The Next to Last Hoorah!

Hello friends!

We have been so busy since the last time I updated! The second group from church is now here and we have already done so much with them! When we picked them up from the airport, we visited First Baptist Church of Belgrade, Serbia. The church is currently under construction, and it is coming along beautifully! Please pray for Dane and Melita! Dane had a benign tumor removed from his throat and his voice is still recovering. Melita has also been sick many times. Pray that God will give them the strength they need to further God’s kingdom.

We have had three days of teaching English! In the mornings, we teach the children and have an advanced English class, and at night, we teach two times with basic, beginner, and advanced classes. It was everyone’s first time to teach (except the three amigos) and it went ok for the first time. Marabeth teaches the children, her and Cait teach beginner, Bethany and I teach basic, and everyone else teaches the advanced class. Marabeth does awesome with the kids groups! They have so much fun!

While visiting the monasteries yesterday, I realized some things about the Orthodox religion. When I first entered a monastery, I saw that there were many things for sale. There are bracelets and necklaces that are supposed to “protect you” or something. There were beads, flowers, and oils to pray with, and many other things but I am not sure what they are for. The first monastery had paintings of different people from the Bible over all the walls of the inside of the church. The paintings seemed very unrealistic to me. The Orthodox religion seems like they have a very warped view of God. It seemed like you had to buy things from the gift shop or do certain rituals to pray or get close to God. Everything about Orthodox is a religion, but as Christians, we are supposed to focus on passion!

Sunday, Toby’s message was about the difference between “religion” and “passion.” He spoke from Philippians chapter two. It has been a few days since he spoke, but I remember thinking about how I could apply this to my life. God showed me things in my life where I make Christianity a religion and how to turn it into passion. If you are passionate about Christ, others will see this passion and wonder about it. If you are truly passionate about Christ, your whole focus and whole drive in life is for Christ. This has been hitting home these past weeks and how I can be truly passionate for Christ on my campus.

I will update as soon as possible again, but keep in mind we have very little free time!! Thanks for reading and praying for us! Pray that the people we are teaching English to will have open hearts when we share Christ with them on Friday!

Love, Bethany