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...