Back in Belgrade

OK, so I know I said I'd try to get another post in before the weekend, but we got really busy for a few days. Sorry about that.

The weekend was hectic. We took a whirlwind tour of the south-east of Serbia, visiting Leskovac and Nis. There is definitely a more Turkish influence in this area. Apparently the largest evangelical church in Serbia is in Leskovac and is made entirely of Gypsies. We didn't get a chance to visit that church.

Saturday night we were in Leskovac for their student meeting and we got to meet a number of new people there again. There's no way I'm going to remember all these names. A highlight from that meeting was getting to sing "Power of Your Love" in Serbian.

In Nis we went to the Sunday worship service of the local Penticostal church. Their pastor is a local who married a British woman and through that started a new church. They asked if any of us could play piano, so I got a crash course on some of their songs and I played along with their songleader. It was great. I just couldn't understand any of the songs I was playing.

Nis was the centre of the most fierce fighting between the Turks and Serbs. In one battle, 10000 Turks and 4000 Serbs died at once. As a result, the Serbs there hang on even stronger to their Orthodox roots. We wish we could have spent more time there, but we had to make our way back to Belgrade.

Our plans have changed somewhat as God has shown us that building relationships is to be our main focus while we're here. We're spending a lot of time going with locals (both believers and not) and simply engaging them in discussions. We have discovered that the level of English spoken here is higher than we thought, so discussions are actually better suited to the country than English classes.

A highlight from this new focus (it was one of our foci before, but it has become even more of a focal point than before) was eating at a restaurant in which one of our friends is a cook. He is not yet a believer, but his brother is and they are very close. This cook has prepared meals for the likes of the Onassis family, Bill Clinton, George Bush, and various Greek and Russian dignitaries... and he was excited to have us visit his restaurant. In fact, he told us that he is considering coming to Winnipeg in order to learn to cook in other ways (Japanese, Indian, etc.). We encouraged him to follow through because we consider Winnipeg a good place to find many different types of cooking.

We only have a few more days left here, so I cannot guarantee anything. If this happens to be the last post, we'll be in London from the 27th to the 30th and we'll be arriving in Winnipeg at 7:49 (or 7:29... I'm not sure) on the 30th.

And in case it happens that way, happy birthday dad.