Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3

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I had a very interesting time with 2 of the ladies from the church on Wednesday. This was my first time doing some studying with them. They are both at different levels (yes, I know we all are!). One is wanting to start reading the bible but we’re not sure if she’s given her life to Christ yet. The other lady has been a “Christian” (read on and you’ll understand the inverted comma’s) since she was young. I am very concerned about her – it seems she has a pick and mix faith and has missed/chosen not to believe a very fundamental part of the Christian faith. At least we are having some insight into what her faith is and it gives me something to pray about. I was encouraged because it was obvious we had very different views. I had been praying she wouldn’t instantly dismiss any truth – she hasn’t. I’m praying that she’ll be able to accept the truth.

Oh yes. I had my Serbian test yesterday. It was a test on the first 6 lessons in the book. I spent hours trying to revise. It has highlighted areas I need to work on. It was what I expected – cases (we don’t have an equivalent in English – noun endings change depending upon the action, I think). When using one case and making the adjectives and nouns agree I can just about manage. But give me a paragraph with words missing I need to fill in with the correct case I haven’t a clue, so I guessed! It’s difficult as there are some overlaps in the English explanation. It’s difficult when your teacher has a slightly limited command of English. She does speak good English but it would be good to have a teacher that can explain the grammar in a better way. UK schools really need to teach English grammar (or do they now? They only did the very basics, as in noun-adjective-verb. The rest I learnt whilst learning languages. I was encouraged as Tina (teacher) wasn’t too worried as I can get bye in Nis with the way I speak. I’ve just paid for another month but the lessons have reduced to 60 minutes. It means I won’t be able to finish a lesson in the book each session but it will also mean I won’t have as much to learn so I should hopefully enjoy the lessons instead of it becoming a chore.

In case I don’t get a chance to write again – Happy St David’s Day for Sunday. I’m missing my griddle. I really want to make some Welsh Cakes but cannot figure out how to cook them. Oh, I’ve had an idea which I may try – not going to lose anything. It’ll be good if it works so I can take something to church. That’s a challenge for me to find the ingredients! I’m not sure I’m going to reach the shopping lesson on my course. It should be ok as I'm looking after Milos and Iva tomorrow and they can help me make them.

Goodnight Sweetheart, it's time to go. Bye Sootz

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Monday 23rd February 2009

The past few days have been a real struggle. Strange how things work out. For the past 2 weeks I was struggling with being here. I had a good couple of days but then received a disturbing text message which threw me off balance. It was to do with my lovely cat and the lovely family that were looking after him. Cut a long story short, he’s not well. I had been taking to the vets the last few months before I came out here and he’d been given a clean bill of health. The blood tests hadn’t shown any abnormalities. I had been praying his skin condition would settle down but it hadn’t. He had to have a steroid injection every month. By about 3 weeks the effects of the injection started to wear off and he was scratching and uncomfortable. After a night of thinking and praying I felt it was better to let him go – be put to sleep. I feel really bad about not being there but cannot bear to think he’s uncomfortable. Everything that could be done had been and he was with a really caring family who love animals dearly. Hopefully Jo you’ll read this and will be able to have some peace from this. I feel awful leaving him with you but I didn’t know it would be such a difficult time for you. Thank you for the offer of help and giving him a fighting chance.

Losing Sootz has put a new fire in my spirit to ensure my time out hear bears fruit – for others and myself. I don’t want to waste a moment. I’m trying hard not to run ahead of God and to be lead by Him. I have a tendency to always be busy but I sense I’m being taught to rest in Him and be guided by Him more. It is a privilege to be able to spend time daily with Him.

The church here had a great few days with Grantley and Floss Watkins visiting and serving the church. My prayer is that the church continues with the amazing presence of the Holy Spirit and they don’t think it only happens when we have visitors. I pray that the growth and experiences will be sustained.

What has the next week in store? Team meeting followed by Serbian lesson followed by planning Children’s work tomorrow. Discipleship and study with two ladies followed by student evening on Wednesday. Coffee Break followed by Serbian lesson on Thursday. Church cleaning, bible study on Friday. I know it doesn’t look like much at the moment but I’ve worked out to only plan a day ahead as things change quickly here. I’m hoping to meet up with at least 2 people from the church and a student.

I had another bus experience yesterday on the way to church. A lady asked me something and I’m getting better at saying I’m English. I was expecting the usual response. This time she said in good English “I speak good English”. She wanted to know if I was waiting for her bus and how long I had been. She then gave me her life history. As we were getting on our bus she said she was going to a church but not the usual one in Pantalej (same part of the city as the Good News is in). I asked if it was a Protestant one. She said it was not quite. I was very curious. It sounds like she could have been going to the Baptist church. She took the address of the Good News. We exchange mobile numbers and as we parted she said that she needs to get credit on her mobile but would like to stay in touch. That was fine with me. I wasn’t expecting to hear from her for a few days but had a call today just to say Hi. She’ll contact me again as she’d like me go to go round for coffee and a chat. Watch this space. It sounds like Good News church has had some contact with her. I pray there will be fruit from the work they’ve already done with her.

Hot Water Spa Time



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 Friday 13th February 2009
Wow, I’ve just been swimming at the local spa. It was great. So cheap, so warm. I didn’t bring a swimming costume with me as the only swimming pool I had heard about is an outside one and thought that it may be cold for most of the time I’m out here. Don’t panic – I did have a swimming costume on. Katarina has given me one of her older ones to use. That was such a relief it fitted. It was a great time relaxing and getting to know Katarina and Natasha better. It was an international event. Katarina is German, Natasha is Serbian. So between us we were each speaking a different language to our native one. No, I haven’t grasped the language completely but I’m speaking a mixture of Serbian and English in the same sentence. It’s strange I don’t realize I’m doing it until someone mentions it. I don’t do that with everyone as I’m sure I’d get stranger looks!

Ucim Srpski

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Has it only been 3.5 weeks? It feels like much more – but in a positive way. It’s good to finally have a whole evening to myself. I think it’s only been a week but it’s good to be able to have some dinner, sit down and relax then get on with some work.

I’ve started my Serbian lessons. It’s good to make a start. 3 hours a week so not too much. I’m still not sure I’ve learnt the alphabet for tomorrow. I cannot get my tongue/mouth around two of the sounds. I know they are meant to sound different but I’m not having much success. It’s like going to speech therapy all over again. I’m trying not to watch too much English television to get used to hearing Serbian. I’m picking up some words – even if I do not know what they mean. Thankfully at the flat there is recnik (dictionary) so that I can look up some words.

I’m meeting more students which is great. In a couple of weeks the student work will start.

I’m trying to get used to Serbian hospitality. I’m beginning to learn not to eat any food before visiting. They remind me of Mrs Doyle from Father Ted – “Go on, go on, go on, go on”. They say things much better than that. “Are you hungry?” “No”.

They wait a short time. “Can I get you some cake?” “No, thank you”. Another short time – “Would you like ….” Even if you give in early more food appears. I try to let people know early on that I’m a vegetarian as a bit of a warning. I’m afraid I’d have to offend someone by not eating their meat.

I’m enjoying catching up on my films. Some I haven’t heard off but am loving flicking through peoples DVD collections to see what films they have. The Copyright laws are different here so can download films from the internet.

Talking of the internet – this time tomorrow I’ll hopefully be a step nearer to better internet connection. But I’ll still have to be patient and wait for the modem/router to arrive. I cannot wait to be able to chat to people again. I’m really missing speaking to people back home – especially brother as I still haven’t found out how their Christmas and New Year was in Oz. “It’s good to talk”. Will we be able to have an interactive small group meeting, I wonder?...

The first week

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I cannot believe it's only my first week. It feels as if I've been here a little longer. I'm feeling settled in my flat and am getting to know the different buses I can catch to get to different parts of town. My flat is superb. I'm getting used to hearing the other occupants of the building. Not that it's overly noisy but I'm used to living in a semi with no-one the other side. I've decided to sleep in the big bed, which means I have to make up the sofa bed each evening. I find I sleep better in a bigger bed. It's quite a novelty now and it makes sure I keep the living area tidy, so it's a good thing. Karolina worked hard in creating some cupboard/wardrobe space for me, thank you. My clothes fit great into one of the wardrobes. I really must fully unpack the case so I can see what I do have.
I had a good day Saturday looking after Milos and Iva. We played some games. I didn't realise how long a game could last. At first Milos and I started playing Ludo. I lost track after 2 hours how long it lasted. After that Iva and I played Snakes and Ladders. We gave up after an hour. Unbelievable.
After Vlada and Sonja came back Sonja kindly dropped me off at Martin and Peter's. It was good to spend some time with them. Boys and their toy's though – I can sort of understand and X-box but a large flat screen tv? I must admit, it does look good and is great for game playing.
Yesterday was the first church service. Services are now in the morning, starting at 11am. Martin and I had arranged to get there earlier as the rooms needed to be cleaned before the service. We had planned to start at 9am, which meant I'd have to leave around 8am as I wasn't sure on the buses on a Sunday. I missed my bus by a matter of seconds. If the road hadn't been slippery I may have managed to catch it, but I'm still a bit nervous of the snow and ice (I'm a lot better than I was). So I decided to walk to find out how long it takes. I had a feeling it could be about an hour and wasn't completely sure of the way but still tried. It did take an hour and I managed not to get lost. There wasn't too much cleaning to do, thankfully as I was nearly an hour later than planned – but I wasn't worried as Martin wasn't there either.
It was good to spend time at the church and with the members of the church. There were some familiar faces and some new ones. The service was good. It hit me that this is my church for the next few months. I think it has finally sunk in I'm here for a while – not too sure how that feels at the moment, one minute it feels ok the next not so good! I have a few phone numbers to arrange to meet with some ladies.
Last night I had my first migraine in months. I thought it was my usual sinus pain but I was wrong. It is difficult to distinguish at times if it is sinus pain or migraine pain. I took some pain killers but it didn't touch the pain. That's when I realised I was in for a bad time. I made up my bed which made my pain worse but I had to try to get to sleep as soon as possible. It was too late. I spent the few hours either with head down the toilet or trying to get some rest.
I'm now sitting by the light of the laptop as my part of town has a power cut. It's been over an hour and it seems to be spreading. The block of flats opposite here (a bit of distance away) had electricity which gave some sort of light but they've gone out now. I thought I'd use the time wisely and catch up on the blog (will try to upload as soon as electricity is back). It's amazing how much we use electricity for, the things we cannot do when we haven't any. I'd love to sit and read but cannot see the page without being blinded by the flame. Never mind, surely it cannot last forever?!
I'm feeling a little lost – most of it's due to being impatient. I want to do so much here but things are very slow at the moment. The students aren't back to university yet so some are still in their home town. I'm unsure what I need to do here and what activities I need to sort out or help with or just attend. I know all this will become clearer in time and some of it is to do with the culture. It's a shame, I wanted to ring one of the ladies from church tonight to see if she's free tomorrow but as the phone's a walkabout one I cannot even do that. I have to remember it's only my first week of many. I must enjoy this spare time because once I start Serbian lesson's I can see my spare time being used up by learning.

Cathy's in Nis

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I arrived Monday evening. I'm trying not to use the internet connection at the flat too much because it's pay per minute and I've already spent too long on so far! I'm in the process of having it changed which will be great.
I'm surprised how settled I'm feeling. It was a great way of easing into life here having some company at the flat for the first few nights, thanks Naomi.
I had a chilled out day yesterday. Thought I'd try to start how I mean to go on by cleaning the flat - not that it needs it. I ended up blowing a fuse. I tried to sort it myself but it didn't work. I hadn't got any lights. Luckily some sockets still worked so I had one light on but had to feel my way in the bathroom. Sretan came round to sort things out, did the same thing as I did and the lights came on. Work that one out.... I felt terrible - I hadn't been in the flat a week before things start going wrong.
I think next week may still be a little slow as things start picking up mid-January but am hoping to meet a few people next week, even if it's only one a day. I'll know more after church tomorrow.

One Sleep To Go



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 I use that term lightly - not sure if I'm going to get much sleep tonight as I still need to finish off some things at home and to finish packing. 20kg sounds quite a lot until you try to put clothes and craft material together. It's surprising how little there is. I haven't packed my toiletries yet and I'm fast approaching the limit. For a girl who loves shoes I'm only taking one pair of ballerina pumps. It's really hard trying to work out the best things to take for 5 months when it's snowing at the moment but it's difficult to know when the weathers going to warm up. And we (Naomi and I) are leaving early hours on Monday for the first flight out of Gatwick. I cannot see us getting much sleep then.
The exchange rate is causing some concern. I changed up some cash yesterday to make sure we could get from the airport to the bus, the bus to Niš -->. Wow, under 1 Euro to 1 Pound. Ouch, that's really tightening an already tight belt. This is the first time I'm taking notice of what is happening to the economy. I can only pray things improve slightly and my budgeting skills are spot on. I'm trying to work out how I can afford to have Serbian lessons. I'll see what the language school has to offer and take it from there.
The animals are off on holiday. I have had to give up my rabbit which is a shame. But I left her at Melsop Farm Park making friends with guinea pigs. I felt a bit better after seeing her settled in a bit. I pray she will be bought by a loving family. Sooty, my cat, was picked up earlier this evening. It's strange being at home and not having him here. Just shows how much company he was (still is!). There are some very strange noises that I used to put down to the animals but it's not them! Just as well I'm busy tonight - the noises won't bother me too much!
I've been trying to focus on what my time in Serbia is going to be like but I don't like trying to box it into categories. I feel really open to what God wants me to do and where and how. I'm so excited about new experiences and to see how much I will grow. I know there are going to be some challenges and I sure the challenges are going to be bigger than I think they could be but isn't that part of stepping out? I'm really excited about hearing about the changes back home as well, as individuals and as churches regionally and nationally. So go on, make time and let me know how you're getting on.