Pet. Not an animal but Five.

The fifth week of my summer in Europe was full of fireworks! They are a must in celebrating Independence Day and a friendversary. This is now my second year to miss celebrating the 4th in America. It's different doing such. You get a good appreciation for what you've been given and what you're missing. One thing for sure: I was not missing American food because the women of our team whipped up some great BBQ pulled chicken, devilish eggs, and blueberry pie! Delicious!!

The 4th! I am the Statue of Liberty...not sure about Amy.

Now you might inquiring as to what is a friendiversay? It is the annual celebration of the friendship with someone. Amy and I celebrated our friendiversary on Independence Day because we both knew exactly when we met at last year's 4th party. It was her second day in the country and there she is another Mississippian in Eastern Europe with mutual friends.

1 year friendiversary!

 The week went on as normal with our activities with Roma, youth night, and movie night. We introduced the girls to The Blind Side. They loved to hear the deep southern accents and how tall and big Michael was.
Saturday, on the other hand, was not as usual. We along with our team of 12 went to an Orthodox liturgy. It was a memorable experience for several reasons..it was segregated by gender, you stand the entire time, and an ancient Slavic language is used throughout the service. It is more memorable because we thought it was a normal liturgy service. Instead, it was a Slava day..meaning it was an even longer service to celebrate a saint.

And then the night ended with all of us joining for Fellowship. Twenty plus folks from various walks of life together praising the same Creator in two different languages was a great night! Thankful of each of people there and for the Redemption we have.

Equality

Acts 10:34&35

Then Peter began to speak: "In truth, I understand that G0d does not show favoritism, but in every nation the person who fears Him and does righteousness is acceptable to Him."

Amen! Thank goodness that America isn't G0d's favorite but that every nation, every tribe, every tongue is equally favorable to Him! I was blessed to grow up surrounded by the G0spel but that doesn't make me more favorable in His eyes. His grace extends to all ends of the earth--even to the Balkans! Praise Him that it does!

Half Full, Half Empty, Half Way

My fourth and midway week was not as exciting as last week's protest and sketchy adventure in Kisac but rewarding all the same. It was a week of fellowship, yummy food, misunderstandings, and laughter. 

A true highlight of my summer is the Roma ESL class. Something about those kiddos bring joy to my life. Despite everything in life, they still smile. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I have smiled in my trials and tribulations. Can you? Each Monday and Wednesday, I see them smile and I am reminded that their lives have been much harder than my life, and yet they smile! Oh how children are sometimes the teacher.

 

Waiting outside the church..they come early :)

Precious boy! We learned how to count and draw specific objects.

Teaching "Head, Shoulders, Knees" to them.

Showing them that what they were eating was in fact the same thing in the picture: a cookie. Something foreign to them. Some didn't want to eat it because they had never had one before. Don't take your cookies for granted!

 Another great moment of last week was Wednesday night..Amy and I took two great girls to an equally fabulous restaurant in the hopes of hearing the concert behind the mall. The concert portion didn't work out but the night was still loads of fun! Though they are only 11, they are nearly as tall as Amy and I and have beautiful hearts to share Love with their friends.

The weekend began with Amy's birthday eve! We ate at Novak Djokovic's restaurant, which is in the building next to us. No biggie. Even better is that we got our picture with the terracotta-ish statue of Nole's face with a racquet.

We ended the night with Snow White and the Huntsman. It's different to laugh at something funny in the movie and then five seconds later everyone else laughs after the translation appears.
Now it's Amy's 24th birthday day! Saturday was filled with awesomeness!! A great American lunch of chili hot dogs and seven layer dip and phenomenal dinosaur cake! Before we could go to Cirque du Soleil's Alegria, we had to get our faces painted in the tiniest chair possible. But Cirque was great! Glad it's them and not me doing all that bending, flipping, and flying.

My midway week concluded with Fellowship. There was 15 in total studying the Word! Even better was the number of college students. It's extremely hard to get college-aged students interested in something that is completely opposite of the world. But the five students there, they get it and desire to tell their families and friends. Even though everything was in Serbia, it was a blessing to be apart of this Fellowship.


This week two teams of 15 each are coming in: one comes tomorrow (4th) is for a fellow organization that will work mainly in Novi Sad and the other is ours and comes the (6th). Our team will be here for two weeks. Please think of both of these teams as they travel, live within the  culture, and teach English.