An Interview with Wendy Zahorjanski - Hard is Only Half of the Story - From Small Town Girl to Missionary in Serbia

[00:00:02] Welcome to the When She Leads podcast with Brenda Leavenworth. Tune in as Brenda and her team explore thought-provoking topics designed especially for women in ministry. We're delighted to have you here today.

[00:00:15] Well, I'm really excited today because we are going to be starting these interviews. And so, Wendy, you're our first. I have here with me Wendy Zahorjanski. Did I say that right?

[00:00:32] Close enough.

[00:00:33] Okay. And she's a missionary in Serbia and she has written a book called Hard is Only Half the Story from Small Town Girl to Missionary in Serbia. So it's so good to have you, Wendy.

[00:00:49] I'm so glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:52] Yeah. And we got to talk and I got to know you a little bit and I'm super excited to have this conversation and have people get to know you.

[00:01:01] I was just in Hungary in July and at a Serbian leadership conference. And so I got to see close to your country where you're at. But tell us a little bit about just about yourself, your family life, those types of things.

[00:01:20] Sure. I grew up in a Christian home. I think I had a pretty typical. Most of my childhood was pretty typical.

[00:01:28] Both we were going to church every Sunday, very involved. I'm the youngest of three. I have an older brother and a sister.

[00:01:36] And I don't remember. I mean, as far as my faith journey, I don't remember a day not knowing who Jesus was or even not wanting to be with him.

[00:01:48] And so at a really young age, it was I was before I wasn't six yet. So probably around five.

[00:01:54] I think that I decided that that's what I wanted to do is give my heart to Jesus. And I prayed with my mom.

[00:02:01] I remember. And I really do think that the Lord honored that prayer and that he really for a five year old.

[00:02:08] I my faith matched my understanding, if that makes sense. So I really think that my my walk with the Lord started when I was really young.

[00:02:16] And so my story, my faith journey is more about him being faithful to me.

[00:02:22] It's not maybe some of the testimonies that we hear of a before and after a long before.

[00:02:29] And then there's an after. But my before, I don't even remember.

[00:02:32] But the after for sure, the after is the whole journey of just the Lord being faithful and showing me that he really is who he said he is.

[00:02:43] So that was through hard things in my life that he ended up showing himself faithful.

[00:02:49] When I was six, my dad tragically died in a plane accident.

[00:02:53] So that was something obviously that was very difficult for our whole family.

[00:02:58] And it wasn't right away that I saw that God was faithful and that he was good.

[00:03:04] But over as I was growing up and as I grew up and a few years went by, I really saw that he was with us and that he had never left us and that he really was faithful to us.

[00:03:14] So also throughout those years, I felt just a desire to go into the mission field.

[00:03:22] I always wanted to not live in the United States.

[00:03:26] And I would even joke with my mom, you know, mom, when I graduate from college, I'm going to leave the States and I'm not going to live here.

[00:03:32] Just so you know, you should prepare yourself.

[00:03:34] And it was kind of a joke.

[00:03:35] But I think that the Lord really planted something in my heart that was ready to go.

[00:03:40] I know that that's not always the case.

[00:03:42] And for some people, the sacrifice is to go.

[00:03:46] But for me, it wasn't.

[00:03:48] That part actually wasn't hard for me.

[00:03:50] It was something that was so in me that it was kind of the realization of a dream that I had always had.

[00:03:57] So anyway, throughout high school was typical things.

[00:04:01] And then I ended up doing a year of university in the States.

[00:04:05] And then I ran out of money and I was still undeclared.

[00:04:08] And I didn't know what I wanted to do.

[00:04:09] So my brother, who was a missionary in Kyrgyzstan at the time, said, well, why don't you just move over here and figure it out?

[00:04:15] And I thought, well, I don't have a reason not to go.

[00:04:19] So I guess, sure, I'll go.

[00:04:21] So I was 19.

[00:04:22] So I moved over and I lived with them for six months.

[00:04:25] And that was my first experience of hanging out with girls who had no, no, any kind of background or concept of who God was or what is a Christian or what is the Bible or any of those things.

[00:04:41] And my first experience of having cross-cultural, I grew up in Vermont.

[00:04:48] So it's not very ethnically diverse.

[00:04:51] It's not very – I just wasn't part of my childhood.

[00:04:55] So all those things were new for me.

[00:04:57] And that was where I decided, okay, if I'm going to dedicate my life to this, then I better be sure, first of all, that my faith is based on what I believe.

[00:05:07] And it's not just something I've inherited from my family and just kind of been around.

[00:05:11] And so that's kind of where I ended up.

[00:05:14] So I – and I saw that I needed more training.

[00:05:16] So I ended up going to the Calvary Chapel Bible College that was in Hungary at the time.

[00:05:23] Actually, where you were at the conference.

[00:05:25] Yeah.

[00:05:25] On that campus.

[00:05:26] Yeah.

[00:05:27] Beautiful campus.

[00:05:27] So I ended up – it is.

[00:05:29] It's really beautiful.

[00:05:30] It's really beautiful.

[00:05:31] I've spent three years there.

[00:05:33] I finished their Bible College program.

[00:05:35] And then I did a year of internship.

[00:05:37] And that's where I met my husband.

[00:05:39] He's from northwest Serbia.

[00:05:42] And that's where we met.

[00:05:43] And then we started dating and we moved down to northern Serbia and served in a church together.

[00:05:49] And that's where we got married.

[00:05:50] And then in 2012, we moved to Karagwevac, which is the city we live in now in central Serbia.

[00:05:57] Wow.

[00:05:58] So what was – what was that journey like?

[00:06:01] Like when you – did you feel a call to Serbia in the beginning or did you – was your call just to missions, but you didn't quite know where?

[00:06:13] Yeah, that's a good question.

[00:06:15] It was definitely to missions, but I didn't know where.

[00:06:18] I never had a – felt a calling to a certain people group or to a certain geographical location.

[00:06:25] I only knew that I wasn't – when I was at the end of my internship, nearing the end, the only thing I felt like the Lord was telling me was don't – it's not time to go back to the States and go somewhere where there aren't a lot of churches.

[00:06:40] And I thought, really, Lord?

[00:06:42] That's like half the world.

[00:06:43] Could you at least narrow it down to like a continent or a people group?

[00:06:48] It was so frustrating for me, but then the way the Lord narrowed it down was through Danny, which was my future husband.

[00:06:56] Exactly.

[00:06:56] So kind of his – yeah.

[00:06:58] Everything that Danny wanted to do and felt like the Lord was calling him back to Serbia really fit in with the call, the general call that I had already felt on my life.

[00:07:08] So it was kind of just the details that were filled in.

[00:07:12] Right.

[00:07:12] If he would have told you like, okay, I'm calling you to Serbia, that would have helped, right?

[00:07:17] Because then when you met your husband, you'd have been like, oh, okay.

[00:07:22] Yes, it would have helped a lot.

[00:07:24] Yeah.

[00:07:25] He likes us to just trust him, right, and take those steps of faith.

[00:07:30] And so when you met your husband, did he feel that call to stay in his country?

[00:07:40] Because I think it's an interesting dynamic.

[00:07:42] Like, you know, usually like a couple's called to missions while he's at home.

[00:07:46] So for him, the call is like local church.

[00:07:49] And for you, then it's missionary.

[00:07:52] And look how beautifully God made that.

[00:07:55] So what was that like in your talks in the beginning?

[00:08:00] Yeah, he definitely did not want to serve the Lord in his own country.

[00:08:08] He, like so many young people in Serbia, wanted to get as far away as possible.

[00:08:12] And so his plan was to marry an American and then move to America.

[00:08:18] So that was, I mean, general before.

[00:08:21] And then when he went, that was his initial plan when he went to Bible college.

[00:08:25] But then when he got there, the Lord really started changing his heart.

[00:08:28] And he would tell the source so much better.

[00:08:31] But he just, I think, had some pictures on his laptop.

[00:08:34] Like his, I don't know, before you had your phone, you know, you kept your pictures on your laptop.

[00:08:39] And he was just going through the pictures.

[00:08:41] And he, a map of Serbia came up.

[00:08:43] And the Lord just broke his heart for Serbia and realized, you know, you're so angry at the people.

[00:08:49] But really, it's Satan who's blinding them.

[00:08:52] And he's the one that you should really be angry at.

[00:08:55] And so the Lord really just redirected kind of the anger that he had felt over some of the realities of Serbia.

[00:09:03] And just redirected them to realize that there's an enemy behind who's deceiving and who's destroying, really, things.

[00:09:11] And so that changed everything for him.

[00:09:13] And then he wanted to come back to Serbia.

[00:09:15] And that happened before he met me.

[00:09:17] So by the time we met, he already knew that he was called to the central southern part of Serbia, which is a big difference from where he's from in the north.

[00:09:28] It almost, the culture would feel like a different culture once you're here.

[00:09:33] The language is the same.

[00:09:34] And for an outsider, it would feel the same.

[00:09:36] But for him coming down, there's a very, very big difference.

[00:09:40] So even though he's in the same country, there's a lot of cultural things that he had to get used to, which is interesting that we would never think of.

[00:09:48] But it does make sense if you would think maybe somebody moving from, say, where I'm from to Vermont.

[00:09:52] And then if they move down to Alabama, it would be a huge change for some.

[00:09:57] Or East Coast, West Coast or some of these things.

[00:10:00] So that would be similar, just different from the north to the south.

[00:10:06] So anyway, but he already had that call.

[00:10:09] And he just started sharing with me just about what he wanted to do and just the burden that he felt.

[00:10:14] And then just asking me, you know, is that something kind of that I would see myself doing?

[00:10:22] Or because he was all not afraid, but didn't want to get married to somebody who wouldn't be able to,

[00:10:32] I don't want to say handle the mission field, but wouldn't really that wasn't called to the mission field and then have to leave because of that.

[00:10:38] So anyway, so I said, oh, I think so.

[00:10:41] I think it fits in with everything that the Lord's calling me.

[00:10:44] And then we had the amazing opportunity and really good advice for me to for us to move to northern Serbia, where that established church already was.

[00:10:54] There was a Calvary Chapel that had been there for over 20 years and be a part of that church.

[00:11:00] And for me to live in that city for a full year before we got married, just to make sure that I could actually live there.

[00:11:07] So, yeah, that actually really helped, I think, just to kind of have some of those cultural things beforehand to realize, OK, yeah, I really can.

[00:11:16] I really do see myself living here.

[00:11:18] I really am not miserable, missing home, missing family, those kind of things.

[00:11:23] So that actually I really value.

[00:11:26] I don't remember who told us, who gave us that advice, but it was good advice.

[00:11:30] So that kind of helped.

[00:11:31] But it also helped that he he had such a clear call from the Lord and I had such a call, like a clear call, but an open one.

[00:11:39] So they really did just fit together.

[00:11:40] Yeah, it's so incredible because you think about the wisdom and someone giving you that advice because you're you're in that season where you're you're thinking, OK, are we supposed to partner together?

[00:11:53] You're not going to be together in marriage for this cause.

[00:11:55] But also you're counting the cost.

[00:11:58] You're saying, OK, can I do this?

[00:12:00] Do I have what it takes?

[00:12:01] Do I have what it takes to, you know, to remain in this calling and to remain his wife?

[00:12:06] And, you know, because it's hard in missionary.

[00:12:09] I mean, you know, I don't have to tell you.

[00:12:11] Missionary work is very difficult.

[00:12:13] And so you got to know that, you know.

[00:12:17] So I'm sure through the hard times then.

[00:12:19] And I don't know if you want to share that, but maybe that's part of your story.

[00:12:24] But, you know, just sharing in like in the hard times, you get to go back to.

[00:12:30] Yes, but we know that we know.

[00:12:32] Has that been helpful for you?

[00:12:35] Oh, that's a game changer for sure.

[00:12:39] It's been helpful to know that we are called to church planting as a couple.

[00:12:44] And it's been, I would say, even more helpful that I had a call to missions before I met Danny

[00:12:51] because I couldn't blame him for bringing me to the mission field.

[00:12:56] But, you know, when I was mad or when things got really hard, I had to take it to God.

[00:13:01] And I had to be mad at God and blame him because he was the one who put that desire in me way before.

[00:13:08] So I kind of had to deal with it in prayer to the Lord, which I think was really helpful just for our relationship.

[00:13:14] That there's enough, it's hard enough to be married.

[00:13:17] And there's all, there's conflict enough without adding an extra layer of feeling like you were dragged into somebody else's call and that cross-culturally.

[00:13:27] So I'm really thankful for that, that for my personal story, I had a personal call to missions.

[00:13:35] And it just happened to be that the location matched where my husband was from.

[00:13:40] So I think that that, that was really a game changer and, and really having the call together to plant churches.

[00:13:52] But also I think that Danny had such a freedom about not knowing everything.

[00:13:57] I remember in the beginning he would say, well, I don't know everything, but we're going to pray and we're going to figure it out together.

[00:14:02] And that was so freeing for me just to realize that going into a different culture and a different country, you feel like you don't know anything.

[00:14:11] I mean, to the extreme.

[00:14:14] So everything, everything in, especially in the first several years was being stripped away.

[00:14:21] So I can't communicate to people.

[00:14:23] When I communicate, I sound like a two-year-old.

[00:14:26] And so people treat me like a two-year-old, which is very logical, but it's really difficult to maintain that level of humility.

[00:14:36] It's impossible.

[00:14:37] I did not do it.

[00:14:38] So yeah, to be offended when people treat you like you're stupid.

[00:14:42] But I actually sounded like I was, that I couldn't, that I could function only on a two-year-old level.

[00:14:48] And I actually only could, I could only understand if they talked to me that way.

[00:14:53] So I actually share a story in my book about a time when we were volunteering at like a day, it was a respite program kind of.

[00:15:05] But it was even more than that for people, adults with special needs.

[00:15:09] And it was also, they called it a club and it was just a place for them, a safe place for them to go and to hang out and play games and have activities and whatever.

[00:15:19] So we would go once a week and hang out with them.

[00:15:22] And I hated going.

[00:15:23] I hated going.

[00:15:25] I only went because it was Danny's thing and he wanted to go and he asked me to come.

[00:15:29] But I hated it because I didn't understand anything.

[00:15:31] It was the first year I was in Serbia.

[00:15:33] It was, everything about it was so difficult.

[00:15:36] It was, I don't know how long we were there, probably just an hour or two, probably two hours.

[00:15:41] And it was just interaction with people the whole time.

[00:15:44] And I couldn't hide and I couldn't, I had to sit there and I had to not understand what was going on around me.

[00:15:51] And one time we were there and Danny was talking to one of the guys who was there and he spoke, he had a mental disability.

[00:16:01] And, but he spoke English, Serbian and Hungarian.

[00:16:05] Hungarian, Serbian fluently and English he could communicate.

[00:16:09] So he's talking to Danny in Serbian and I can understand him, but I can't respond yet.

[00:16:14] But I can get the gist kind of of what he's saying.

[00:16:17] And he said, you know, how come I have a disability and I understand these all, these three languages, but she doesn't and she doesn't understand.

[00:16:28] What's wrong with her?

[00:16:29] And I remember getting so mad and I just wanted to scream at him.

[00:16:34] I am smart.

[00:16:36] I am.

[00:16:36] I wish you knew how smart I was.

[00:16:38] If we were speaking in English, then you would know.

[00:16:41] But then it hit me in moments after that, obviously that, oh my gosh, he's right.

[00:16:48] In this situation, in this moment, he is smarter than me.

[00:16:53] He has higher level of knowledge than I do.

[00:16:57] In the Serbian language.

[00:16:58] And it was so difficult for me to stomach that.

[00:17:03] And it's because of my pride.

[00:17:05] It shouldn't have been, but it was because of my pride.

[00:17:08] So even though the initial years really were difficult, it was because it's a lot of the difficulties were inner work that was the Lord was doing,

[00:17:18] as well as the outer work of learning to communicate and learning to function in an environment where everything is foreign.

[00:17:29] So turning on the stove is different.

[00:17:30] I didn't know how to turn on the stove.

[00:17:33] I didn't know.

[00:17:34] I couldn't figure out why there wasn't hot water.

[00:17:35] Oh, you have to flip the switch for the boiler in the bathroom to get the hot water.

[00:17:39] I didn't know.

[00:17:40] You just feel so stupid after like 20 of those things in one day that I can't even function.

[00:17:47] I don't know how to flush the toilet.

[00:17:49] I don't know.

[00:17:50] Do I throw the toilet paper in the toilet?

[00:17:51] Do I put it in the trash can?

[00:17:52] I don't know.

[00:17:53] I don't even know how to do anything.

[00:17:56] Yeah.

[00:17:57] You know?

[00:17:58] So, yeah.

[00:17:59] So isolating too, because when you're there and people aren't speaking your language, you just close in and there's, you can't understand anything.

[00:18:07] You can't communicate.

[00:18:08] It's very isolating.

[00:18:10] So I'm sure you felt extremely isolated.

[00:18:12] Now you guys planted a church there in, was it in 2012 or what year did you plant the church?

[00:18:20] We moved to the city in 2012.

[00:18:23] Okay.

[00:18:23] So we thought when we, we were sent out from that church in Northern Serbia to Central Serbia.

[00:18:27] And we thought if we moved down, we really felt like it was time.

[00:18:31] Then hopefully other people will come and join our team and we can plant a church together.

[00:18:35] Well, nobody came.

[00:18:37] Nobody ended up coming, but the Lord brought people from other organizations and other churches.

[00:18:42] So the first couple of years, it was really just meeting people.

[00:18:45] We didn't know anybody in the city when we moved.

[00:18:47] Well, not one person.

[00:18:48] So 2012, 2014 was when we started our first home group.

[00:18:55] And then that kind of meshed into, we had a Bible club is what we called it.

[00:18:59] And it was basically just workshops about the Bible.

[00:19:03] So Danny would teach and it wasn't, there wasn't be any singing.

[00:19:07] There wouldn't, he wouldn't pray before.

[00:19:09] He would just open the Bible and he would just read it and explain what it said.

[00:19:13] So that people could come and they could just have contact with, with the Bible for the first time.

[00:19:18] So that kind of morphed into a couple believers who had got saved through other churches that had been in our city in the past or other online or those kinds of things.

[00:19:29] They, a few of them started coming.

[00:19:31] And then Danny said, well, would you want to have a service on Sunday morning?

[00:19:34] And they said, yeah.

[00:19:35] And a couple of people got saved during those years.

[00:19:38] And that's how the church formed.

[00:19:41] And then there was another group in the city about 2016.

[00:19:45] And we ended up merging our two tiny groups of like 10 people, 10 people and 10 people.

[00:19:50] So we merged them together and that's our current, our current church.

[00:19:55] So, yeah.

[00:19:56] Yeah.

[00:19:57] You were telling me a little bit about what was going on there now that was super exciting.

[00:20:02] So what, what's taking place now?

[00:20:05] Yeah, it is really, it's a really exciting season.

[00:20:08] And it's after so many years of not seeing the amount of fruit that we wanted because of the amount of effort that we felt like we were putting in.

[00:20:19] So this past year, we have had eight.

[00:20:25] We've got in, in the summer, we had a baptism and eight people were baptized, which for us is a huge number.

[00:20:33] Usually we have one person come to the Lord a year is max.

[00:20:37] We've never had more than one person.

[00:20:39] And this year we have eight people and in a week and a half.

[00:20:43] So the end of September, we're going to have another baptism and another four people are going to be baptized.

[00:20:50] So it's amazing.

[00:20:52] A lot of them have gotten saved because of TikTok.

[00:20:56] It's a guy in our church that does a lot of TikTok videos and that's how he evangelizes.

[00:21:00] He's an evangelist and he uses TikTok because he's 22.

[00:21:05] So that's what he does.

[00:21:07] And yeah, and there's a couple other TikTokers in Serbia and the Lord is really using TikTok right now.

[00:21:12] And then they meet up with people and message them and share with them.

[00:21:17] And then they have ended up coming to church.

[00:21:19] So most of them are in their 20s as well, which is also really exciting to have young people.

[00:21:25] The young people in Serbia are really hungry, I think, for spiritual things and tired of the way that things are and tired of kind of the some of the corruption that they see in the Orthodox Church.

[00:21:38] Here is predominantly Orthodox.

[00:21:40] So they're open to new things, which is amazing that it's a perfect opportunity to share Jesus with them.

[00:21:49] So it's really exciting.

[00:21:50] That's super exciting.

[00:21:52] Yeah, that's when you told me that I was just so thrilled.

[00:21:57] And just to see the partnership of God, like God using the body together to, you know, bridge some of these gaps and move people where he wants them is pretty incredible.

[00:22:10] What is what's it like in in Serbia?

[00:22:15] Just, you know, for people who have never been able to travel there, you know, what what has the spiritual climate been?

[00:22:22] And and what is it kind of now like these young people you just shared that they're hungry?

[00:22:28] But what's the spiritual climate like like compared to the United States?

[00:22:32] You know, because we're we're in a downfall spiritually.

[00:22:36] Like there is an awakening and there are people who are still hungry.

[00:22:40] But then we have a lot.

[00:22:42] We have this big segment of the crowd that, you know, would just be like more of cultural Christianity.

[00:22:50] And we have a very just like our I would say like our stereotype.

[00:22:59] You know, we have a melting pot of different thought and and theology and opinions on what the Bible is and isn't.

[00:23:09] So what's the climate like in Serbia?

[00:23:12] It's a really good question.

[00:23:14] Really difficult to answer in a short, concise way because because the history is so long of Serbia, obviously, compared to the America.

[00:23:27] I mean, America before when it was colonized.

[00:23:32] So we're talking about hundreds and I mean, it was a kingdom.

[00:23:36] Serbia was a kingdom like a medieval kingdom.

[00:23:38] So we are talking such a rich history.

[00:23:42] They have such a rich history and it's such a history of extremes.

[00:23:46] So all of the extremes have mixed together for really interesting modern Serbia.

[00:23:53] So some of the elements would be Serbia, half of Serbia, more than half of Serbia was under the Ottoman Empire.

[00:24:03] So it was under Islam for 500 years, 500 years.

[00:24:07] So just think about that.

[00:24:09] Wow.

[00:24:10] They came and they were a lot of them were told either convert or die or convert and you can't or not be a citizen.

[00:24:20] And a lot of the Serbians at that time really resisted.

[00:24:26] The Ottoman influence and they actually were able to do what is really incredible.

[00:24:36] And preserve their language and preserve their culture and preserve their religion, which was Orthodoxy.

[00:24:42] So people who are like history buffs, you know, and you would know even better than me.

[00:24:47] But you can also look it up in church history.

[00:24:50] But, you know, we talk about the great schism, right?

[00:24:53] That's what it's called when it was the divide between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church.

[00:24:57] So when that happened, that was the first divide.

[00:24:59] So Orthodox would be like the East and they chose Constantinople and then the West or Catholic chose Rome.

[00:25:06] So Constantinople would come up and that would also include Serbia.

[00:25:09] So Serbia would be under the Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox.

[00:25:14] There's a lot of different Orthodox churches in different countries and every country is autonomous.

[00:25:18] So that's important to know.

[00:25:20] So what you know about Russian Orthodox might not be the same as Serbian Orthodox.

[00:25:25] But it's a very in its beginnings, it was actually a more biblical understanding of Christianity than the Catholic Church.

[00:25:35] The Catholic Church ended up being corrupted a lot faster.

[00:25:38] And the Orthodox Church stayed really actually in a more pure form, which is amazing.

[00:25:43] They have an amazing history.

[00:25:44] So you have that and then you have this influence of the Ottoman Empire coming in in Islam and they're trying to dominate.

[00:25:52] And then the Serbians are trying to preserve Christianity and their values.

[00:25:58] So what happened was a lot of traditions were added.

[00:26:04] Historically, Serbians are very stubborn.

[00:26:05] And so when like, for example, when the first missionaries came, which was Methodist and Cyrillus, I think is in English anyway.

[00:26:14] And they came up and they were the first missionaries to Serbia.

[00:26:17] And they the people didn't in order to try and create bridges.

[00:26:21] They each they tried to figure out biblical ways, which we call it contextualization right today.

[00:26:28] But biblical ways of like helping them to understand Christianity.

[00:26:30] But they actually I don't think they meant to, but ended up creating a lot of confusion today.

[00:26:37] So, for example, every family then Serbian family had their own God.

[00:26:40] So the God of Thunder.

[00:26:42] So when they came, they said, well, don't worship the God of Thunder.

[00:26:45] Worship.

[00:26:46] Just remember Elijah.

[00:26:48] Because he was like the prophet, you know, and called down, called down the fire.

[00:26:53] So today the saints have been elevated to this position of almost God like this.

[00:27:00] So you have that whole element of like religion, right?

[00:27:03] This is deep generations, generations, generations of tradition.

[00:27:07] And then on the other side, also the more modern story, excuse me, of Serbia is that it was also under communism.

[00:27:17] So you probably learned about Yugoslavia when you were younger.

[00:27:22] It might be more familiar with that.

[00:27:23] But Serbia was part of Yugoslavia and Yugoslavia was actually communist.

[00:27:28] So you also have this period, which I can't remember how long it was, but 50, 50, 50 years, I think.

[00:27:36] Maybe less.

[00:27:37] Anyway, about I don't know.

[00:27:38] But it was there's a period of time where it was communist.

[00:27:41] So then it became illegal to be to believe in God.

[00:27:44] But people still tried to maintain and they did really maintain, but it was kind of secret.

[00:27:48] So and then that fell with Tito and Tito died, which was their ruler.

[00:27:52] And then Yugoslavia fell apart.

[00:27:54] And that's a whole thing.

[00:27:54] And then you have modern Serbia.

[00:27:56] And now Serbia is in this position of there's been a lot of wars here recently.

[00:28:01] So my husband has lived through three different wars in his lifetime.

[00:28:06] So the economy's been broken down.

[00:28:08] It's trying to recover, but not really.

[00:28:11] So it's like this in between.

[00:28:12] We're right in the Balkans.

[00:28:14] So we're right in between the east and the west geographically.

[00:28:17] And so there's also that pull toward both sides.

[00:28:21] So for the how all of those things affect the spiritual climate of the country.

[00:28:26] This is a really long answer to your question.

[00:28:28] I'm sorry.

[00:28:29] But it makes it like a mesh of you have deep traditions that are considered Christian, but might not necessarily be found in the Bible.

[00:28:41] Right.

[00:28:42] But the people would consider themselves a Christian nation.

[00:28:48] In the sense that they're Orthodox and that is Christian.

[00:28:50] So to be Serbian is to be Orthodox.

[00:28:53] But Protestant, like our church would be considered a Protestant church, that doesn't fall under that in with Orthodoxy.

[00:28:59] So we're something completely different.

[00:29:01] So we're often treated like a cult, a sect.

[00:29:03] So this is also I mean, you're thinking it doesn't really make sense, but it's just these.

[00:29:10] There's a lot of suspicion about the unknown.

[00:29:12] There's a lot of suspicion about outside things.

[00:29:14] The West has not always been fair to them.

[00:29:17] So there's a lot of suspicion about ideas that come from the West.

[00:29:21] Protestantism comes from the West.

[00:29:22] So it's all mixed in to it takes a long time to earn people's trust.

[00:29:27] And it takes a long time for to for somebody to be able to slowly go through the things that they the traditions and the things that are so a part of their culture and their identity.

[00:29:41] And to separate that from who they are in Christ, as what the Bible says.

[00:29:48] So the people are very open to, for example, almost everybody believes that God exists and that God is the creator and that we're created.

[00:29:58] So that is an amazing thing.

[00:30:00] But then to get to does your Christian faith actually affects the decisions that you make every day?

[00:30:07] No.

[00:30:08] It's a complete disconnect.

[00:30:11] So I would say there's an openness, but this work is so painfully slow of walking people toward Jesus and having somebody actually realize that they can have a personal relationship with Jesus.

[00:30:24] And then wanting to pursue that is something that takes a really long time.

[00:30:29] That that is fantastic.

[00:30:31] And what rich history and, you know, so thankful for the gospel and for you guys being there.

[00:30:37] I want to switch gears just for the last few minutes of our interview, just to have you tell me a little bit about your book.

[00:30:45] Heart is only half the story.

[00:30:47] And, you know, who's it written to?

[00:30:50] And and how did you become to write this book?

[00:30:53] How did the Lord put that on your heart?

[00:30:55] If you just want to kind of share with us what what the Lord did through that.

[00:31:01] Yeah, it's I wrote the book for cross-cultural workers.

[00:31:09] So my heart behind it was to share my personal story.

[00:31:14] Each chapter is a story from my life and my experience of going into a different culture, going into something unknown.

[00:31:21] So my immediate audience would be cross-cultural workers.

[00:31:24] But I also think it could apply to anybody who has taken the step to go into something unknown, a new job, a new city, those things.

[00:31:34] And just to show that especially going into a different culture and country doesn't destroy you, as it often feels like in the beginning, because everything is so new and different.

[00:31:48] But it's actually an opportunity for the Lord to enrich you.

[00:31:52] And that's been my experience.

[00:31:54] So that's what the stories are about, is how the Lord broke down the things in my life.

[00:32:01] The walls that were crooked is the example I give.

[00:32:04] And but in order to rebuild them straight.

[00:32:08] And that for my story, he used a different culture to do that and a different language and that whole process.

[00:32:14] So that's really what what the book is about in short, just how the Lord walks with us and how he's faithful.

[00:32:22] And some of the stories are positive stories when I got it right.

[00:32:26] And some of the stories are ones where I totally messed it up.

[00:32:29] And I just really I tried to be really honest so that people would know that they're not alone, that it's a journey where the Lord is so gracious when we veer off the path and end up somewhere completely where we're not supposed to be.

[00:32:43] And we're lost because we're not supposed to be there that he's so gracious just to pull us back and put us on the path.

[00:32:49] So that was what the story was.

[00:32:52] That's what the I hope that the readers how they experienced the story.

[00:32:56] And I wrote it because I wrote in my journal and I was just writing these things and I would share sometimes with Danny.

[00:33:05] And he said, you know, I think the things you're writing aren't just for your journal.

[00:33:09] I think that people would be really encouraged.

[00:33:11] And so he said, let's just put it in our newsletter and see what happens that you want to like write a book and have people start praying.

[00:33:18] And I said, OK, fine.

[00:33:20] And we put it in the newsletter.

[00:33:21] And then half an hour after that, someone wrote me and she's a copy editor.

[00:33:27] And she said, so does this mean you're going to let me help you?

[00:33:30] And she ended up becoming my mentor and helped me through the whole process.

[00:33:34] Without her, there's no way I would be able to do it.

[00:33:37] And so I started writing the book and it just started flowing, started flowing out of me.

[00:33:42] And I wrote it in three months.

[00:33:44] The writing part was not difficult.

[00:33:46] It's the editing and all that that's painful.

[00:33:48] But I realized as I was writing that writing really is something that gives me life.

[00:33:53] And it really is a talent that the Lord has given me.

[00:33:56] And I really want to develop it and I want to keep using it.

[00:33:58] But it was through writing this first book that I kind of discovered that it wasn't it was more than I just liked to journal.

[00:34:08] So they can get this book on Amazon, right?

[00:34:11] Yes, it's available on Amazon.

[00:34:14] And a really cool feature about the book that I have to say is one of my friends here is a professional artist and she illustrated the book.

[00:34:23] They can get the book on Amazon.

[00:34:25] That is the easiest place to get it.

[00:34:27] And so as we're wrapping up, Wendy, how can we be praying for you and your family?

[00:34:32] You can pray for us that we would have endurance and joy in serving the way that the Lord has called us to serve as a family.

[00:34:43] You can pray for our small church that we would really be a light to the people around us and be an example of what it means to love each other and to be the family of God.

[00:34:54] And that we wouldn't turn to the right or to the left, but that we would just keep going the way that the Lord has called us to go and in his way.

[00:35:03] And thank you so much for praying for us and for being just allowing me to come and to share kind of my story.

[00:35:11] It really it really is a privilege to be here.

[00:35:13] Sure. Well, Wendy, thank you so much for for just sharing with us.

[00:35:19] What a great conversation and so inspiring to hear about what the Lord is doing through you and your family and what he's doing in Serbia and exciting to hear about all the new things that he's doing.

[00:35:31] Thank you for just sharing.

[00:35:33] And if you're listening in, you can get Wendy's book on Amazon to get more information on what's going on and how she got to where she's at in life and ministry.

[00:35:46] Now it's called hard is only half the story.

[00:35:51] So thanks so much, Wendy.

[00:35:52] It was such a pleasure to talk with you and hear your story.

[00:35:57] And we will see you next time.

[00:35:59] See you, Wendy.

[00:36:01] Thanks so much for having me.

[00:36:02] Thank you for joining us today at when she leads.

[00:36:08] Our mission is to equip, connect and uplift women in ministry to stay informed about upcoming conferences, events and online gatherings.

[00:36:16] Visit us at when she leads.org.

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