Father, we will lead them home

Hey guys!! So tonight we had our last ESL lesson with the adult church members :D Its exciting what we have accomplished but sad that it was the last lesson! Yesterday we learned the body parts. Caitlin and I forgot the stickers with the names on them so we improvised with post-it notes! (You can see everyone with their post-it notes on their bodies in the picture above!) Today we learned a wide range of food names and some simple conversation with the food lesson. The Serbian people are so hospitable that they all chipped in and got us a small gift for teaching English. It was so unexpected and thoughtful! It made me realize how we take a lot of favors and acts of hospitality for granted!

This morning was a little adventurous! We walked around down town Novi Sad today and stopped at a cafe for a Coke. While sitting at the cafe, Daniel was video taping while Caitlin and I were taking pictures. After a while we noticed two Roma children walking around the cafe begging for money. We then saw them walk to a Roma woman sitting on a bench nursing her baby. This immediately broke our hearts. Can you imagine not having a home, not being sure when your next meal will be, not having shoes or clean clothes, and everyone looking at you like you are not worth anything? No! We are extremely blessed! We have a huge surplus of everything I just listed! Seeing these Roma people have really broken my heart and made me realize how blessed I am. God doesn't just bless us with material things so we can sit back and enjoy our comfy lifestyles. God blesses us so we have the means to bless others with the love of Christ. I can't imagine that for the rest of my life I will be living in a huge house with so much STUFF that I'm overwhelmed by it all. I know that somehow I will be using what God has blessed me with and I encourage you to think about all the extra stuff you have and to pray how God wants you to really be using it.

I realize this is quite a heavy topic but it has been on my heart to share and I just want to do something to help these people. I just want to be able to speak Serbian so I can tell them that there is hope! That their life doesn't have to be full of despair until they die.

Also realize that you don't have to come to Serbia to tell people of God's love! There are so many people around you that need Christ's love and God commands us to share it! It's not just a "if you want to kind of thing" its a COMMANDMENT!

In Christ's amazing love,

Bethany <3

See you later, see you soon

hello all,

I would like to start with an apology. We are sorry that we have not been blogging as often as promised. It has been a very busy 2 two weeks, and in our free time we have been recovering from the intensity of the schedule rather than blogging as we should have. We will try to do better in the future, and again we are sorry.

This past week has been very exciting and full of memories, and God. We started the week with English schools for the church members on Monday and Tuesday as Bethany talked in her last post. Wednesday we joined Boris at his flat for his weekly cell group. They meet every Wednesday and share what God has done that week, and also share in a time of bible study. We shared a few scriptures and our testimonies. We also listened to testimonies of Boris, and his fiance Jelena. They were both previous drug addict who were delivered by Jesus!! they shared that they tried many other ways, but Jesus was the only one who changed their lives, and they will never be the same!! Many of the young people in Serbia have problems with drugs and alcohol. Pray that through these multiple testimonies of Jesus' deliverance, that others could be led to Christ and be delivered from their situations.

We also spent Thursday evening in the church's prayer meeting. Ivan Nicolic gave a message about the love of God, and our response to Him. Do we treat Him as our Lord, or as a Slave? Pray for Ivan. His parents are deaf, and he is partially deaf in one ear. He knows sign language and translates the services for his parents. He wants to start a church for the deaf. He already leads the deaf bible study, but he wants to do more. Just pray that he will follow Christ in this situation, and that through it more people would come to Christ.

Friday we had our third day of classes for English which went well. The students are enjoying the classes, and learning, and we re enjoying teaching. Because of these things, the classes are a success. Kristina (a sister from the church) invited us to belgrade the nation's capital on saturday and sunday. We went via train, which was a fun and new experience for each of us. We arrived in Belgrade at 11 a.m. and had to leave at 4 go to Poncovo where we would meet with the youth in the church their. In belgrade we tried to ride an open air tourist bus, but after three passed without stopping at the station, we gave up. At this point Kristina left us to meet her friend Biljana, so there we were, just the three of us alone in a new place and we know ten Serbian words.. haha. It was fun though. We took a cab to the fortress and hung out there for a while, just walking around the huge fort and looking in amazement. Then Kristian and Biljana met back up with us and we visited a zoo that was in the fort which was pretty neat. Caitlin even fed an elephant smoki (Serbian chips)!!! it was very funny and even better we got it on video! After this we began our travels to ponchovo via bus, and then a van. We made it, and ate lunch with the youth leader at her house where we would also stay the night. She was very nice, and her love of Christ was evident as well as her passion for the lost youth in her area, and the world. We shared testimoines with the youth (shown in the photo above), and a few songs of worship, and then listened to what God was doing in their lives. It was an encouragement to us and to them, to see how we are reaching people for christ on our campus, and for us to hear how they are, it was a very good time. Pray for them that others won't see them as freaks, or some type of cult, but that people would see Christ in them.

We came back to Novi Sad sunday morning. We came directly to Kristina and Silvia's parents home for lunch. We were very tired at this point, and food of any kind sounded good. We were excited to find out that we were eating fish soup! We had really enjoyed our last time eating fish soup with rodja, but this time was a little different. The pot was placed in front of us, and four fish heads bobbed on top to greet us. That was a bit of a shocker. Making eye to eye contact with the food i was about to eat, it was a little weird so say the least. But, all joking aside it tasted very good, as long as you didnt swallow one of the thousand tiny bones in the soup!! After our visit we went back to our home for a much needed nap before church. Church was really good, the worship was good, and the message was in english!! A Canadian Evangelist preached and it was...interesting.. mostly good, but a few strange ideas.

Thanks for all the support so far, and please continue to pray that we would follow Christ in everything we do here, and that through that He would be glorified! Next update soon!!

Daniel

Not to Us, but to Your Name be the Glory

Hello everybody!! Well, so far we have successfully taught two English lessons to the adult members of the church. I was pretty nervous at first because this was our first time to teach but I prayed that God would give us the words to speak, and what do you know? He did! It is so easy to try and do things for God on our own, but like Paul says in Galations, we are given the Holy Spirirt to guide us so it is completely pointless to try and do things on our own! It is so easy to get caught up in "the law" that we forget the Holy Spirit and our faith in Christ!
  It was also a little easier than I expected because we taught the children last week. Some of the adults already knew some English so they are catching on very fast, while others are having a little trouble. But overall everyone is very excited and wanting to learn English very much! We teach for two hours a day and everyone is so dedicated that they do not want to take a break!
The first night we taught them the alphabet, numbers, colors, simple conversation, office supplies and conversation about the supplies. The second night we reviewed what we learned the day before and then we taught them pronouns, then conversation with pronouns, the different ways to tell the time, and we started to learn about the calender. The have trouble saying the "th" sound because it is not in their language and when we taught "today is 20th of June" they had a little trouble. But overall everyone is doing a great job!
We do not have the study materials printed yet because the first day we had trouble converting to the American format to the European format. Boza had a friend that converted it for us, and we are so thankful for him! But not there are still parts of the material that are only in Russian so we are waiting for another friend of Boza's to translate it to Serbian.
Because we do not have the materials printed for the students, Boza has been translating and he has been doing an AWESOME job at it! We truly truly appreciate everything he has done for us!
The next English class will be on Friday because Wednesdays are home group bible studies and Thursdays are the weekly prayer meeting. To complete the five-day English course, we will meet next Monday and Tuesday.
Just a couple of things that you can pray specifically for:
1)Pray the God will use us for His glory. That it would not be us doing or saying things, but that it would be completely Him!
2)Also pray that the church will be united as one body of Christ. We have heard of a few problems, so pray that they can forgive and forget.
3)Pray for Rodja, Natasa, Boza, Ivan, Radmila, Ankica, Ivan, Zeljko, Goran, Minja, and Kristina. They are leaders in the church. Pray that they would be united as one body to glorify God in all they do.
4) Also pray that they can raise the funds needed to finish building the church so their church can grow.
Again, we truly appreciate all of your prayer and support!
Love, Bethany

Break my heart for what breaks Yours

Hey guys! Sorry that it's been a few days since we updated the blog! This past week has been crazy! We have done so much, and we have learned a whole lot! I think that we are finally getting adjusted and getting into the swing of things. Friday was the last day for the children's English camp and we reviewed all of the things that we had taught them this past week, and they did so well! They are so smart, and are picking up English so quickly, it is truly a blessing to be able to teach them and spend time playing with them. Along with phrases, we are also teaching them some songs in English; they all love the Hokey Pokey, and they laugh and laugh and laugh when "you stick your booty in, and you shake it all about." Rodja and Natasha said that the kids all say that they love going to the English camp, and that they were sad that last week was the only week, so the week after next we are going to do it again! We're so happy that they like it as much as we do, and we pray that even more kids will come!

Saturday morning was very exciting! We went to the market at 7:30, and when we got there, it was packed! There was a whole empty lot filled with people selling everything imaginable: old tv remotes, Kinder Egg toys, clothes, and jewelry. People everywhere were digging through piles of clothes, and bargaining with the vendors over everything. While it was very exciting, and it was very fun looking through all of the things that they were selling, it was also sad. There were a lot of little Roma kids roaming around, and they all wore looks of despair and defeat. These were not the first Roma kids we had seen, though. We have seen them begging in the street, and wandering around downtown, asking for money. Little kids, no older than 10 years old, and a lot who are much younger, who are homeless and are being taken advantage of. Rodja told us about them, and said that giving them money wouldn’t help them at all. They being forced to beg, but they do not keep any of the money that you give them, because at the end of the day, all of their money is taken from them by a kind of pimp. They are forced to beg and humiliate themselves because of someone else’s greed. He said that it is a huge industry. It’s heart breaking when you look at them, and you don't know how to help them.

Just to end on a little bit lighter note, here are some of the pictures from the children's English camp:

This is Nikola and Daniel playing the airplane game

The is Marco, Saska, and Bethany playing Duck, Duck, Goose. Saska absolutely loves this game!

Tonight we start the English group for the adults in the church! We are very excited, and we're praying that God will use us to give Himself glory through these groups, and everything else we do for Him! Thank you for all of the prayers!

In Christ's love,

Caitlin

Day 6

        
          Today started with a home-cooked meal with our host family. It was delicious as usual. They are so kind and generous, and we appreciate them so much. Our host mother, Ankica (RIGHT), told us that we are now her children. They are more hospitable than you can imagine. The only way to understand is to come here to Serbia. Then from there we went to the park where we are teaching the English class for children. We love hanging out with the children, they are so beautiful and smart, and we always have a great time with them. Today the children learned some foods and also how to place an order at a restaurant. They learned quick and had fun doing it. I really like just loving on these kids, and playing with them, they are all so happy all the time. They are satisfied with the smallest things, and I am learning from them to be more grateful for the many things God has blessed me with, and now I know one reason He has blessed me: so that I may give to others unselfishly, and to take joy in it!
 
        This evening we went to the weekly prayer meeting of the church at Ms. Radmila's (LEFT)  Apartment. It started at around 7:20 and lasted until around 8:40. Almost one and a half hours of only prayer!! This was very interesting to me. I have never been in a service like this before, and it was an inspiration to me. The way they prayed is encouraging, and i think we could all learn something from this. Prayer is not to be rushed or to be shy about. Everyone at the meeting prayed multiple times. No one was embarrassed or held back. They were simply speaking to God as if He was right in front of them; which we know is true, but few of us actually pray like that. They also pray with faith, and expectation, knowing that all things are possible for God, even things we can't even imagine.

     Please pray for the people of the church, that they will be a shining light in their city, apartment, village.. wherever, but that people could see Christ in them, and that more people would come to the Lord through them. Also pray for their new church building that they have started. Pray that they can raise the funds to continue to build.

     In Christ,
     Daniel

Children's ESL, the Fortress, and Ivan and Brana

Ciao! Yesterday we started teaching the children of the church English and it has been a blast!! We are sooo impressed by how much English they already know and how much Serbian we do not know LOL! The children are so smart, even the things we teach them, they pick it up very fast! Yesterday we started with the colors, numbers, and the alphabet and they already knew everything and did not even pause to think of what is what! After that, we taught the kids school supplies and silverware, and they thought the word napkin and spoon were hilarious! We also taught the kids the songs Father Abraham and they loved the motions, and we taught them the hokey pokey. Today we taught the kids how to have a conversation and they really liked it. One girl thought the word paint in “I like to paint,” was the weirdest word ever! So funny! We then went over the animals in English and they already knew them! So, we moved on to how to tell time and again they picked it up really fast! These kids are super super smart!!

Yesterday Rodja took us to the Fortress in the morning. The Fortress was built as a defense between Austrian and Hungarians against the Ottoman Empire back in 1692. It is now a place people can go and look across the Danube River to the city, and it is beautiful! You can look at more pictures of the Fortress on Facebook (I can only add so many to the blog).

Tonight we met with a couple, Ivan and Brana, that were once addicted to drugs but are now clean and Christians! Praise the Lord! They say that they are blessed to have each other, their children, and the church. It was so awesome to hear their testimony of how God rescued them from the complete bottom and they give all the praise to the Lord for what they have today. Keep them in your prayers as they witness to others with their testimony. We also shared our testimonies, and I also shared Ray’s testimony, my step-dad, and how he is leading a Celebrate Recovery program. They are very interested in Celebrate Recovery and would like to start something like that, here in Novi Sad. Keep this in your prayers too!

Bethany

Down town Novi Sad and Bible Study for the Deaf

Hello Friends!!
 So far, we are loving Serbia!! This morning we walked around down town in Novi Sad with Rodja. We definitely got to experience the Serbian culture more this way. We went into an Orthodox church and it was gorgeous! We also had some ice cream (not the same as American ice cream but it was very good). Before I came I was afraid I would starve because I am such a picky eater, But, so far we have eaten so much good food, I think we will come home a little rounder haha!

At night we to Ivan and Minja's home and had the bible study for the deaf members of the church. Caitlin and I were sad when we learned that American sign language is not the same in every country so we could not communicate well with them. But we shared some Bible verses that are special to us and the appreciated it. It was so awesome to see the fellowship with these new friends and we loved worshiping with them in a new way! Please pray for the couple in the middle of the picture. They traveled a long way to come to this bible study and are very close to committing their lives to serve Christ! We are very excited about this!!
As always, we thank everyone for your prayer and support!

In Christ's love,
Bethany

Finally Here!

So we've made it! We got to Belgrade about 4:45 pm Serbian time, and arrived in Novi Sad an hour after that, where we got to talk to Rodja and his family. We are now safely in our host home, and about to go to sleep. Completely exhausted, but super excited about what God has in store!
In Christ's Love,
Caitlin

On the Way!

Hey guys!
So we're finally on our way! We have made it to Charlotte, NC, and we're about to board our flight to Munich, Germany. Then, we will connect to a flight to Belgrade, Serbia, and get there around 8 am Serbia time. I want to thank y'all for all of the prayer and support y'all have given us so far! We definitely couldn't have made it this far without all of you. Please keep lifting us up in prayer; pray that we would get there safely, and that we would be willing to do whatever God has planned for us.
Thanks again!
Caitlin

Getting Ready

Dear Friends,

                Well, we have some very exciting news to share!! Many of you know that this past Sunday was the art sale at church. Caitlin and I painted paintings over the previous semester and decided to sell them and all the profits would go to the Serbia Mission Trip. Mr. Greene also offered us his pictures to sell, and Marabeth and Bethany Jaques served refreshments. Half of the each our trips total is $3750, and the donations we received from the support letters were $2175. After the art sale, our total of donations was $3,850! Is God awesome or what? We agreed with Daniel when he said he always heard of people going on mission trips and still needing funds but at the very last minute, they get just enough. But to have this experience happen to us truly put what this trip is about in focus. God is God and we are not!

                Also, last week everyone got together to get the ESL kits together and to practice teaching our lessons. We want to thank Marabeth, Bethany, and Caitlin for all of their hard work getting all of the supplies together! We have a total of 15 kits now! We will be taking all of them to Serbia with us and storing them there for future trips.  We will post pictures of the art sale and organizing the kits so everyone will feel a part of the trip!

                Lastly and most importantly, we want to thank everyone for donating and praying for our trip. We are truly blessed to have so many people to care enough for us to donate and pray for our trip. And for those of you who bought art, I hope whenever you look at it, you remember to pray for Serbia and to pray for the lost in general. Remember to keep praying for the Serbian people and us, because nothing can be accomplished without Our Father!

In Christ’s love,

Bethany