1990
We finally made it to Macedonia with the cross. In the Bible, Paul was in what is now known as Turkey. He was going toward Asia when he received the great ‘Macedonian call.’ In the vision he heard a man from Macedonia saying come over and help us. He changed direction and came here. Macedonia is located between Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. It has been a beautiful walk along the road. Denise, my wife was driving the Land Rover and me carrying the cross. We arrived at the edge of the capital city of Scopje. We parked at a campground that has air conditioning, heat, refrigeration, a stove, water filter, stereo, speaker system with two microphones, two gas tanks, batteries, winch, preaching platform, and much more.
We have the most wonderful bed. We put up the ladder and climb to the top the Land Rover where it’s really nice and cool.
Denise cooks the food inside and I sit up the bed, get our water and check the Land Rover. We each have our own chores to do when we park and it is just the nicest little kind of family home on the road. She has come up with most wonderful recipes for cooking road food. I do have to confess that now Denise is the world’s greatest road cook and roadside homemaker.
Hallelujah. We were about to get ready to retire for the evening when we heard a tremendous PA system blaring right through the caravan park. We realized we were parked beside the city stadium. We decided to see if we could carry the cross into the music concert. We began to inquire as to whether we could come with the cross when we met a news reporter from the Macedonian newspaper and he said, “Sure, he would arrange everything.” We went to get the cross and we were allowed to
carry it into the stadium where tens of thousands of people saw it. This was a great opportunity of unexpected witness.
Today we walked on into Scopje, then to the old city. As we carried the 12-foot cross along the river we met a young man who spoke English and who had been converted about a year ago. He was Macedonian and really loved Jesus. He decided to come with us and interpret. This was a tremendous blessing. Crossing the river I had him put the cross on his shoulder. He could hardly carry it but the main thing was that he did carry it. He said, “I can’t believe I have carried the cross.” Things are changing now but still the communist government is in authority here; however, the country is in a democratic transition. We then went into the Muslim area of the old city. Our young friend couldn’t believe that we would be going into the Muslim area and I told him, “Oh, we’ve been in and carried the cross through many Muslim countries.” There were crowds of people, but we had no problems at all. One man came running up, grabbed me and almost literally dragged me to the church of the Holy Savior, which is now a museum of Macedonian history. As we spoke
to this man and others who had gathered about I dis- covered that he had a problem with his feet and I prayed for his healing. We went on to another church,
arriving there as a wedding was ending and had a long visit with the priest.
Today has been a glorious witness of Jesus Christ and His salvation in the heart of Scopje.
Pilgrim followers of Jesus,
Arthur and Denise Blessitt
Luke 18:1