These are my bearded bretheren, aka the "Bearded BiC's" (BiC= Brother in Christ). Russell grew out his beard for a Christmas play thing at his church and after it was over he wanted to do something a little crazy with it. So the bearded BiCs helped him out and this is the video.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Pimp my Beard
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
On to Montenegro
Honestly... I forgot about this for a while. Oh dear. Well, here goes =) We took the train from Novi Sad to Sutomore, Montenegro to begin our four wonderful days of rest and recovery. We did some hiking, climbing, swimming, cliff jumping and general exploring. It was awesome! There were several coves around Sutomore, we spent most of our cove time in what is lovingly termed "First Cove", yeah we were real creative with names. That's where we explored cliff jumping and while we were there did lots of climbing around on rocks, big rocks. It was loads of fun. I loved climbing around on stuff. And yes, despite my horrible fear of heights, I did jump off the cliff and into the water. It was only twelve feet or so, but that's a lot higher than I would jump from anywhere else, so it was still a big step. Or a leap (hahaha). We even watched a few movies on the power point projector in our hotel rooms. That was fun. Eighteen people packed into a small room with out air conditioning. By this time we were a family though, so it was OK.
Finally we got to the day of Orientation for Speak UP! Camps. The day before Jay Cline had come (he was our regional director for Southern Colorado and director of the camps) and he had talked to us about vision for Camps, what to expect, how we would orchestrate events etc. And then he talked to us about calling. It was awesome. He talked to us about what a "calling" looks like when God places it on our hearts. Sometimes it several events coming together to form a vision, sometimes it's a burning bush, sometimes it's being sent some where you don't want to be, and sometimes it's a literal calling. It was very inspiring especially when considering that only a couple days before God has literally called me to return to Serbia on Stint. It was a good time and we finally got a feel for what would be happening in the camps, which we really hadn't before.
Orientation was great. I was assigned three of the most beautiful students a tutor could ever hope for. I had the honor of tutoring Anna, Tamara, and Teodora. Three bright and interested women. Tamara was the oldest, which I never would have guessed by looking at her. I was shocked to learn that she was studying for her PhD in Chemistry and trying to find a cure for cancer. She teaches at the faculties, which is how she got the 411 on the English camps. All of them though used beautiful English. It was great, it made things easy on me for sure. Teodora and Ana were both studying English to become either translators or interpreters. Seriously, I think the English students in Serbia know more words and better grammar than most Americans in general. I felt very inadequate to be tutoring them.
Our first day we had our Speak Up! Groups and answered get-to-know-you kinds of questions and then we split off into our tutor groups and had our discussion on the topic of the day. The first day we talked about a relationship with God and asked questions such as: what are your religious beliefs? What do you find attractive about Christianity? What do you not find attractive about Christianity? Do you think God is a person or a thing? Do you believe in Hell? Etc. It was a hard topic to start with, but I'm so thankful we started with it! It set the stage for the rest of the week and got them considering God, which made talking about the gospel much more simple. We didn't have to worry about trying to bring up the gospel during the week, or sharing our testimonies, it all kind of happened that first day, and if it didn't happen the first day it did by at least Wednesday. We got to see where our students were at and how the felt about God and whether or not they really believe in Christ or they just go to church some times. It was really interesting. At the end of the day we went to the beach, which happened pretty much every day. The beach is the place to be.
The second day was really awesome because I got to spend it with Teodora. We went to the fourth cove beach, which actually has a name: Zagradje (good luck pronouncing it: Zah-grahj-eh). On the way there she asked the greatest questions, and it was quite a walk to get there so we had time. She asked me questions like: How did you come into your faith? Do you believe because your parents believe, or do you really believe? That kind of thing. It was great! I loved the questions she was asking me, it was fabulous. So we got there and I swam a bit and at some point as I was swimming I was attacked by a sea urchin. Beware of the sea urchin, it is entirely evil and unpleasant, stay away from them. It took some time and digging to get the spines out of my feet. I actually did like Zagradje's beach more than the rest. The beaches in Sutomore and pebble beaches, even the "sandy" beach is really pebbles. This other beach though was rocks, but they were flat rocks, much, much easier and less painful to walk on.
While at that beach Teodora and Bojana (Boi-ah-nah) came and sat in the waves with me and we started talking about boyfriends and relationships and then out of no where we started talking about sex, specifically pre-marital sex. That was a conversation I never expected to have at all. Bojana seemed rather baffled at the thought of no sex before marriage. I don't know if it was the first time she had heard of it, but it was probably the first time she had heard about it from someone who doesn't do it because of religious reasons. It was difficult for me to explain how I think that it's very much connected to my spirituality and that I want to honor God with my body and not just have pleasure. It was very interesting. Before she left, Bojana was telling me that pre-marital sex is a good thing because you know if you are physically compatible with the person you're with before you make that kind of life time commitment. Honestly, if I were not a Christian, I would probably agree with her, which made me a little sad because I knew then that it was something I couldn't really explain to her at all. She had to experience God before she could understand about that.
The third day we went to Boudva. It's a two hour boat ride to Boudva, which is a beautiful place. I wish we could have stayed there longer. It's and old, old city with narrow little walk ways, like what you might expect to find in Venice. It did feel a bit like we were in Italy actually. On our way leaving I finally got to connect with Ana, which was something I had been praying for. God really answered my prayers in a big way. I found out that Ana really does believe in Christ, her relationship with him isn't really deep, but she does believe in him completely, with out any doubt in her mind. So I asked her since she does believe so strongly, why doesn't she share that faith with the people around her? She said that she had tried to talk about God with some people before, but they didn't react well to it. So she got the idea that she wasn't good at it, or they don't care or something like that, and gave up trying. It was very interesting. I challenged her seek God out in a deeper relationship with him and to continue trying to share her faith. It was great! I loved it!
Thursday... I honestly don't remember very well. We talked about relationships with others, dating and friendship relationships. That was fun discussion. We talked about all the ways we relate to other people and shared funny stories about first dates and that sort of thing. The rest of the day though, wasn't too unusual, more beach time.
Friday was their last day. It was a really sad day. Did the faith walk where we paired up and one of us was blindfolded while the other lead by voice. We had to give the blindfolded person directions in English step by step from the hotel to the beach and then trade places. It was really fun. Then we split up into our tutor groups and talked about trust and faith and what is hard about those things and what it easy. Then the tutors met with each of their students individually to close things up. I bought each of my girls a bracelet in a color that I thought represented in some way where they were at and where they were heading. It was fun =) I met with all three of them and told them about the awesome things that I saw in their potential and challenged each of them to seek God out. Teodora in particular I did that with. I see so much of God's love for her and his desire to have her whole heart. She is so beautiful and out spoken about her ideas. She would love the Lord, and she would lead others to love Him too. I'm excited for her because I see her getting closer to that decision to surrender her life to Christ. That's all that's left for her to do really, just surrender. She knows who Christ is and what he's done and believes steadfastly in him, but she hasn't surrendered yet. She's almost there. Pray that the Lord would continue to draw her in to himself.
Then the students left on Saturday. It was a very very sad day. Lots of good-byes, which I avoided where possible. I said good-bye to Teodora and the other Ana, not my Ana, but there was another one. Teodora cried, and felt ridiculously foolish for doing so. I don't know what she hated it so much, she had good reason to I think. It was a wonderful week that was ending. She gave me a lovely necklace in a wicker box that had a piece of rice in it with my name written on it. I'm wearing it now actually.
And then the next group came for orientation...
Finally we got to the day of Orientation for Speak UP! Camps. The day before Jay Cline had come (he was our regional director for Southern Colorado and director of the camps) and he had talked to us about vision for Camps, what to expect, how we would orchestrate events etc. And then he talked to us about calling. It was awesome. He talked to us about what a "calling" looks like when God places it on our hearts. Sometimes it several events coming together to form a vision, sometimes it's a burning bush, sometimes it's being sent some where you don't want to be, and sometimes it's a literal calling. It was very inspiring especially when considering that only a couple days before God has literally called me to return to Serbia on Stint. It was a good time and we finally got a feel for what would be happening in the camps, which we really hadn't before.
Orientation was great. I was assigned three of the most beautiful students a tutor could ever hope for. I had the honor of tutoring Anna, Tamara, and Teodora. Three bright and interested women. Tamara was the oldest, which I never would have guessed by looking at her. I was shocked to learn that she was studying for her PhD in Chemistry and trying to find a cure for cancer. She teaches at the faculties, which is how she got the 411 on the English camps. All of them though used beautiful English. It was great, it made things easy on me for sure. Teodora and Ana were both studying English to become either translators or interpreters. Seriously, I think the English students in Serbia know more words and better grammar than most Americans in general. I felt very inadequate to be tutoring them.
Our first day we had our Speak Up! Groups and answered get-to-know-you kinds of questions and then we split off into our tutor groups and had our discussion on the topic of the day. The first day we talked about a relationship with God and asked questions such as: what are your religious beliefs? What do you find attractive about Christianity? What do you not find attractive about Christianity? Do you think God is a person or a thing? Do you believe in Hell? Etc. It was a hard topic to start with, but I'm so thankful we started with it! It set the stage for the rest of the week and got them considering God, which made talking about the gospel much more simple. We didn't have to worry about trying to bring up the gospel during the week, or sharing our testimonies, it all kind of happened that first day, and if it didn't happen the first day it did by at least Wednesday. We got to see where our students were at and how the felt about God and whether or not they really believe in Christ or they just go to church some times. It was really interesting. At the end of the day we went to the beach, which happened pretty much every day. The beach is the place to be.
The second day was really awesome because I got to spend it with Teodora. We went to the fourth cove beach, which actually has a name: Zagradje (good luck pronouncing it: Zah-grahj-eh). On the way there she asked the greatest questions, and it was quite a walk to get there so we had time. She asked me questions like: How did you come into your faith? Do you believe because your parents believe, or do you really believe? That kind of thing. It was great! I loved the questions she was asking me, it was fabulous. So we got there and I swam a bit and at some point as I was swimming I was attacked by a sea urchin. Beware of the sea urchin, it is entirely evil and unpleasant, stay away from them. It took some time and digging to get the spines out of my feet. I actually did like Zagradje's beach more than the rest. The beaches in Sutomore and pebble beaches, even the "sandy" beach is really pebbles. This other beach though was rocks, but they were flat rocks, much, much easier and less painful to walk on.
While at that beach Teodora and Bojana (Boi-ah-nah) came and sat in the waves with me and we started talking about boyfriends and relationships and then out of no where we started talking about sex, specifically pre-marital sex. That was a conversation I never expected to have at all. Bojana seemed rather baffled at the thought of no sex before marriage. I don't know if it was the first time she had heard of it, but it was probably the first time she had heard about it from someone who doesn't do it because of religious reasons. It was difficult for me to explain how I think that it's very much connected to my spirituality and that I want to honor God with my body and not just have pleasure. It was very interesting. Before she left, Bojana was telling me that pre-marital sex is a good thing because you know if you are physically compatible with the person you're with before you make that kind of life time commitment. Honestly, if I were not a Christian, I would probably agree with her, which made me a little sad because I knew then that it was something I couldn't really explain to her at all. She had to experience God before she could understand about that.
The third day we went to Boudva. It's a two hour boat ride to Boudva, which is a beautiful place. I wish we could have stayed there longer. It's and old, old city with narrow little walk ways, like what you might expect to find in Venice. It did feel a bit like we were in Italy actually. On our way leaving I finally got to connect with Ana, which was something I had been praying for. God really answered my prayers in a big way. I found out that Ana really does believe in Christ, her relationship with him isn't really deep, but she does believe in him completely, with out any doubt in her mind. So I asked her since she does believe so strongly, why doesn't she share that faith with the people around her? She said that she had tried to talk about God with some people before, but they didn't react well to it. So she got the idea that she wasn't good at it, or they don't care or something like that, and gave up trying. It was very interesting. I challenged her seek God out in a deeper relationship with him and to continue trying to share her faith. It was great! I loved it!
Thursday... I honestly don't remember very well. We talked about relationships with others, dating and friendship relationships. That was fun discussion. We talked about all the ways we relate to other people and shared funny stories about first dates and that sort of thing. The rest of the day though, wasn't too unusual, more beach time.
Friday was their last day. It was a really sad day. Did the faith walk where we paired up and one of us was blindfolded while the other lead by voice. We had to give the blindfolded person directions in English step by step from the hotel to the beach and then trade places. It was really fun. Then we split up into our tutor groups and talked about trust and faith and what is hard about those things and what it easy. Then the tutors met with each of their students individually to close things up. I bought each of my girls a bracelet in a color that I thought represented in some way where they were at and where they were heading. It was fun =) I met with all three of them and told them about the awesome things that I saw in their potential and challenged each of them to seek God out. Teodora in particular I did that with. I see so much of God's love for her and his desire to have her whole heart. She is so beautiful and out spoken about her ideas. She would love the Lord, and she would lead others to love Him too. I'm excited for her because I see her getting closer to that decision to surrender her life to Christ. That's all that's left for her to do really, just surrender. She knows who Christ is and what he's done and believes steadfastly in him, but she hasn't surrendered yet. She's almost there. Pray that the Lord would continue to draw her in to himself.
Then the students left on Saturday. It was a very very sad day. Lots of good-byes, which I avoided where possible. I said good-bye to Teodora and the other Ana, not my Ana, but there was another one. Teodora cried, and felt ridiculously foolish for doing so. I don't know what she hated it so much, she had good reason to I think. It was a wonderful week that was ending. She gave me a lovely necklace in a wicker box that had a piece of rice in it with my name written on it. I'm wearing it now actually.
And then the next group came for orientation...
Monday, August 06, 2007
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Week 2
So the second week of Serbia time is actually about 10 days the way I'm grouping it. This is our time in Novi Sad. I think I've decided that I need to blog all this a little faster because I'm starting to lose things. I'll do the best I can though.
The first four days we spent with EHO which is a non-governmental organization that helps elderly people, and disabled people. We spent a lot of time just listening to the members of the organization tell their story about what they do. It was a little frustrating for us at first because we were thinking of a service project which usually means hard manual labor. So we were ready to build a play ground, or house or tear one down, that sort of thing. We ended up helping them continue to construct a building on the last day, but the rest of the time we spent listening mostly. It was frustrating until we realized that our ministry to them was listening, not necessarily (at this point) participating. They really just wanted to share what they were doing with someone, and I can imagine there aren't many people who come around and are willing to just listen to them about the work they are doing. So, although we didn't see physical results of the ministry we were doing, there were definitely things that God was doing there through out general presence.
EHO took us on a tour of a bunch of orthodox churches. It was a really, really cool trip. We saw some really beautiful churches. We got to go to an orthodox church service even, which was interesting. It wasn't in english so I have no idea what was said. What really struck me while we were there was that the people seemed so bored and passionless. There were a good number of people there, but you could see on their faces that they didn't take joy in being at church. It made me really sad for them. I hope, although I rather doubt, that this wasn't what all orthodox churches are like. The best part of the service though was the church organ. I've never heard a real organ played in person. It was spectacular. The organ is one of my Dad's favorite instruments, so it made me think of him and how much he would love hearing it. At the other churches we visited I saw some really pretty organs that I got pictures of. There was a much more simple church, fewer pictures and painting, less artwork. It was mostly just white walls, but the organ there was gorgeous. Then there was one church that was really extravagant. I was awestruck by the artistry that was in the church and the detail. It was amazing, but it made me wonder why. What was the purpose of the extravagance? I don't know.
We had some good time praying. We prayed over the faculty before we did our blitz there. I got to walk with my dearest Debbie. Although she's been a Christian for a while she was really just starting to discover her faith so she had questions about what we were doing and why. So I got to spend some time with her talking about spiritual warfare, hearing God's voice, the importance of prayer and that kind of thing. We had a really good time together =) I enjoyed praying with her a lot. At this faculty all the faculty buildings were on the same campus which made things a lot easier. We could all be together and didn't have to split up so much, or walk so far and that was really nice.
The blitzes were different than in Belgrade. We still split up, a group of us went to the faculty to talk to students, another group went to the beach at the Danube, and another stayed on the walking street in the main square or in the park. The faculty time was really good. I got to talk to a few students that were willing to talk about God and were relatively curious about him. Novi Sad students seem much more open to talking about God than Belgrade students. It's still not something they talk about, but when He's brought up they're open. After the first day of the blitz we got together as a team to talk about what happened and the challenges we had faced and the good things we saw. The group that went to the Danube had the worst time while they were there. They were really discouraged and timid about the gospel and they had a hard time finding people to talk to if they could even get up the nerve to talk to anyone. So after we shared four of us got together and went back to the river at like nine or ten o'clock in evening to pray over that area.
That prayer walk was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, spiritually speaking. It was incredible. God just really gave me a passion all at once for the area and he gave me a vision of an angel standing over the river and he was calling out "Come into the water and be saved", over and over again. And I saw the whole beach, which is fairly extensive, filled with people just waiting with great anticipation to go down into the water and be baptised. Thinking about it now it reminds me vaguely of the scene from "O Brother Where Art Thou" when all the people are going through the woods in their white robes and being baptised one by one in the river and the two guys got baptised too. Sorry, random thought... Moving on... and I was praying for the land that it would be free from the damage that was done over these many wars that have been waged over it and the NATO bombings and everything. I was praying for freedom for the people, and the Lord was speaking to the people about how much he loves them. He was asking why they continued to resist and refuse him though he loves them so much and has given so much for them to believe and have life. It was intense but awesome.
So I went back really excited, just totally overwhelmed with excitement. The next morning after some encouragement from Sunu, my project leader, I told my teammates publicly about what God had shown me and told them to expect things to be different on the beach that day. Sure enough after we returned that afternoon from our blitz people were approaching me and telling me that things were different and it had changed and good things had happened. It was exhilirating! I loved it! Just totally Amazing =D The third day was interesting. It was a very humbling day for me. My brother Levi called me out on not being totally with it in a conversation we had been having earilier with someone at the beach. It was very unpleasant, but very good. I was glad he was so in my face about my lack of communication. The rest of our time there afterward was really good though. Levi and I got into a good conversation with a group of guys about God and what they believed. Aaron was with us and he had kind of split off to talk to another guy who was actually an orthodox christian who really believed what he had been taught, which was encouraging in general.
And in the midst of this many other things happened, that I can't necessarily recall right this moment. We went to a protestant church one of the very last days and while we were there God told me very plainly that he wants me to come back to Serbia on Stint next year. I wasn't prepared for such calling though and thus had a severe and major break down. It was like God dropped a bomb on me. It made the walk back interesting. My brother Jason sang me scottish songs the whole half hour walk back to our hotel, and brother Josh gave me the biggest longest hug ever. It was great of them to do it, and Anna was of course there for me entirely. She held me for a while before we left the church and just let me cry quarts. It was splendid. Over the next few days I was able to get excited about it and now I'm just thrilled to know I get to go back and experience more of what God is doing in that country. So be prepared my dear friends =)
And I think that is most of the exciting parts of Novi Sad. I'm leaving out a lot, but that's the beauty of the blog I can add to it at any time! Hurrah! Hopefully it won't take me as long to get to the first week of English Camps now. In a day or two I hope ;) We'll see, keep checking back! If you're from my church, I'm talking about Serbia this coming Sunday, August 12th. So you'll hear some of this again I'm sure.
To be continued...
The first four days we spent with EHO which is a non-governmental organization that helps elderly people, and disabled people. We spent a lot of time just listening to the members of the organization tell their story about what they do. It was a little frustrating for us at first because we were thinking of a service project which usually means hard manual labor. So we were ready to build a play ground, or house or tear one down, that sort of thing. We ended up helping them continue to construct a building on the last day, but the rest of the time we spent listening mostly. It was frustrating until we realized that our ministry to them was listening, not necessarily (at this point) participating. They really just wanted to share what they were doing with someone, and I can imagine there aren't many people who come around and are willing to just listen to them about the work they are doing. So, although we didn't see physical results of the ministry we were doing, there were definitely things that God was doing there through out general presence.
EHO took us on a tour of a bunch of orthodox churches. It was a really, really cool trip. We saw some really beautiful churches. We got to go to an orthodox church service even, which was interesting. It wasn't in english so I have no idea what was said. What really struck me while we were there was that the people seemed so bored and passionless. There were a good number of people there, but you could see on their faces that they didn't take joy in being at church. It made me really sad for them. I hope, although I rather doubt, that this wasn't what all orthodox churches are like. The best part of the service though was the church organ. I've never heard a real organ played in person. It was spectacular. The organ is one of my Dad's favorite instruments, so it made me think of him and how much he would love hearing it. At the other churches we visited I saw some really pretty organs that I got pictures of. There was a much more simple church, fewer pictures and painting, less artwork. It was mostly just white walls, but the organ there was gorgeous. Then there was one church that was really extravagant. I was awestruck by the artistry that was in the church and the detail. It was amazing, but it made me wonder why. What was the purpose of the extravagance? I don't know.
We had some good time praying. We prayed over the faculty before we did our blitz there. I got to walk with my dearest Debbie. Although she's been a Christian for a while she was really just starting to discover her faith so she had questions about what we were doing and why. So I got to spend some time with her talking about spiritual warfare, hearing God's voice, the importance of prayer and that kind of thing. We had a really good time together =) I enjoyed praying with her a lot. At this faculty all the faculty buildings were on the same campus which made things a lot easier. We could all be together and didn't have to split up so much, or walk so far and that was really nice.
The blitzes were different than in Belgrade. We still split up, a group of us went to the faculty to talk to students, another group went to the beach at the Danube, and another stayed on the walking street in the main square or in the park. The faculty time was really good. I got to talk to a few students that were willing to talk about God and were relatively curious about him. Novi Sad students seem much more open to talking about God than Belgrade students. It's still not something they talk about, but when He's brought up they're open. After the first day of the blitz we got together as a team to talk about what happened and the challenges we had faced and the good things we saw. The group that went to the Danube had the worst time while they were there. They were really discouraged and timid about the gospel and they had a hard time finding people to talk to if they could even get up the nerve to talk to anyone. So after we shared four of us got together and went back to the river at like nine or ten o'clock in evening to pray over that area.
That prayer walk was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, spiritually speaking. It was incredible. God just really gave me a passion all at once for the area and he gave me a vision of an angel standing over the river and he was calling out "Come into the water and be saved", over and over again. And I saw the whole beach, which is fairly extensive, filled with people just waiting with great anticipation to go down into the water and be baptised. Thinking about it now it reminds me vaguely of the scene from "O Brother Where Art Thou" when all the people are going through the woods in their white robes and being baptised one by one in the river and the two guys got baptised too. Sorry, random thought... Moving on... and I was praying for the land that it would be free from the damage that was done over these many wars that have been waged over it and the NATO bombings and everything. I was praying for freedom for the people, and the Lord was speaking to the people about how much he loves them. He was asking why they continued to resist and refuse him though he loves them so much and has given so much for them to believe and have life. It was intense but awesome.
So I went back really excited, just totally overwhelmed with excitement. The next morning after some encouragement from Sunu, my project leader, I told my teammates publicly about what God had shown me and told them to expect things to be different on the beach that day. Sure enough after we returned that afternoon from our blitz people were approaching me and telling me that things were different and it had changed and good things had happened. It was exhilirating! I loved it! Just totally Amazing =D The third day was interesting. It was a very humbling day for me. My brother Levi called me out on not being totally with it in a conversation we had been having earilier with someone at the beach. It was very unpleasant, but very good. I was glad he was so in my face about my lack of communication. The rest of our time there afterward was really good though. Levi and I got into a good conversation with a group of guys about God and what they believed. Aaron was with us and he had kind of split off to talk to another guy who was actually an orthodox christian who really believed what he had been taught, which was encouraging in general.
And in the midst of this many other things happened, that I can't necessarily recall right this moment. We went to a protestant church one of the very last days and while we were there God told me very plainly that he wants me to come back to Serbia on Stint next year. I wasn't prepared for such calling though and thus had a severe and major break down. It was like God dropped a bomb on me. It made the walk back interesting. My brother Jason sang me scottish songs the whole half hour walk back to our hotel, and brother Josh gave me the biggest longest hug ever. It was great of them to do it, and Anna was of course there for me entirely. She held me for a while before we left the church and just let me cry quarts. It was splendid. Over the next few days I was able to get excited about it and now I'm just thrilled to know I get to go back and experience more of what God is doing in that country. So be prepared my dear friends =)
And I think that is most of the exciting parts of Novi Sad. I'm leaving out a lot, but that's the beauty of the blog I can add to it at any time! Hurrah! Hopefully it won't take me as long to get to the first week of English Camps now. In a day or two I hope ;) We'll see, keep checking back! If you're from my church, I'm talking about Serbia this coming Sunday, August 12th. So you'll hear some of this again I'm sure.
To be continued...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
