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...