I woke about 7:30 to prepare for the day. We meet for breakfast at 8:30. We had eggs with bread and Turkish coffee. Saša picked us up at 9:30 and we went to his house. On the way we stopped at the “cheap store” where Saša placed the order for 50 humanitarian aid boxes to purchase with the love offerings that were given by friends of Linking Partners for this purpose. He selected the items and they pulled the merchandise for us to pick up later in the day.
We arrived at Saša’s for children’s activities. The children are still in school until tomorrow, but here in Serbia the children go in two shifts, morning and afternoon. Today we only had 7 children who had the afternoon shift for school. We played games – egg with spoon race and toss the bean bag game. We sang a song, then I taught the Bible Story on Genesis 1:1 — God created the world and everything in it. We were starting to play another game when the parents came to pickup their children for the afternoon shift of school.
Following the kids’ time, Sasa took us to town for errands. We took his 3 yr old daughter, Rebecca, with us so his wife and mother could harvest paprika (yellowish/green bell peppers). Next stop, the Chinese Store to get boy prizes (matchbox cars) to give out with the girl bracelets that Judy Coleman made. We will give some of these on Tuesday when we visit the Children’s Garden (Kindergarten at School). We went to change money then to lunch which was pizza. After lunch, we went to a local history museum in Kucura. We saw children dancing a traditional Ruthenian dance. The museum had many old tools and traditional clothing from early years.
We left there and went to the grocery store where we picked up the food and hygiene items to make the aid boxes. We couldn’t fit it all in the van in one trip so we took what we could to the church and Sasa went back to the store to get the remaining items. We put together the packages. Each box contained shampoo, laundry soap, fabric softener, 4 packages soup mix, 2 packages noodles, rice, penne pasta, 2 cans liver pate, 10 pounds flour, feminine products, bar soap, and toilet paper.
We didn’t have enough seats for all of us because Uncle, Mirko and Miroslav were also going as they are the leaders in the homes we will visit. Miroslav is a young man who is helping to organize and invite the youth. Saša sees him as a future leader. Because of the space issue Saša hired another van to drive also. We loaded the van with the humanitarian aid and headed for the first stop, Djurdjevo, which is 56 kilometers from Saša’s. As we drive, I have been sitting behind Sasa which gives me opportunity to lean forward and ask Sasa questions.
Approaching the village Sasa started looking for his driver’s license. He had changed wallets earlier in the day and became very anxious when he was not able to find it. We were pulled off on the side of the road. Slobo has just gotten his license but I don’t know that he felt comfortable driving the large people mover bus. Ed had an international drivers license a few years ago but it is expired. Gerben, our friend who is here on holiday from the Netherlands has a license that is valid in Serbia so he drove us the final distance into town.
At the first home they had a room on the back of the house that is used specifically for church. There were approx 50 people gathered of all ages. We began by singing with children. I taught the Bible story from Gen 1:1 beginning with creation and going up through the Fall when sin entered the world and Jesus saves us from our sin to live with Him eternally if we confess our sins and believe in Him as the boss of our life. We ended our children’s time with songs as more adults came in. Saša spoke, then Ed introduced us and Linking Partners’ purpose statement, 2 Tim 2:2. Charles Nestor gave his testimony, and we closed with singing and prayer.
At this stop we distributed 31 humanitarian bags. As we were finishing distributing the bags, the rain started pouring down. I was in the van passing bags out to those who had been carrying them into the church, so I was out of the rain, but LaJuana was inside the church taking photos. She was trapped by the river of water that was flowing off the roof and across the dirt. It was a pretty muddy path when we entered but for her to exit she removed her shoes and walked in ankle deep water to the van. It rained very hard for about 10 minutes so we waited until it let up some before proceeding to the next village about 20 Kilometers away in Kovil.
By the time we arrived the rain was barely a sprinkle. We walked up a long steep hill carrying the humanitarian bags and entered the house church. Mirko led the service and drove the van back with us. In the kitchen area they had moved the small dining table which would seat four to the front with 1 chair which Mirko sat in to play the guitar. There were about 20 chairs in tight rows. We started with Mirko leading us in several songs then Ed introduced Linking Partners and Chuck Smith gave his testimony. We closed with prayer and song then distributed 19 humanitarian aid bags. It was about 8:30 and getting dark and we were hungry as we had not had dinner yet. We drove just a short distance to a pizza restaurant and had dinner before driving back to Kucura. We were all tired when we arrived, so I got ready for bed. It was 10:30 or so by then.
