Montenegro

Well what should I say about Montenegro? It is awesome doesn't quite do it justice. Its about as close to heaven as a third world country can get. Where we are is this small town nestled in between mountains an ocean. To be more accurate its on a giant bay so we dont get waves like the real ocean would have. But its just perfect for swimming.

I think I would like to come back here on personal vacation some day.

The only real down side to the place is that the country has been through a really chaotic last 50 years - esp. the last 20 and only got its independance 5 years ago. So most of the infrastructure is at least 50 years old. Today the water is out in the hotel so we cant shower or use the toilets. The power has gone out several times. But really no one has seemed to mind much. I just feel blessed to be here.

Tomorrow the Serbian students arrive for English camps. The camps are called 'Speak Up!' and the idea/theme is that everyone has a story and we are inviting the Serbian students to come share their stories as we share ours with them. I am really looking forward to the camps. (there are 2 camps each a week long).

Please pray for all of us as we will be very busy during this time and if the last few years of camps is any indication we are in for a rough ride. The stories we've heard are that God uses these camps in mighty ways to advance his kingdom amongst the Serbians. We've also heard that in the past many of the America students become overwhelmed and start to break down during this time. My role for the next two weeks is to support and just be available to help any of the American students that are struggling or being attacked by the evil one.

I definitely desire your prayers for Christ to fill me with his wisdom and love so that I am able to refresh and encourage the American students as they are pouring their lives into their Serbian counterparts.

***Note: i just reread all that and I realize that what I wrote may convey an image to you back home that we are really roughing it here what with water outages and nervous breakdowns. That couldnt be further from the truth. I feel God's presence so intimately in the midst of all this. I was not kidding when I wrote earlier that I feel blessed to be here. God is active in our midst.

Next up...

Since I doubt that I will get a chance to blog again before we leave for Montenegro I thought I would post briefly about what is happening next.

This weekend it is my turn to lead the church service. I still have yet to write my 'sermon' but hopefully Jesus will inspire something worthwhile for me to talk about.

Then after that on Sunday night we get on a bus for a 15 hour ride down to Montenegro. There we will have a few days of training on how to run the English camps and then the english camps start and we pretty much have no more free time until we fly back to America at the end of July.

Hopefully I will be able to write to you about Montenegro sometime next week. If you are lucky i'll even post some pictures for you all.

Novi Sad

We've been in Novi Sad for almost a week now but I havent gotten to blog at all. I have to walk over to a park that has free internet inorder to get online. This is only the second time I've made the trek since getting here.

Since being here we have spent a lot of time on the University campus talking to students about God. It is pretty fun actually. I have to confess I am usually terrified about going up to random strangers and starting conversations about God (one of the reasons I havent ever wanted to work directly on campus back in the US). But that fear is definately fading away! Keep praying that it is removed completely.

We also did a service project picking up trash around some of the dorms. One of our Serbian friends brought us a news paper the next day and showed us the story that ran about us. We couldnt read the story but there was a picture of the dumpsters piled high with all the bags of trash we had collected.

Hmmm what else... oh yesterday we did an outreach in the park and played ultimate frisbee with a bunch of Serbians. That was a lot of fun. We also got to meet a few of the Serbians that had signed up for the english camps. Im really looking forward to getting to hang out more with them down in Montenegro.

Story of the soul

Well since my newsletter talks about this outreach im not going to say much about it. Just thought i should say something since i see my last blog was about it.

It went really well. Lots of Serbians showed up and there seemed to be some really great discussions about the different media presented in light of the spiritual questions asked.

Overview: basically we had a song by john mayer and then discussion about the lyrics. Then showed a surrealist painting by Dali and discussed what people thought it meant. and finally a short video clip.

At the end one of the guys on our team gave his testimony.