We’re sitting in a home in a small village, Despotovo, in northern Serbia. We greet one another warmly, despite the fact that we don’t speak one another’s language. We know we have the same heavenly father! We’re here for a home church meeting. In this region of Serbia, pastor Saša and the church planters who work with him currently have 20 home churches scattered in a 50 mile radius of their hometown of Kucura.
In Despotovo, Zuška is the leader of the home church. Once we have all gathered — a smaller group than normal because a grandchild has been born to one family this very day — we begin with singing, then prayer. After prayer, Zuška is anxious to share with us a dream she had the night before we came.
In her dream, she was knitting a cap. As she was knitting, she knew there was something important about the cap, but she didn’t know what it was. She kept knitting until the cap was finished, then took it to church and showed the pastor. When he saw it, he told her, “Zuška, you need to knit three hats, and they will be like bells, ringing out the gospel!” She finished her story, then shrugged as if to say, “What in the world could this mean?”
I took up the story from there. I explained to Zuška that my sister and I had friends who knit, and that all over America, there were groups of women who gathered and knit hats for Roma children. While the hats were knit, they were prayed over — for blessings for the children who would receive the hats, and most of all, that they would hear the gospel message because of this gift of a warm hat.
Not only did we gather and knit the hats, but this very trip I had brought with me not three, but 300 hats to share with Roma children as we share the gospel with them. The gospel ringing out like a bell from the hats that were knit! Everyone gathered at the home church meeting was so excited. Zuška and I, separated by thousands of miles, but sharing a dream of spreading the gospel through knitted caps! Zuška hugged me and hugged me, over and over! The members of their home church are looking forward to helping Pastor Saša distribute the caps knit by women in America for Roma children in Serbia.
