Prayer Request

Tomorrow night the project is doing a large outreach in Belgrade. The name of the event is 'Story of the Soul'.

Please be praying that many Serbs would come to this event and that their hearts would be open to the gospel.

Thursday we move from Belgrade up to Novi Sad which is in northern Serbia. We would also appreciate your prayers for that transition.

They made it!

Ok so late that night the students finally made it here. I just forgot to update the blog with the happy news until now. thanks for praying!

Now the project is in full swing and life has gotten very hectic.

Two quick highlights from today before i go to bed...

First we sent out the students in groups of two to talk with random college students on the street. I tagged along with one pair and we had a really neat conversation with some people in a park. We talked with them for close to two hours! The Serbian culture is very relational so it is easy to become good friends with people after just meeting them.

The other highlight (if i can call it that) was eating pizza. Not just any pizza but one that had the toppings of green olives (un pitted), salami, red bell peppers, ANNNDD a fried egg. yep one fried egg on each slice. it looked disgusting but was actually really really tasty. So far I have LOVED all the food i have tried here.

thats all for tonight.

Where are the students?

So the students on our project where an hour into their flight to Europe when they had to turn around because of a crack in the windshield.

Now they are 5 hours late and we have no idea where they are or what flight they got put on.

In other news Belgrade gets carried away by a swarm of mosquitoes.

The Night Train to Belgrade

15 hours on the night train to Belgrade sounded like hell when I first figured out that was my best option to reach the project from Italy. Thankfully God intervened and it was actually quite pleasant.

there were only two other guys in my cabin so we could spread out a bit (it was a six bed cabin). One of them was a guy from Santa Cruz California so it was fun to talk with him. The other guy was Alex from Macedonia, he acted as our translator to the train guy who's english was probably worse than the japanese tourists.

The trip was mostly uneventful. I even slept pretty well except for the 'passport control' at 3:30am. They came and knocked on every door demanding passports. That was when i learned how good it can be to have an American passport. They didnt even open mine just saw that it was from USA. Alex's however they looked at for a good 5 minutes. That all happend right before reaching Zahgrab.

Then in the morning we enjoyed watching the Croatian and Serbian countryside roll past. It looks alot like the central vally of California. Flat but hills in the distance. All farm land. Bright red poppies lined about 2 feet on either side of the tracks most of the way.

The best part of sitting for 15 hours is that my blisters are MUCH better. Praise God!

Now I am in Belgrade with the rest of the summer project staff getting acclimated. The students get here in two days!

Venice for a day

So I'm sad to say you wont be getting any photos of my trip to Venice on the blog right now. I checked my bags into storage at the train station and left. Once I was crossing a bridge and ready to take a picture i realized the camera was in my bag. I *did* buy a disposable camera and took a lot of pictures - just not digital ones.

The rest of the day I wandered Venice and felt my blisters at every step. Definately my favorite part of the day was when i took the water bus out to the island of Murano. (Thanks Karin for that tip). Murano is famous for their glass making. Its also MUCH less packed with tourists than Venice proper. it was wonderful to just stand and watch the men blowing glass and making various objects.

For dinner i decided to try something new so i ordered gnocci with 4 cheese sauce. I couldnt even finish it it was so bad. The only disappointing meal i had the whole time in Italy.

I think the day would have been MUCH better if my feet had not hurt so bad. All in all though I think I wish I had just stayed in Florence another half day and only spent 2 hours in Venice instead of 9 hours. Definately convinced me how much better it is when you know someone living in the town your visiting. (thanks again Kelly!!!)

Train to Venice

Monday morning I caught the train from Florence to Venice.

My seat was surrounded by a Japanese tour group. For the first half of the 2 hour trip I just watched the beautiful Tuscan country side roll by listening to everyone around me speak a forign language.

Then came the ice breaking event... one of the girls spilled her package of m&m's and all the Japanese and I started laughing. Esp. when the mom crawled under all the tables on the train picking up stray m&m's.

Shortly after that the same girl offered me a piece of gum. I'm not sure if it was the brand or the flavor the the name on the gum was "Kissing Mint". I politely took a piece and tried not to die of laughter again.

After that the girl and her mother began trying to communicate with me. Their english was extremely limited and my japanese is non-existant. But it was a fun way to pass the time.

Florence Pictures

Here are a few pictures of what i like to refer to as the 'dry bones of dead religion'. Enormous churches in which life can no longer be found. sad.

I took a bunch of other photos too but i'll wait to post them.

Tomorrow: Venice and then on to Serbia.

Travel day 1

Well I made it safely to Europe. I'm in Florence now. Its a really cool city but I am so exhausted i cant enjoy it nearly as much as I want to.

Right now im just trying to stay awake until after 9pm so that when i go to bed i sleep the whole night - jet lag cure. 2 more hours to go.

I plan to take pictures tomorrow. i'll post some here when i get the chance.

Reviving the Blog

Hey Everyone (well anyone who still checks this),

In case you were unaware of my summer plans I am going to Serbia this summer on a Summer Project. I am reviving the blog as a way to keep people updated on what's going on over in Eastern Europe.

Pretty excited about the trip. My flight leaves this Thursday. I will be spending the weekend in Florence, Italy before taking a train to Belgrade.

Hopefully I will remember to blog here a lot this summer. So stay tuned...