Busy day! We woke to sunny skies, ventured outside the lodge and what did we find but a goat’s head! No kidding! This is a hunting lodge, and there is quite the assortment of taxidermy in the gathering room, although thankfully not in our rooms! On the ledge beside the tulip garden was a goat’s head. Seems our host has an Italian guest staying at one of his other properties and the guest has a beard identical to the goat’s beard, so he was planning to take it to show the man. You just never know what’s going to happen … .
We had a great morning talking about possibilities for the summer team, and guys, let me tell you, it’s going to be great! There is work going on in several new villages since last year, there’s a new ministry point that we might be able to survey and hold a large evangelization in, we have new partners in Belgrade, and there’s growing work with the Roma in north Serbia. We will definitely spend time with Marijan and Slavica in Prokuplje, and soon we will know where else they feel our help will be most important.
After lunch, we split into two groups. The men went to Toponica to a brand new home church. The women headed to the church for a women’s meeting. We had a guest speaker from a women’s organization in Nis, as well as ReNata and LaJuana sharing. Topics were women’s health, the importance of and how to do regular cancer screenings, and the Biblical roles of men and women in marriage. Love and respect, folks. It’s all about love and respect — a picture of Christ and the church.
Some of the ladies returned to Slavica’s flat with us, and we enjoyed a time of multi-language fellowship. The spirit within us communes as friend with friend, and we laughed and shared pictures (Daniel and Beth, Slavica finally saw your wedding photos) and had a great time together.
At 6:00 pm, the men returned from their village home church visit, and we all went back to the church. We met with a group of men who are all interested in the Teach A Man to Fish project. We explained the program – Linking Partners offers grants of up to $500 per person for an entrepreneurial program, provided the applicant provides a workable business plan for that program. When the program starts providing income (or offspring) the grant is “repayed” by the recipient passing along either animals or training/apprenticeship to someone else in the Roma community.
The mood in the room for the meeting was so encouraging and upbeat. We heard from three different new projects — growing raspberries for sale, purchasing a wood splitter to split wood for winter heating, and buying and raising goats for milk, cheese, and breeding. We already have one goat project going, a greenhouse that has just been planted for the first time (we will see that tomorrow), and two sewing machines that have already been used to benefit the church several times.
Although the Roma community we are working with is a hard-working group of people, they have little chance of improving their lives. The unemployment rate in Serbia is incredible, and among Roma it is as high as 90% in some places. To sum up tonight, I’ll share what ReNata said, “It is amazing to watch hope light up someone’s eyes.”
