Sorry this is coming so late. A lot has happened, and all of it good this time thank goodness.
Tyler is feeling much better. He has full range motion in his shoulder and the soreness has lessened. He's still not comfortable playing a lot of high pace, high action sports right now but we're pretty confident that he will be able to play some at the camp next week if he continues to improve the way he is. That's a blessing.
Unfortunately, the friend he was supposed to meet at the gym didn't show.
After spending some time in town yesterday we met our leader at the sports facilities and started a game of basketball followed by an hour or so of ultimate frisbee. We met a few kids who were friends of our leader's kids and they were super nice and spoke exceptionally good English.
After our sports time we ate and got ready for a night on the town. During the evenings starting around 7:30 til sometimes 2 or 3 in the morning, people will gather downtown and meet in coffee shops and places to talk and drink. Serbia is a great example of what true community looks like. Everyone seems to know everyone to some extent, and their way of having fun on a Friday night is to meet friends and talk around a table outside for a few hours. I love it.
Our team split up into two groups of three and started wandering the streets looking for people who might talk to us. First my group (Shelby, Josh and I) tried sitting at one of the coffee places and figuring out from there what to do but we quickly found out that was not going to be a good place to meet anyone. We then decided to try to find someone around "the circle" which is the area around the statue in the middle of town. There are benches that border the statue area and a lot of small groups had made that their place to chat.
With a short walk and a quick prayer we decided to approach these two girls sitting together on one of the benches. Shelby went up to them and said plainly, "Hey, do you guys speak English?" I couldn't help but laugh at the simplicity in her approach but it worked. The two girls were English majors at the University and their English was flawless. We had a great conversation with them. We talked about everything from what classes they were taking to stereotypes about America, and even a quick conversation about dog attacks.
About 15 minutes into our 3 hours conversation, they asked us if we wanted to move to a cafe and get some drinks so we joined them. We sat at the cafe talking for what seemed like days. They were very talkative and seemed to like us. We asked them if they were doing anything tomorrow (today) and they said they could do something Sunday and would call us.
I got a text from them today though and they want to meet up tonight for a walk by the river and then some coffee afterward around 10. We finally made some friends :) Hopefully we can see them a few more times before we leave for the camp (which I found out is Tuesday instead of Thursday). After the camp we'll be sure to contact them again and hopefully continue wherever we leave off at the end of our first week here.
Today we took a trip with our leader's family to the river. We met some more of their Serbian friends, swam downstream a few times, Josh jumped off a nearby tree, we played volleyball and for lunch we had this amazing home cooked meal that some of the Serbian men made using a fire they built themselves by the side of the river. It was similar to what we would call Chili. It had spicy sausage, beans, and a little bit of onion mixed with a special seasoning. We put that on some bread and bon apetite! SO GOOD.
Since the lake we had our devotional time and talked about any problems or worries or things that have kept us from staying focused or keeping positive on our time here. We decided we need to pray more often, discussed how to meet more people effectively, and shared some struggles we've faced just in being in a different culture and doing things on our own. We're all good though but please continue to pray for team unity, peace, and that we will constantly keep our priorities in check. We need to always be able to remember why we're here.
We're about to head to the sports facilities to play and hopefully make some more friends, then we'll eat and head back into town to again, meet some people. Pray for confidence to approach strangers, and that we would be led to find friends like we did last night. Lasting friendships will make a world of difference going forward on this trip.
Thanks for reading. I know this is a lot. Everyone is doing wonderfully. The food is great, the people are great, the language is fun, we're learning a lot and we're making progress :) thanks in large part to our support back home. Thank you all so much. We can't thank you all enough. I'll update again hopefully tomorrow morning with a shorter message.
Ciao!
Tyler is feeling much better. He has full range motion in his shoulder and the soreness has lessened. He's still not comfortable playing a lot of high pace, high action sports right now but we're pretty confident that he will be able to play some at the camp next week if he continues to improve the way he is. That's a blessing.
Unfortunately, the friend he was supposed to meet at the gym didn't show.
After spending some time in town yesterday we met our leader at the sports facilities and started a game of basketball followed by an hour or so of ultimate frisbee. We met a few kids who were friends of our leader's kids and they were super nice and spoke exceptionally good English.
After our sports time we ate and got ready for a night on the town. During the evenings starting around 7:30 til sometimes 2 or 3 in the morning, people will gather downtown and meet in coffee shops and places to talk and drink. Serbia is a great example of what true community looks like. Everyone seems to know everyone to some extent, and their way of having fun on a Friday night is to meet friends and talk around a table outside for a few hours. I love it.
Our team split up into two groups of three and started wandering the streets looking for people who might talk to us. First my group (Shelby, Josh and I) tried sitting at one of the coffee places and figuring out from there what to do but we quickly found out that was not going to be a good place to meet anyone. We then decided to try to find someone around "the circle" which is the area around the statue in the middle of town. There are benches that border the statue area and a lot of small groups had made that their place to chat.
With a short walk and a quick prayer we decided to approach these two girls sitting together on one of the benches. Shelby went up to them and said plainly, "Hey, do you guys speak English?" I couldn't help but laugh at the simplicity in her approach but it worked. The two girls were English majors at the University and their English was flawless. We had a great conversation with them. We talked about everything from what classes they were taking to stereotypes about America, and even a quick conversation about dog attacks.
About 15 minutes into our 3 hours conversation, they asked us if we wanted to move to a cafe and get some drinks so we joined them. We sat at the cafe talking for what seemed like days. They were very talkative and seemed to like us. We asked them if they were doing anything tomorrow (today) and they said they could do something Sunday and would call us.
I got a text from them today though and they want to meet up tonight for a walk by the river and then some coffee afterward around 10. We finally made some friends :) Hopefully we can see them a few more times before we leave for the camp (which I found out is Tuesday instead of Thursday). After the camp we'll be sure to contact them again and hopefully continue wherever we leave off at the end of our first week here.
Today we took a trip with our leader's family to the river. We met some more of their Serbian friends, swam downstream a few times, Josh jumped off a nearby tree, we played volleyball and for lunch we had this amazing home cooked meal that some of the Serbian men made using a fire they built themselves by the side of the river. It was similar to what we would call Chili. It had spicy sausage, beans, and a little bit of onion mixed with a special seasoning. We put that on some bread and bon apetite! SO GOOD.
Since the lake we had our devotional time and talked about any problems or worries or things that have kept us from staying focused or keeping positive on our time here. We decided we need to pray more often, discussed how to meet more people effectively, and shared some struggles we've faced just in being in a different culture and doing things on our own. We're all good though but please continue to pray for team unity, peace, and that we will constantly keep our priorities in check. We need to always be able to remember why we're here.
We're about to head to the sports facilities to play and hopefully make some more friends, then we'll eat and head back into town to again, meet some people. Pray for confidence to approach strangers, and that we would be led to find friends like we did last night. Lasting friendships will make a world of difference going forward on this trip.
Thanks for reading. I know this is a lot. Everyone is doing wonderfully. The food is great, the people are great, the language is fun, we're learning a lot and we're making progress :) thanks in large part to our support back home. Thank you all so much. We can't thank you all enough. I'll update again hopefully tomorrow morning with a shorter message.
Ciao!
I like 'em long, keep 'em coming! ;) We so dearly love you guys. Thrilled to hear Tyler is doing so much better, and praying for the new friends you've met already.
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