So it's been more than a full day since we've left the camp and despite our plans of resting and doing nothing a lot has happened. For starters, the girls had a spider in their room...
The day we got back we went straight to our rooms and napped. While Josh and I were walking back to meet the girls at their hotel I get a phone call. It's Shelby, hysterical because "there's a HUGE spider" in their room. "Really, Dylan, it's massive! Get here ASAP, you have to kill it! We have it trapped..."
Visions of tarantulas flood my mind and I rush with Josh to their door. I knock on the door and you would have thought 100 girls were screaming. After a few seconds I hear the keys rattling against the door. When the door finally opens I look into to see a line of chairs running from their beds to the front door. Beverly is perched on the nearest one to us, arms outstretched to let us in without letting her foot touch the floor.
I ask where it is and they tell me they've lost it but that it's a monster of a spider. We look in the bathroom, in the closet, under beds... this thing is nowhere to be found. After a couple hours of searching we decide to leave and get something to eat. Flash forward to yesterday - Shelby was getting something out of her backpack by her bed and saw it in the corner, screams, and Josh smacks it with a sandal. Hero status. The thing was bigger than your normal house spider you might find in the corner of your living room but it was certainly not the monstrosity the girls made it out to be. They even said, "I don't think that's it. I remember it being bigger than that." Nu-uh. Spider problem neutralized.
We went shopping at this Chinese shop in town to get some simple things like deodorants and other cheap goodies and happened upon another contact for us. She was following Shelby around the store and at first Shelby thought she was being stalked because the girl thought that she might be wanting to steal something. The girl eventually spoke up and asked if Shelby spoke English. The conversation led to us all meeting her and getting her number. She wants to get coffee with us sometime soon. It was really encouraging seeing that God doesn't just work in the time's that we give him to work, but that even in our break time, God is actively leading people to us.
We also had a short conversation with our popcorn guy, Paul while we were out looking for a place to eat last night. He asked us why we were in Serbia which kind of caught me by surprise. Surely we had told him why we were here but he said he had been wondering that since he last talked to us a week ago. I talked to him about Josh and wanting to talk to people and make friends and then shared about the Christian camp we were just at teaching the kids about the bible and Jesus and how important he is to us, etc. It was definitely a good plug for our relationship with him. It'll be interesting to see what our next conversation goes like. --> Side note: Beverly tried some chili powder on the popcorn she bought at the end of the conversation and without realizing that it was chili powder, Sarah reaches in for a handful and takes a bite and coughs. She was ok but it took her by surprise. Pretty entertaining.
The girls attended the women's bible study at Jovica's house with his wife and the missionary's wife. While they were studying, Jovica, Josh and I walked around town putting up posters advertising the sports festival. After that was finished we all met at his house for coffee and to play with his little boy, Marko. We've really bonded with Jovica and his family and are even meeting them again today for lunch. They wanted to make us a Serbian specialty and we gratefully obliged. After that we may ask Jovica to go with us to the tennis courts to arrange a tennis reservation for sometime this week and to help us mail some post cards.
Tonight we'll most likely go back into town and call some of our contacts about meeting for coffee, or meet some new people.
We're also thinking about putting up some posters to advertise an English speaking club that we would host where Josh and I are sleeping. We would put up invitations around town with contact information and invite them over for an hour or two of conversational English practice with our group. That would be a great time to make some friends and also maybe share the gospel. We'll be working on getting those up over the next 4-5 days.
The sports festival starts August 5 so preparations for that will be getting serious in the coming week or so. Prayers for strength, patience and a heart for the Serbs here. Also pray for team chemistry as we've been together for a while now and it's easier to get chippy with one another (we've already had a fight over whether creamed corn counts as a vegetable). Our work will be a lot easier if we can cooperate and encourage one another.
Thank you for your constant support. We're still enjoying our time here and are excited to see what God has planned over the coming weeks. I put up a heap of pictures today - sorry there are so many. I should have gone through and erased some before I mass uploaded but hopefully it wasn't too painful to sift through them all.
Love you all :)
The day we got back we went straight to our rooms and napped. While Josh and I were walking back to meet the girls at their hotel I get a phone call. It's Shelby, hysterical because "there's a HUGE spider" in their room. "Really, Dylan, it's massive! Get here ASAP, you have to kill it! We have it trapped..."
Visions of tarantulas flood my mind and I rush with Josh to their door. I knock on the door and you would have thought 100 girls were screaming. After a few seconds I hear the keys rattling against the door. When the door finally opens I look into to see a line of chairs running from their beds to the front door. Beverly is perched on the nearest one to us, arms outstretched to let us in without letting her foot touch the floor.
I ask where it is and they tell me they've lost it but that it's a monster of a spider. We look in the bathroom, in the closet, under beds... this thing is nowhere to be found. After a couple hours of searching we decide to leave and get something to eat. Flash forward to yesterday - Shelby was getting something out of her backpack by her bed and saw it in the corner, screams, and Josh smacks it with a sandal. Hero status. The thing was bigger than your normal house spider you might find in the corner of your living room but it was certainly not the monstrosity the girls made it out to be. They even said, "I don't think that's it. I remember it being bigger than that." Nu-uh. Spider problem neutralized.
We went shopping at this Chinese shop in town to get some simple things like deodorants and other cheap goodies and happened upon another contact for us. She was following Shelby around the store and at first Shelby thought she was being stalked because the girl thought that she might be wanting to steal something. The girl eventually spoke up and asked if Shelby spoke English. The conversation led to us all meeting her and getting her number. She wants to get coffee with us sometime soon. It was really encouraging seeing that God doesn't just work in the time's that we give him to work, but that even in our break time, God is actively leading people to us.
We also had a short conversation with our popcorn guy, Paul while we were out looking for a place to eat last night. He asked us why we were in Serbia which kind of caught me by surprise. Surely we had told him why we were here but he said he had been wondering that since he last talked to us a week ago. I talked to him about Josh and wanting to talk to people and make friends and then shared about the Christian camp we were just at teaching the kids about the bible and Jesus and how important he is to us, etc. It was definitely a good plug for our relationship with him. It'll be interesting to see what our next conversation goes like. --> Side note: Beverly tried some chili powder on the popcorn she bought at the end of the conversation and without realizing that it was chili powder, Sarah reaches in for a handful and takes a bite and coughs. She was ok but it took her by surprise. Pretty entertaining.
The girls attended the women's bible study at Jovica's house with his wife and the missionary's wife. While they were studying, Jovica, Josh and I walked around town putting up posters advertising the sports festival. After that was finished we all met at his house for coffee and to play with his little boy, Marko. We've really bonded with Jovica and his family and are even meeting them again today for lunch. They wanted to make us a Serbian specialty and we gratefully obliged. After that we may ask Jovica to go with us to the tennis courts to arrange a tennis reservation for sometime this week and to help us mail some post cards.
Tonight we'll most likely go back into town and call some of our contacts about meeting for coffee, or meet some new people.
We're also thinking about putting up some posters to advertise an English speaking club that we would host where Josh and I are sleeping. We would put up invitations around town with contact information and invite them over for an hour or two of conversational English practice with our group. That would be a great time to make some friends and also maybe share the gospel. We'll be working on getting those up over the next 4-5 days.
The sports festival starts August 5 so preparations for that will be getting serious in the coming week or so. Prayers for strength, patience and a heart for the Serbs here. Also pray for team chemistry as we've been together for a while now and it's easier to get chippy with one another (we've already had a fight over whether creamed corn counts as a vegetable). Our work will be a lot easier if we can cooperate and encourage one another.
Thank you for your constant support. We're still enjoying our time here and are excited to see what God has planned over the coming weeks. I put up a heap of pictures today - sorry there are so many. I should have gone through and erased some before I mass uploaded but hopefully it wasn't too painful to sift through them all.
Love you all :)
Love you guys dearly! Miss you already. Praying for you over here!
ReplyDeleteCatching up on your blog tonight. This is Shelby's leader from middle and high school days and I am so amazed by the journey you are on together. I am definitely a stalker and would love to see the pictures... : ) where are they?
ReplyDeleteOn a serious note, I cannot imagine the impact you all are having on the people there nor the impact this trip will have on you all later. Sounds so amazing and I hope to catch up with Shelby some time when she is "back home" to hear more details. Sounds like the trip has been full of struggles and great joy. Reminds me of 1 Peter 1:6-9 Have a terrific rest of trip!