We were worried about Tuesday. Monday evening, when Multiply lessons ended at church, it was raining buckets! Thundering! Lightning! And it continued, off and on, all night. It made for great sleeping, a cool breeze through the open windows, but worries for Tuesday. Well, not to worry, Tuesday dawned sunny and blessedly cooler!
We started the morning with familiar activities — Children’s Club and Multiply discipleship study. There were 15 new children added to the club today. Bethany Jaques taught the story of Hannah giving Samuel back to God. One of the songs they sang with the children is an English song that Daniel and Bethany and Caitlin Oswalt first learned from the Roma — “I love you Jesus, deep down in my heart! Deep, deep, down, down, deep down in my heart!” They sing it loudly, then softly. As they go “deep, deep, down, down” they inch down lower and lower, then spring back up to sing “I love you Jesus!” again.
Multiply study this morning looked at the local church and the global church. You might think the global church is not a concern or possibility for the Roma, a people with so few resources of their own. However, they travel in a similar way to migrant farm workers during the summer harvest season, taking them far from their homes. They are moving outside the town where they live and starting home churches in surrounding villages. From time to time they even go by bus to Germany to find work for a season, so they have opportunities in God’s worldwide family!
Lunch was delicious and different today. Fish, heads on! So good, we might have it tomorrow, too.
After lunch, we split into two groups. One group stayed in town and visited one of the home churches in Prokuplje. David is the leader of this group, and we had a sweet time of sharing with them, and enjoyed a treat of watermelon and chocolate bars.
Did any of you know that it is a law in Serbia to drive with your lights on at all times? Well, we didn’t. Daniel (who *did* have an international driver’s license) was driving, when a policeman pulled us over! We had a few tense moments, until the policeman realized Daniel was an American visitor. Then he just cautioned him to turn on the lights and let us go on to our destination.
We arrived in Jasenica, where Vanja and Bojan have a greenhouse provided by the Teach A Man to Fish program, and a church in their home. We saw the greenhouse — full of “more peppers than North Little Rock could eat in a day” according to Ed! Besides several varieties of peppers, they also grow tomatoes, cabbage, and cucumbers that we saw. This greenhouse will operate year-round. During the coldest weather, they will grow spinach and chard.
Vanja invited the team into her neatly kept home, and served sugar wafers, soda and Turkish coffee. Her children Christina and Manuel, and a neighbor, Gabriel joined in for a short time of worship. Janice shared her testimony and Ed shared scripture from Ecclesiastes 5:18 and Romans 5:8. Daniel played the guitar and everyone who knew the words to the Roma song sang along. Then a family from a neighboring village saw Marijan’s car and stopped. They asked us to sing a couple of songs, then it was time to head back to Prokuplje. Before we left, Vanja shared vegetables from the greenhouse with us.
Both teams met back up at the church with the leadership of the church in Prokuplje as well as from some of the villages. We studied again from Multiply, and Chuck Smith taught a lesson on how to study the Bible. There were several questions afterwards, and a lively conversation. It is wonderful to have Rodja translating so seamlessly!
We left the church and ended the evening together – Roma, Serb, and American – in Sega Fredo, a cafe near Marijan’s flat, where we had pizza for dinner.
Please continue to pray for us. It is supposed to rain for the next several days, and we depend on walking everywhere we go in town. A visit to the Chinese store for an umbrella just might be in order! Also, please leave us questions and comments. It is such an encouragement to us when we know you are following our trip, because then we know you are lifting us up in prayer!