serving in youth programs and kids clubs hosted by the missionaries that seek to teach local children English as well as share the Gospel.

“(The club) was awesome,” Pendleton said. “It was a lot of fun. For everyone at the club, you’re not allowed to speak Albanian. You have to speak English. So, it really gets the kids outside of their comfort zone, which is really cool.”

In addition to their time with the youth, the team also worked alongside several business owners who use their businesses to share the love of Christ. They assisted a coffee shop with its “America night,” an event that connects and establishes relationships between patrons and missionaries.

They also helped an event planning business, a mission endeavor directed by the local GEM missionaries. The Liberty team met a young Albanian man named Indrit, who works full time for the business. Although he has not become a Christian yet, he is regularly exposed to the Gospel because of the interactions that he has had with co-workers and employers.

“I’ve heard that he is now very interested in following Jesus, also reading the Bible, being part of a Bible study, and just hanging out with the Christians he is surrounded with all the time,” Fernandes said. “Discipleship is starting to peak with them there, all because he was hired to work with an event planning company. God used that to open up his heart and hopefully commit his life to Jesus.”

For Fernandes, the trip to Kosovo also provided him with the chance to encourage a friend who currently serves as a short-term missionary. Fernandes brought him letters from his church as well as spent time with him by hosting several game nights.

“It was just an encouragement to him, which has been helpful for me knowing the small thing I did was just be there, be present, be encouraging, meant a lot to him,” said Fernandes, who noted the spiritual warfare that his friend had been facing.

Having never been on a mission trip before, Fernandes stated that his expectations were “blown out of proportion.”

“It was quite an amazing experience that I never expected because growing up in ministry and learning what ministry is like in the American church, it’s very different when you go overseas to Europe. One of the major differences that I got to see, which is absolutely beautiful, was just how simple ministry is,” he said.

“What I got to experience in Kosovo was backwards because the missionaries go and meet where the people are,” he added, noting that some evangelism in America typically involves heavily structured church programs instead of the relaxed nature of the type of evangelism he saw in Europe. “It’s such a relational country where you can pick up a conversation with anybody and just build relationships with them. Programs are not super focused, they do some light programs here and there, but it is all driven through relationships. Greater Europe Mission believes the Gospel moves at the speed of relationships. I got to see firsthand what that is like.”

Pendleton noted that the trip altered the students’ view of missions and showed them how they could themselves participate in spreading the Gospel, whether going overseas or providing resources to send others.

“I think the Lord really used this trip to reframe some people’s view of what missions looks like and how they can play a part in it,” he said.

This trip was one of 16 domestic and international trips that the university sponsored over Spring Break.