filling that void...

This week is my final one in this city God has blessed me with the opportunity to live in and BE the Light in.

More importantly Thursday--tomorrow or today..whenever you read it--at 11:30-2:00pm CST, will be our last American Corner meeting. I am asking for you to pray continuously tomorrow during those hours of the day---that people's plans get delayed or cancelled so that they will come, that they will bring friends, and mainly that they will be burdened for the Good News!!!! For them tomorrow, Bethany made from scratch brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and cream cheese pound cake and at the end offer a gift. We have read Scripture before and the core know that we are believers of Christ, but this night we will be offering for anyone wanting a Bible translated in Cyrillic. This could very well--more than likely--be the first time they have had a personal Bible in their language.
Also...I haven't mentioned this before I don't believe..but it is actually illegal to protestalize here--meaning we cannot share the Gospel to anyone under 18 years old. And we will have 2 minors in our class this night. Pray for protection that they will understand it is a gift so freely given just like salvation so that the relationships between American Corner and future volunteers will not be destroyed.


Bethany and I are super excited about Thursday night!! Words seriously cannot express how much we have grown to love the people that come weekly and the relationships we have been able to make with them..and we pray so eagerly and earnestly that they too will one day be a co-heir with Christ!

We know that it might not be Thursday or this summer or even years from now how they respond to the Good News but we hold firm in His promises and that they will no longer look to the state, materials, the Ortho church, or society to fill their void but to the LORD!

"so My word that comes from my mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and will prosper in what I send it [to do]." Isaiah 55:11

number 8: feasting & wedding

Week 8 flew by faster than a Chuck Norris kick spin! :)

We were so excited to see the B family after two weeks!! Man the kids were ready to play!! Monday, I hid and ran from Tigers for over an hour with Iz and Boaz..and loved every single second of it! Our Tuesday AC night went different...we asked about their hopes/dreams---one man took it literally...as in he told us some of his dreams and how dreams predict the future, etc.  And Wednesday night I actually got to talk to my brother on his actual birthday...hadn't been able to do that the past few years (more like 5 years) since I am usually at camp on his birthday. So that was refreshing :) And Thursday was a great walkabout and AC night. We wanted to know what they loved about Serbia--I agreed with all of them except for the man (that kept mentioning his dreams) that loves Serbia for its RAKIA---50-60% ABV...intense stuff. "You must try this!" he would say. umm, no thanks man.

And my weekend was super duper Serbian!
Friday night the B's treated us to a great traditional Serbian meal at a gorgeous place right on the Dunav River....and it was my date with Boaz as well

summer ridin'

I tried......

Fish Soup...the fish is the thing in the middle.

and helped devour...

tons of meat!!! YES!

Great stuff!!! Serbs know how to eat! Yum!

And Saturday night could be another blog all together! But I'll sum it all up...some friends from the American Corner invited us to their Hungarian/Serbian wedding! Such a honor to be invited..we arrived at the reception hall at 12:30 and waited for the bride to arrive...headed to the "jp" and then back to the reception hall to begin the festivities! First, Serbs decorate all the cars involved in the wedding and hold a massive Serbian flag out the window while honking down the road..so much fun! And the other guests at our table were soo sweet--right Bethany!? :) All in all, it is lots of food and traditional Serbian dance on replay! Bethany basically had a proposal from the guy who caught the garter. phahahahaha funny!!!! The wedding was fabulous!! We left at 11ish to catch a bus to get across town-----nearly 12 hours after arriving---and it was still going strong! Needless to say, it was a wonderful experience...filled up many journal pages.

sweet friends!

And finally ended/began week 8/9, respectively, with some great Friends and relaxation..and sand in my camera---I'm working on getting it out Mom :)

Cao!!!

Divan Si

"Divan si, o veličanstven si, Tebi pripada slava, sila čast!"---Majesty, worship His majesty. Unto Jesus be all glory, power and praise. 

Even though I can hardly speak any Srbski, I was able to pick up the tune of the song and still try my very very best to sound out the words above while singing this wonderful hymn Sunday morning.  It is still beyond incredible to me and humbling that God doesn't just understand English but all of the tongues of the world..even Serbian!!  

Psalm 117

"Praise the LORD, all nations!

Glorify Him, all peoples!

For great is His faithful love to us, the LORD's faithfulness endures forever. 

Hallelujah!"

So it is here. My last week in this beautiful city I have called home for the past two months. Yet, it is not home. My home is with the Father and long for the day that I can finally be Home and rejoice on the streets of gold and continuously praise Him. But that time is not here..my time is still in Novi Sad..which is coming to a close at the end of this week. So weird!!

how can you not love this city?!

I have come to love and appreciate this city and these people over these past fifty plus days..even though their exterior is rough and hard, their interior is yearning for traditions and rituals to be broken! Uberrrr ready to see the chains be broken and free from its bondage.

Please continue to lift up this city and these people!!....even when I leave, there are others aiming for the same goal that need for you to continuously pray!

shants and murses part 2

Just a continuation....

I seriously cannot fathom that in less than two weeks I will be back to Meridian...

these past seven weeks have been wonderful and want the next two weeks to pass by ever so slowly!!

Here are some great ways you can be in prayer for Bethany and I this week:

--for time to be used wisely so that as much of the city can be covered in prayer and walked.
--our friends here in and Belgrade...for them to continue the Lord's work
--Conversational English at 11:30-1 pm CST on Tuesday and Thursday. We only have 4 more meetings with these great folks!
--the finish line is in sight..for us to run with endurance and perseverance and allow the Spirit to guide our steps in this beautiful city that we all so desire to proclaim the name of the Most High God!

 "For God, who said, "'Light shall shine out of darkness'"-He has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ."--2 Corinthians 4:6

shants and murses

some friends--all three support the Murses..

Shants and murses?! Yes, I did just say shants and murses--both of them are very common in Europe. As to what they are, I will tell you: Shant = shorts + pants...basically, man capris. Murse = man + purse...a man cross-body purse.

Week 7 flew by with lots of walking, joy, and laughter...not too shabby.

Some highlights of the week:

• Tuesday night at American Corner we talked about "Love" and just wanted to know how they viewed love between marriages, friendships, dating, family, etc. It was awesome! A good size of new people attended and were open to discussion. One sassy woman asked if there was a such thing as everlasting love..and a guy answered "yes, it is Agape love!" Bet and I were completely taken back by his statement considering that term is taught to people..and not taught in the Orthodox church. We ended the night with 1 Corinthians 13 and they seemingly listened intently and some inquired about a copy of the Bible..so exciting!!

• Thursday we got to watch 3 matches apart of the 2011 European Championship Serbian Masters volleyball tournament and got toasted outside. American Corner was good again--some more new folks. It was about fears but we ended up on animals a lot! I did not mention my distaste for lizards nor birds!!!

• Friday was Bet's birthday! whoop whoop 2-1!! We were able to go with some friends with their Serbian language class to Belgrade to tour Tito's winter home, a few museums, the Royal family's home, and the White Palace. The royal family is no longer the dynasty in control since it is a republic in the making but a legit home still. The bottom floor is like a man cave--pool, poker, the 1st private movie screen room in the Balkans, and a cool room where the secrets were discussed!! And....you weren't supposed to take pictures......but I used my skills and got a few of the exterior of the home and some inside the White Palace---I got to be in the same rooms where Milosevic worked in his library and resigned!! I was able to snap a picture of the fireplace his stated his resignation and defeat!!!!!!! HISTORY HISTORY HISTORY!  
• Afterwards, we did get a reality check into how impoverished the Romas are...we passed by a massive village of them..over 2,000 Romas right by some really expensive apartments. The law here is that if the government was to take away 'their home' then housing, education, etc. would have to provided for them at the government's expense. Thus, they allow them to live without running water, without insulation, without food!

a small section of the Roma village

one of their homes

For the rest of the weekend, I think I just laughed, joked, and had great fellowship with some fabulous friends. The week ended with international church and good desserts and made it back to Novi Sad in time for the championship volleyball game. All around a great week seven! However, I did nearly possibly maybe more than likely could have burned down the whole apartment building: part of our power went out Wednesday night including the stove top. I accidentally forgot to turn the eye all the way off and left the skillet on the eye over the weekend. Sunday when we got back, I see that the light was on and that the pan was smoking white!!  YIKES!!! Still a great weekend!

"guys, i have great news!"

Week number 6 has been an interesting experience; a great one for the journal!

• Monday was the 4th--I blogged about that great day!

• Tuesday--I open facebook and to read all these status updates about the Casey Anthony case; I was instantly reminded of how it is ONLY the blood of Christ that allows us to be clean as white as snow to enter the presence of our Father so that He can say 'not guilty' to us! Later on Tuesday night, we began our first American Corner conversational English class. It was fabulous! We had 6 people show up..we began with us "About Us" stuff and went from there to weather, to Mormons for a bit, and then to...one guy-Bronco-asked about the KKK.....was not expecting that one!!!!!!!! I had to do a brief synopsis of it.  And one guy came in so lively and proceeded to say: "guys, i have great news!" and went on to explain that he was going to see Transformers 3 in 3D. Boy oh boy was he excited!!! 
• Wednesday--Walkabout in a fun neighborhood and made guacamole for the first time! EXIT folks started mingling around town...can be noticed as ones with extremely bright clothing or barefoot or hiking packpacks or white socks. 
• Thursday--Back to American Corner but had to move the time for EXIT...smaller crowd but fun nonetheless. It was one girl's birthday and she brought snacks and drinks for everyone. Bronco proceeded to ask me again about Mormons, Scientology, and prayer in schools. So I was able to explain to him how America was based on Biblical principles and God; that Mormon was not a Christ following religion..but he wanted to know: "if it isn't a Christian religion, then why do they have 40 million followers?" Great question Bronco!! So I went into how the people did not check what they were hearing with what is found in the Word. He still finds it hard to believe. But it is much like here with the Orthodox church.  Then later on, we met with my friend that was an exchange student at MHS and we caught up since it has been 3 years.
• Friday and Saturday were relaxing..beach, great food with friends, our project compiling our information, and got to see Nikki Huffman become Nikki Sandifer!!
• Sunday was a great relaxing day..and saw the USA women rally back to win against Brazil.

Needless to say, it has been an odd, fun, HOT (yes yes I know yall are rolling in fire...but 95 degrees here is pretty hot!), and enjoyable week!

Please continue to be in prayer:

• for the 'hoods we walk in..that one day they too can proclaim His Name!
• Our American Corner nights--TUES & THURS @ 6-8:30...Bronco is searching for something...and we can tell him about Hope!
• Boaz is clear!! Praise God from whom all blessings flow...they should return Wednesday.
• we have 3 weeks left, which has me at mixed emotions since this place has become home..it is different and dark, but the people have everything needed for a great movement to take place in this country EXCEPT for the only thing worth living for--the Savior of the World..the Savior of THEM! Pray that we use our remaining time wisely and continue to run the race.

"he looks like a Serbian Jesus!"

title of new post from Bethany about a random man we passed by tonight...we got a good laugh. :) Anyways, we have now ended five weeks and this past week has been the fastest, strangest, blurriest, grace-filled week.

We did our walkabouts as normal in the city Monday-Wednesday and saw some interesting stores and places. Wednesday night we went to American Corner [a place with English magazines, books, DVDs, etc.] to meet with the conversational English group; it was their last meeting...sorta. For now on, Bethany and I are the mediators of the group every Tuesday and Thursday night from 18:30-20!! We get to chose the topic of the night....real excited! Some of the people will be coming back and then some new folks. The people there were cool--engaged folks, young and older folks, and an elderly couple (probably my favorite--they were so cute!). Then, I did update last Thursday about our friends here who were sick....well they found out that the boy, Boaz, had high fever, strep throat, ear infection, and bronchitis; the mom, Amy, had a bad ear infection; and the girl, Izabel, has the beginning of strep...but the dad and baby had nothing! And long story short: after leaving the doctor, Boaz had a seizure [his 2nd one--the first was on the airplane from Germany to Serbia]..crazy and scary--yet the Spirit was comforting and in control!..and now, they are all in Budapest and Amy was able to receive the right medicine as did Boaz for his other stuff...and Monday (4 July) they are running more serious tests to find out why his high fevers are causing them and such. So Thursday and Friday caused us to think the weekend had already past...but we were able to eat with a dear friend that will be going back home to Kansas for a little bit...visited an exhibit about marriages and how photographs portray various things throughout the decades specifically in Serbia (cool stuff!) and there was a wine festival going on in the town centar this weekend that brought in lots of Hungarian and i believe Turkish food vendors...a good dessert rolled in cocoa and sugar! :)

deliciousness! we had 2 :)

our friends--L to R: Izabel, Amy, Boaz, Kirk, and Titus in stroller

so please be in prayer:
--for us as we are at American Corner Tuesday and Thursday that our words will not be our own but the conversation will be guided by the Spirit and for the people there realize that true hope is found in Christ only.
--for our friends in the picture above that the doctors will be able to treat Boaz properly and for the family to rest, recover, and regain strength from this long weekend and to continuously find the comfort and peace in the Father.
--as we continue to walk in this beautiful city.


"God is our refuge and strength,
a helper who is always found
in times of trouble." Psalm 46:1