It is getting close to time to leave for the airport.\u00a0 We have seen a lot this trip.\u00a0 We have met a lot of people with the same heart for Serbia as we have.\u00a0 We have seen God answer prayers in ways we couldn\u2019t even imagine.\u00a0 We are so small and we so often think small.\u00a0 We were disappointed when our evangelism meeting was canceled but as you have read, God answered our prayers in a bigger and better way than any of us thought about.\u00a0 We don\u2019t\u00a0 think large enough for God. Remember the goats in Zitni Potok? God found a way bless an older man by the families hiring him to be the shepherd.\u00a0 My imagination is so limited I only thought about the owner having milk and cheese and then passing on the off-spring.<\/p>\n
Yesterday we met some Roma people in northern Serbia who had the \u201cpleasure\u201d of we Americans singing in Romski.\u00a0 We heard from them, testimonies, inspiring us and teaching us.\u00a0 How marvelous is our Lord?\u00a0 We are worshipping with people thousands of miles from our home and I (we) all were blessed by worshipping the one true living God!<\/p>\n
Today, our last full day in Serbia started off with a nice low key breakfast and then travel to downtown for a really rare and unusual treat, coffee\u2026\u2026at an outside coffee shop in Belgrade.\u00a0 Just kidding, these are my only friends that drink more coffee than me.\u00a0 And we are talking espresso and Turkish style coffee (finely ground and they leave about an inch of grounds in every cup!) We visited with a famous, not by his choice, man named Sasko, his wife and daughter.\u00a0 He has a testimony that will make you shake your head because it is filled with such unusual circumstances and answered prayer.\u00a0 It is truly remarkable.\u00a0 We will speak about him in person.\u00a0 My written words don\u2019t come close to describing the enormity of his faith combined with depth of his humility. I wish we could have spent more time talking about things of God with him.\u00a0 Pastors Rodja and Marijan gave him counsel, prayed for him and left him with a verse to quote to himself, Romans 8:1 – \u201cTherefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 The church in Serbia is quick to use scripture to back up what they say when giving advice to one another.\u00a0 It is quite comforting.<\/p>\n
We left there, walked through some beautiful and historic streets of cobblestone to meet with Kyle and his family for lunch. He is an IMB missionary and director for Serbia.\u00a0 His family has been here four years and will be in the US for about 8 or 9 months this fall and winter.\u00a0 We invited him to the state evangelism conference in January.\u00a0 Hopefully they can fit it in.<\/p>\n
Our last event for this trip was to visit a dear brother, Danijel, in the hospital.\u00a0 He has been in the hospital since March 13th<\/sup> with an operation on his ankle and lower leg on the 22nd<\/sup>.\u00a0 He has had a few set-backs keeping him there.\u00a0 He told us through interpreters that he hoped to be discharged in about a month.\u00a0 We took him some treats Serbian style\u2026. Cokes, waters, Jaffa cakes (the best snack cake ever made with dark chocolate and an orange filling) and of course the items no one could dream of forgetting when they take food to someone in the hospital, freshly grilled pleskovica and civapcici on fresh baked breads that would make the guys at Community Bakery jealous!\u00a0 We had Pastor Marijan go in first while we counted to ten, then all went in.\u00a0 The look on his face was 100% priceless!\u00a0 He is in an eight-bed ward and several of the young men had visitors, which made our surprise visit to Danijel all the better.\u00a0 Not only did he have more visitors than anyone else we came all the way from the United States to see him.\u00a0 It may sound odd but I would have travelled the whole way \u00a0just to see him.\u00a0 I met him last year at the church in Prokuplje and he is one of my most dear friends in the world!\u00a0 We visited and prayed with and for him before leaving. I wish I would have thought to find a way to see him more than once.\u00a0 I admit to you all I had to leave quckly when we had to finish the visit because then as now I am more than just misty eyed. I just hoped everyone thought I was carsick so I didn\u2019t have to talk.<\/p>\n I leave you with the reason we are commanded to go preach and teach to all the nations: Romans 8:38 and 39\u00a0 \u201cFor I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n In Christ\u2019s love,<\/p>\n Ed<\/p>\n\n We carry these beautiful faces with us as we go about our daily lives in Arkansas. Pieces of our hearts are forever in Serbia, with the precious people we love in Prokuplje, Zitni Potok, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Zabalj, Nis, Pirot, Leskovac, Dubovo, Zitoradje, and other villages, towns, and cities. Please keep them in your prayers!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is getting close to time to leave for the airport.\u00a0 We have seen a lot this trip.\u00a0 We have met a lot of people with the same heart for Serbia as we have.\u00a0 We have seen God answer prayers in ways we couldn\u2019t even imagine.\u00a0 We are so small and we so often think…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/img1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5138,"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2706\/revisions\/5138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linkingpartners.org\/sr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}