The Online Diary of Ian Symondson

Nations

2008-02-28T20:56:00.003+01:00

This region has once again undergone some turmoil as Kosovo last week announced it's independence from Serbia. Sometimes the news seems so far away, but other times it is close to affecting us personally. I travelled to Novi Sad in Serbia last Friday, wondering whether I would be allowed across the border, after the British embassy in Belgrade had been attacked and burnt. But despite having several Kosovan stamps in my passport, there was no problem at all. I assume they have nothing against me personally, and I try not to express sides, even though I've heard a lot of the arguments for and against, both from Serbs and Kosovan Albanians, as well as from Macedonians.

Bosnia, another former Yugoslav republic, has a very large Serbian part, and I hear some are calling for it to break apart from Bosnia. Also, the northern part of Kosovo itself, which has a Serbian majority, has been having demonstrations to break away.

And here in Macedonia, two issues that have never been fully resolved since it's own independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, have been rearing their heads again. The first issue is that of it's name - officially and temporarily called "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", the Greeks have objected to the use of the name Macedonia for this country of 2 million people. The reasons are tied up in history and too long to mention in this blog, but now they are proposing that use of the word "Macedonian" for the language spoken here and for the nationality of the people should be removed, as a part of the conditions of the country entering NATO (it's more complex than that in fact, I am just simplifying it somewhat). So yesterday, in the centre of Skopje, there was a huge gathering of people to protest this change.

The other issue is that the ethnic Albanians, who officially make up 23% of the population of Macedonia, have some who want independence from Macedonia. This would be very difficult to do as they are spread around the population of Macedonia, and needless to say this is strongly opposed by the Slavic Macedonian population. There was civil war in 2001 between these two ethnic groups. Thankfully there is not such a strong tension currently, and it is hoped that the independence of Kosovo will not rekindle a conflict here.

Tract

2008-02-28T20:04:00.000+01:00

I have been busy for some time producing a little booklet in Macedonian. It contains three short life stories from three students, telling how they became Christians, and then at the end a description of how the reader can receive God's forgiveness personally. It has been a labour of love, and has taken some considerable time to produce, not least because Macedonian is not my native language. This is the main reason that I have been so slow to write anything new on my blog. And now it is awaiting the final hurdle of printing before it can be put into people's hands.

Banica 3

2008-01-17T17:13:00.000+01:00

Last week I again went to Banica with several others and I thought I'd take the opportunity to say something about the place.

It is known in Macedonia as a rather lawless place, and I heard that even the police were reluctant to go there. People from Banica travel throughout Macedonia as they take produce to sell (the villages around Strumica, or which Banica is one, have very fertile ground), and it is not uncommon to find them in Skopje in the summer, even though it is a long drive (it takes us about 2 hours or more each way).

In the village there are side roads of mud, and as we drive through there are always lots of people standing by or walking down the road. People with horse and carts go past and stray dogs are in the streets (although that's quite usual here in Skopje too!).

The people themselves are generally fairly darked skinned, and their ethnic roots are not clear to me - some say they are from Egypt (note that Cleopatra was descended from one of Alexander the Great's generals), someone else said Kazakhstan, or some similar area. They generally have Macedonian names, and speak only Macedonian, unlike other ethnic groups like the Roma (to whom they look similar).

Until last year they had no evangelical church in the village of 1200 people, and when missionaries had gone before, the children would throw stones at them. All the more amazing then that last week we had a group of 40-50 sitting for some half an hour listening in almost silence as the gospel was being preached.

Quote

2008-01-13T15:02:00.000+01:00

I just found this quote from Jim Carrey:
"I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer."

White Christmas

2008-01-08T13:10:00.000+01:00

Pad, pad, pad, went our feet as we crunched through the snow, coming down from mount Vodno in the dark. All the sounds were muffled, and a slight moisture hung in the air. The ambient light from the city of Skopje below us enabled us to see enough to pick our way down the slope. The day was 5th January 2008. Because of the Julian calendar, still used in Macedonia for the Orthodox holidays, this meant is was two days before Christmas. So having spent Christmas in England, two weeks later I was able to celebrate it again in Skopje! The snow even persisted until the morning of 7th, so I managed to have a white Christmas after all!

About Being English

2007-12-28T01:04:00.000+01:00

Chips by the seaside. Wind off the sea. Old houses, pubs and churches. For all the countries I've travelled in, all the different cultures I've sampled, today was a chance to experience being English again!

We travelled to Westgate in Kent, through grey clouds which lifted to reveal a sky that somehow seemed higher than usual - framing the coastline. It could hardly be described as a beautiful day, yet somehow the bleakness of it made it feel all the more English. Today was something of a homecoming: my mother had been born in her grandparents' house just a few miles away and had lived her childhood in this town. I too had often visited here as a child, getting ice-cream all over my face and swimming in the sea with my brother.

We walked down the road and the wind kept our hair dancing around our heads. Several hardened seaside dwellers were out walking their dogs. In summer the town is busy with people, barefoot children padding along the waterfront, families sitting on the beach, little shops selling beachballs. Today, however, we escaped from the cold by entering one of the few cafes that is open all year round, where we ordered a bucket of chips and doused them in salt and vinegar.

Somehow the mundane simplicity of the day, coupled with the untamed wildness of the wind and sea, captured the essence of Englishness. Here my sister lies buried, here past generations of my family were born and lived, and here for a day I was able to remember my roots ... of being English.

Friends

2007-12-23T16:55:00.000+01:00

Gezim. The moment I saw him again after maybe 2 years, and we both broke into big smiles. We ordered a coffee and sat down together in the cafe, and the passage of time melted away. He's got married since I last saw him, and other changes have taken place, but the pleasure of sitting and chatting made me feel relaxed and happy. So much to talk about, and 4 hours weren't enough. It helped me realise that friends that you can relax with are so important.

And Robert. I met him first over 3 years ago, as I travelled from Montenegro to Albania, meeting him in Shkodra. We made instant friends, and have visited each other several times again since then, in Albania and Macedonia. And now England. Gathering at an old-fashioned pub in an old-fashioned village in the Kent countryside, Robert and his parents, together with me and my parents, sat down to a meal by the log fire. And we nattered. A lot. Our parents happily engaged in conversation, having been friends longer than Robert and I, whilst we also caught up on life and events, like his wedding engagement. And then the time was over far too quickly and we went our own ways, hoping to meet up again soon in some country or another...

Family

2007-12-23T16:48:00.000+01:00

Sunday last week, some 14 of us from the Symondson clan gathered together for a pre-Christmas party. I see some of these relatives only once a year, and the few hours together never seems long enough to have a meaningful conversation with everyone. But good food, good surroundings and good company made for an enjoyable time. How time passes: the oldest of my second cousins is now 25 - I remember when most of them were born...

#5

2007-12-14T23:04:00.000+01:00

Standing at the bus stop, waiting for a #5 bus is a regular occurrence, but today it was different - I was feeling excited. The bus journey took the same route, but today was not usual; I was looking ahead to being in another 2 countries this day, and suddenly the mundane things were transformed.

Changing buses, some 40 minutes later I was at the border, with snow coming down. Kosovo. Arriving in Pristina I took a local bus as close to the airport as I could get and then started walking. There I was with back-pack and guitar, walking through the cold and snow, cars sliding slowly passed me, faces bemused looking out at me: a foreigner on foot, trudging along. About two thirds of the way there a car stopped for me and the driver offered me a lift.

And then a plane ride later and I was thrust into the world of England before Christmas. Decorations, fancy shops, lots of people moving with intent to some destination, dressed in dark coloured clothes and wearing scarves, looking like they've walked out of some TV series. And then I see my dad, faithfully waiting by the 23 year old red Audi 80, smiling as he sees me, and we drive to Bromley, catching up on news. My mum's still-pretty face greets us at the door, and I am welcomed into the warmth...

Cafe Night!

2007-12-07T09:48:00.000+01:00

OK, I've been slow at updating my blog. Often when I have the most to write about (because I am busy), I have the least time to write it!

Last Thursday we had a cafe night with students; we'd been doing questionnaires recently and everyone who said they wanted to get involved with something we were doing, we invited. None of them came!!! However, others came and we had in total (including people from church and foreign guests) over 20 people.

Then on Tuesday at cell group one of those girls came along, and brought a friend. One of my friends at cell group told how she had grown up through difficulties and been depressed and even tried to kill herself. She had later on ended up at a Christian thing, and found herself crying because she realised how dirty she was before God, and she wanted His forgiveness. After, another girl came and offered to pray for her, and God said something to her, through this girl, which showed His love for her - how He wanted to stroke her hair to comfort her - something that was really meaningful to her, but which no-one else knew.

God used this story to reveal to the new people how much God loves them. Great!

Students

2007-11-16T14:04:00.000+01:00

It's a little crazy that the main thing I am doing in Skopje, namely working with the students, gets very little mention on my blog!

Well, in the last month we have started a regular prayer meeting with students, having it actually in the faculty, which is a significant thing. People need to be blessed and prayed for - there are thousands of students at the faculty who don't have a meaningful relationship with God and don't know about His amazing love for them.

A group is forming, with whom we can organize other events as well, such as meeting in a cafe to talk about God with several of the people we know - focussing on some area where they feel most need; or having a band playing on the campus - also doing some fun things for the students as very few people are organising that sort of thing, simply to be blessing to the students.

Banica 2

2007-11-01T14:38:00.001+01:00

Yesterday in Banica: We arrived to see a large group of people already there and as we opened the doors, they pushed in, eager for the front row seats. Although these were first taken by some of the children, the older ones physically picked them up and removed them, taking the seats for themselves! The place that we are renting was completely filled, even by the time of the meeting, and more were coming later. We spent a bit of time getting some "order", then after some worship songs, we prayed for some who were sick. Next came a fiery preach and a call for those who wanted eternal life to stand up and pray. I think almost everyone stood, although I'm sure some of them had done so before. Many people took Bibles afterwards, and I told them to read them through. It's still early days for this church, and almost everyone has heard the gospel for the first time during this year, but we are starting to plan the way to develop the people into strong disciples for Jesus.

Banica

2007-10-30T16:35:00.000+01:00

Banica is a small village in the south of Macedonia, near Strumica. There are 1200 residents and earlier in the year there were about 600 of them at a screening of the Jesus film. We now have a church there of about 50 people. I went for the first time to last Wednesday - over 9 hours out from Skopje for a one and a half hour meeting! But it was worth it. There has never been a church in the village and it is all so new for them. But they are learning and experiencing God. Nearly everyone was prayed for at the meeting and lots came up to get a bible - many were asking me to sign theirs (so I put a bible reference: John 3:16). What we need is for maybe 3 people to go and live in Banica and serve the people there, instead of twice a week taking a group down from Skopje. "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest field".

Love = Value

2007-10-26T14:56:00.000+02:00

When God says that He loves us, it means that He values us. In fact He values us as highly as His Son, Jesus. I used to think that loving someone meant I had to do something for them, so I was often trying to find out the things I needed to do. But now I've had one of those "aha" moments, when it has dawned on me that to love someone simply means to value them. And when I value another person I will naturally treat them differently.

Sometimes I have found my sense of self-worth from what others think of me - if I do something well, or look good, people treat me well; but if not, they may ignore me or treat me badly. But as I value (love) God, I also value what He thinks, and one of the things He thinks is that I am so valuable that He would send Jesus to die for me! I am in incredibly valuable, no matter what others say or think about me. And you are incredibly valuable too. And so is everyone else.

Pictures from Skopje and Surroundings

2007-10-24T12:51:00.000+02:00

Following a comment from a friend (Emma-Jane, it was you!), I've decided to add some photos from Skopje and Matka:

The Passing On of Tose Proeski

2007-10-24T12:37:00.000+02:00

Over a week ago Tose Proeski, probably the most popular Macedonian, died in a car crash. Only 26 years old, and a very talented singer, likened to the "Elvis of the Balkans", his death has been a big shock to the people of Macedonia and neighbouring countries. His death seems as significant for the people here as the death of Diana Princess of Wales was for England, and some still seem to be in shock.

On Monday, at the Alpha course, a couple of women turned up almost by accident, not knowing we were having an Alpha course. They stayed and heard the talk about "Why did Jesus die?". One of them asked the question so many are asking: "Why did Tose die?". People at this time are asking the important questions of life and death and does God cause people's suffering. The woman who asked about Tose said that she had been talking to someone about how Macedonians are supposedly Christians but that she has never even read a Bible. She now has a Bible and she is open to knowing more. Maybe there is an opportunity now here to give people some answers to their questions...

Autumn Snow above Tetovo

2007-10-17T14:18:00.000+02:00

The thin bright rays of autumn sun
shine on the mountains where snow's begun
to garnish the peaks like icing sprinkled
upon their craggy faces so wrinkled
as years gone by, like watchers observing
time's twisting tumults of fey policies swerving -
the whims of folk following false agendas
so ignorant of the great and mighty plans
of their Creator.

Freshers

2007-10-01T13:07:00.000+02:00

The throng of people milling around in the courtyard at the front of the university created a buzz of excitement. Today is the first day of term for the students here in Skopje and there were thousands of young people gathered together. For some it was the first day of their course, and I found myself drawn to go inside the Law Faculty. Once inside I saw a multitude sitting on the stairs and lining the walls. As I looked around, my heart was so full of feeling I almost felt like crying. So many people, who will tell them about salvation through Jesus? I walked and prayed that God would send Christians to speak with them and befriend them, and show them the way of life. I'm very glad that on Saturday a team of 10 from Norway will come for 5 days to work with the students...

Glasnost Weekend Away

2007-09-17T12:17:00.000+02:00

Just had a good weekend away with guys from Glasnost, 15 of us in total. The village in the mountains was really beautiful, there was lovely weather, and we had good times of worshipping God together and praying for each others' visions etc. Especially good was the fact that of couple of the group got baptized in a little river near where we were staying.

Bonus Trip

2007-08-23T17:55:00.001+02:00

Just as I was thinking I should be getting back to Skopje, I was invited to go to Vienna for 3 days! We went by van, and it involved meeting people, lots of travel (including 6 border crossings), collecting items for orphans, and a sightseeing trip around Vienna itself.

My whole holiday was a lesson in trust for me. I left from Skopje, having been given some money to go on holiday (of which I had about 100 euro available), knowing that the money was not a lot. I had wavered about whether to go (because of the money), but decided to step out, thinking that I would trust God and would find a way!

Well, God certainly did help me. Through the kindness and hospitality of friends, I think I managed to stay more or less within budget, visited 3 countries, 9 towns, had all sorts of adventures, (including spending the night with three others in a van by the side of an Austrian road!), and had three days at the end to learn something valuable.

I hadn't even known what the trip to Vienna was about, I just said yes. And in the waiting, while fitting in with other people's plans, I saw the importance of simply trusting that God will do what He wants to do. It's not about me rushing around, pushing myself forward, but about God being in control and me submitting to that. And His good plans are not always what I expected.

The lesson I learned is that I can trust God.

Hungarian Outback

2007-08-18T15:14:00.000+02:00

I've spent the last few days in a couple of villages in Hungary. In the first one I helped filter vegetable oil because the pastor's car runs on it! However, when you stand behind his car, it smells like you are in a chip shop! With this same pastor I went canoeing on lake Velence, trying not to capsize the boat and drench the 3 children who were also with us!

Now I am on a farm in the south of the country. It is great, people come and go, there's lots of food, someone is in the process of making a boat, others are putting manure down on the roses and 6 new piglets arrived today. And I'm glad the wild looking dog is tied up.

Budapest

2007-08-13T13:21:00.000+02:00

I like this city. I've been here maybe 6 times and it's so beautiful. I've met up with 3 other people - Phil, Andrew and Katie - who are also sleeping at my friend's place. They are doing a tour with marionette puppets, going across Europe (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Switzerland and Germany), sharing the gospel through their performance, and lots of people have become Christians through it. We've had a good time together, and here's one amazing "coincidence":

Last year I was travelling in Istanbul and I had been wanting to meet some other Christians. There are only about 3000 Christians out of 70 million people in Turkey, but I prayed anyway that I'd meet up with others, and trusted God to do it. A few minutes later I met a whole group doing an outreach (which is very rare in Istanbul). This in itself was amazing, but even more so was the fact that Phil, who I met this week, was with that team last year!

I can recommend coming to Budapest. I've walked the castle and palace, been to 2 museums, and various church buildings, seen the parliament, visited a market, watched live music. Yesterday we went to church in the morning, soaked at the famous baths in Budapest, then watched the Carmen at the Budapest Opera House! And there's still so much more to do.

Kisszállás!

2007-08-10T02:00:00.000+02:00

The train pulled in to a station, with one building, a car and two people. The name of the place, Kisszállás, means "little place with not many inhabitants". It kind of sums up travelling for me!

I'd woken up in Belgrade, Serbia, having taken a night bus from Skopje. A short time there and on to Subotica in Voivodina (Serbia), once one of the most beautiful towns in the Hungarian plains. Meeting a Hungarian guy we toured the town and talked about God (he wasn't a Christian). My journey was so last minute (I'd been sitting talking to a friend and then suddenly I got up, packed a bag in 20 minutes and we went to the bus station together where I'd caught the bus!) and I hadn't even sorted out a definite place to stay for the night. So I took a train to Budapest in Hungary, arriving about 22:30.

A friend in Budapest, at short notice took me in and let me stay there, after they got back from a music festival (Sziget) at about 1:30 in the morning. A long and exciting day!

Miscellaneous

2007-08-07T17:07:00.000+02:00

The temperature has fluctuated wildly in two weeks between 45C (113F) to 18C (64F).

It seems that about 70% of the people in Skopje were away last week. It becomes very quiet here in August.

And finally, the winner of the Bulgarian (Pop) Idol contest gives an insight into some of the Balkan culture for those unfamiliar with it:-

"Happy Birthday to Me!"

2007-08-06T16:33:00.000+02:00

Well, today's my birthday. A bit of a sad tinge to it as I've just said good-bye to one of my best friends - he's gone to England to work for some time.
But I've had some nice things - greetings from various people, and I've been given some presents: a slinky spring, a recorder (musical instrument) and a bobble head picture frame. Maybe they think I'm getting younger :)