Saturday, after we arrived in Belgrade, we had a couple of hours’ rest, then met with friends and colleagues. First we met Dane and Melita, who pastor the First Baptist Church of Belgrade. Dane and Melita also have a publishing business, and we talked to them about the possibilities of developing a Serbian theological library. We also heard about a Roma home church their church is working with, and the 11 baptisms (4 men, 7 women) they had recently.
Next, we met with Dragan and Daniela, who have home churches in several places. They will be moving to Belgrade, where there are somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 Roma in over 100 settlements in the city.
While we were meeting, we were joined by Paris, who is translating many of the materials for the upcoming conference.
Sunday morning brought us to home church in Vladimirovac at the home of Vitomir and Luca. Vitomir has worked doing recycling, but now many places are putting the garbage containers in the ground, preventing the Roma people from sorting through and pulling out recyclable materials. Since the corn harvest has just finished, the fields are now open for gleaning by hand. Following is a picture of the corn Vitomir has gathered, and is cleaning so that he will get a better price for it.
From Vladimirovac, we headed back into Belgrade, and met Sunday afternoon with a Roma home church Dragan and Daniella lead. When we pulled up to the meeting place, we were a bit confused. It was in a neighborhood of large, expensive houses, where diplomats live. Yet across the street was a humble Roma home. Compare the pictures:
What a sweet spirit in the members there! They each spoke, and all told of lives that had been changed by knowing the Lord.
After church, we piled into the car and headed for Prokuplje. I am sure you will all be amused to know that we were so packed into the car, I rode the 3 1/2 hours to Prokuplje with 280 hats in my lap!!!
Watch for the next post! The hospital was SO happy to receive the defibrillator, the business seminar for the government went well, we met with the governor, and gave out hats in Zitni Potok. All of that is coming up next!
