Communitas continues to partner with groups and individuals around the world to proclaim the gospel in Word and deed. As Jesus did the same, caring for the physical, mental, and spiritual needs of a person, we strive to be an organization that helps others see Jesus as the Redeemer of all things.
Earlier this year, Jay Benfante was temporarily living in a small town in northern Kosovo. While there, he felt God prompting him to host a weekend of volunteering with Serve the City in Kosovo, an organization that Communitas partners with to mobilize volunteers to “serve the city.” After texting and “nagging” (his own words) everyone he knew, he was able to convince forty people to join him in the most challenging city in the country of Kosovo to serve in some challenging and uncomfortable places.
With forty volunteers (about twenty locals from the town and about twenty from around Kosovo and abroad), he was able to organize five projects, focusing on partnerships with nonprofits that are doing their best to serve the lesser-seen communities in Kosovo with love and conviction. Some of those projects included painting a learning center for Roma kids (kids of a gypsy-type of people group who are nomadic and looked down upon in European countries) and helping at a community garden.
God is moving in the hearts of those in Kosovo. Please pray for Frank (names have been changed for anonymity) who helps to direct two organizations in the small town in Kosovo, one serving as a day center for people with disabilities and the other as an education center for Roma children who are not offered equal education opportunities and live in real poverty. Pray for the partnership he has with Jay and that they can continue to mobilize volunteers and share funds to do projects that bring beauty to the spaces in the town and play a small part in valuing the people of this town.
“I can see the fingerprints of Jesus all over Frank’s work and his heart,” says Jay. “Pray that God would make room in our new but growing friendship for good conversations about faith and that we could continue to collaborate.”
God brings people together to usher in more of His kingdom. And as His kingdom grows, we as the body of Christ continue to care for those in the body and outside the body, especially the “least of these,” those who are poor and marginalized. We pray that all of us continue to be people who follow Micah 6:8, knowing we are called “to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.”
