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New Season
This week 8 of us are heading out for a week to Belgrade to take the next step towards the aim of planting a Boiler Room in the city in 2009. Watch this space for more info.....! |
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Home time
so after seriously tiring oursevles out with the effort of social action of saturday, we thought it best not to overdo things on sunday, using it as a day to de-brief with the various aspects of the mission. after realizing that we had actually got on really well as a team (those of you who know each of us will understand that this was indeed a miracle!) we also had a time of encouraging one another. we then wandered on up to church for the evening. when i say wandered, i mean that we got off the bus two stops early, proceeded to think we were looking for the church in the right area, got confused and slightly annoyed as to the disappearance of the building until our friend nino managed to rescue us and take us to the meeting on time. after church, we were meant to be meeting our friend alex...but his mum called to say he was too tired (!) so we headed up to the kalemegdan (again) to pray and to enjoy seeing the city by night.
during the day on monday we spent time preparing for the bbq in the evening, with the help of our friend nino (we taught him how to say diamond geezer by the time we left as he truly is one!). the bbq itself was really good, maintaining a very chilled out atmosphere. aside from one table, at which our friend ivana (who we met whilst handing out flowers) and her physicist friend were having a heavy conversation with the guys from church and grant about sociology and the gospels. (grant still hasn't recovered!). and just for the record, david's basketball performance was impared by his lack of sneakers (not knickers, as we all thought phoenix said!) each of us had some good conversations with our friends, who seemed geniuinely disappointed that we were leaving, and many promises to keep in touch and/or return to belgrade were made by the end of the night. our friend nemanje kindly gave us a lift home - another aspect of the trip that we were lucky to survive from!
we are now back safely in the uk after landing a couple of hours ago. thanks to everyone who has been supporting us in prayer, these two weeks have been intense and amazing and hopefully we have impacted the city and the people we met as much as we have been impacted ourselves. do keep coming back to the blog in the next couple of weeks, there may been some post-mission, reverse-culture-shock style reflections for your amusement. videmo se, david, grant, ruth and clare. |
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For God so loved Belgrade....
So, Friday was a good day preparing to hand out flowers to people with cards tied to them declaring, "For God so loved Belgrade that he gave his only son." Challenges presented themselves at several oppertunities, the first being when Dave, Clare and I went to the flower shop and attempted to buy 100 single flowers. You wouldn't think it was that difficult but after many attempts to make our request clear ("No, we don't want a bouquet of your most expensive flowers costing over a hundred punds, we'd like 100 single flowers and they don't have to be roses and even help from Anjelika via phone, we asked a Serbian woman to help us. Cue more evidence of God in Belgrade!!
Having just arrived back from a weeks holiday in London, this young lady was more than happy to help us out, speaking in Serbian to the flower shop lady who after more chatting away and persuasion to buy some rather scary looking orchids (Not so good for showing God's love to people) we finally found ourselves in possesion of just what we needed and at a much more agreeable price!! That afternoon Grant, Dave and I tried out the questionnaire on a few more people sitting in republic square but although we had some good responses, we decided it wasn't such a great way of really engaging with people. The flowers however, were a great way to demonstrate God's love for Belgrade and as Clare, Dave, Grant, Anjelika and I walked around Kalemegdan with little bunches of flowers, we had some really positive meetings with people! Grant met Ivana, a lady who has recently found God and felt the flower and message attached was a real sign of confirmation from God! Prayer for this lady and her family would be great, especially as they are comming to the bbq tomorrow and we will have a good oppertunity there to speak to her some more and perhaps get her involved with church! Yesterday was interesting as we all got fired up to get stuck into some serious Social action. Unfortunatly this actually meant sitting around for vast amounts of time, painting a children's rocket for all of 10 minutes (max) and using the water we had brought (thinking we would be engaged in thirsty work) to wash white spirit of our paint covered arms and hands (and hair!) Although the lack of involvement in actual work was disappointing we had a great oppertunity to spend time with the kids from the community- Dave and Grant played some serious football (Dave showing off his silky skills to adoring fans- Clare and I with crowd of kids!) Grant also spoke to the tv crew about why we were actually in Belgrade which was good and it'd be great if people could pray for any small seeds sown there to flourish!! Now we are looking forward to the bq tomorrow and would appreciate prayer for the party and oppertunities to be more of a witness of God's love for this wonderful place in as many ways as possible in the last few days!!
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Dusk til dawn
Hello there, it's now my turn to give an update to the world of Team Belgrade. Day 9: We started off the day with a few shifts in the prayer room, praying into a few various things that we've sensed God speaking about. One of them was the negativity that seems to be everywhere in Belgrade. in the evening we decided to do a little it of prayer walking in the city, ended up with a view of th western part of the city during the sunset at the Kalemagden, what was quite funny was as we prayed abotu 10 bi planes decided to fly round the KaleMagden for about 20-30 minutes, a quite spectacular and random finale to that day. Later in the evening Myself, Ruth and Dave went out with Igor (Clare stayed home as she was unfortunately feeling a bit under the weather) to a cafe/bar on the river where a very cool jazzfunk covers band was playing, and started meetnig people and having conversations. We also managed to get communion in that evening as well.
Day 10: Ruth, Clare and Dave prayed through the sunrise and took communion, and then when we gathered together later in the morning we started writing some tracts, myself and Ruth when into the city and tried out a questionaire that we wrote earler that day, we ended up praying on the street for a young guy called Dimitri. Although we might never meet him again, we sensed that god planted something in him that afternoon.
Plans for the last few days in Belgrade: Tonight we will have a bit of an outreach into Belgrade with some people from the church preceded by a prayer meeting with them. We will also be doing some more questionaires and meeting people on the streets. Tomorrow we will be going to do some social action in Novi Beograd with a friend of 24-7 called Peter. Last years social action drew quite a lot of attention including some television coverage. Sunday: Spend time with the church, and also have the debrief session. Monday: BBQ and farewell party on lake Ada Tuesday: Fly home
Please pray for: 1 Energy for all of us, we are getting a little bit tired of late. Pray for our health as well. 2 That we will have further opportunities at the party to speak more into the lives of the people that have got to know in the past few weeks. 3 That Tonights outreach will be successful, we want to get the word out that God loves Belgrade. 4 Tomorrows Social action Ok I think that's everything, thanks for reading, thanks for your prayers. Grant.
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How could we doubt?!?
Hmm...well what have we been up to? It's now day 8 so been here a full week but have learnt soooo much and met with so many amazing people. So picking up from where we left off - On Saturday night we went to Lake Ada with our friend Ratko. Grant had a really good chat with him and was able to share his testimony with him whilst the rest of us chatted to more people outside the club. A large policeman with an automatic rifle was also not so kean on David using the toilet in the club...David didn't argue with him!! British police suddenly seem a whole lot friendlier! On Sunday Grant & David went round to Ratko's apartment where we sampled the 'highlights' of his acting career on DVD and spent some more time getting to know him. Clare and Ruth prayer walked around some of Belgrade's government buildings before we all headed to church. Was so encouraging being a part of the church that we had heard so much about and Pedja preached on 'Exposing ourselves to God' which brought up so many points that God had been speaking to us about already...God is at work here and seems to be speaking to many people about the same things. After church we met up with 'Buda' (from one of the blocks in New Belgrade) in the main square. He was already pretty drunk when he met us but insisted on drinking more! Was a very frustrating evening as Buda was not really in a state to take in what we were saying. Ruth & Clare had also had a difficult night with approaches to people being met only with apathy. It seemed that we had lost God again! Day 7: Monday. What a difference a day makes as God seemed to explode on to the scene as if to expose our doubt and frustration. We were joined for the day by 'Nino' a reformed drug addict who is now attending church - passionate for Jesus and so encouraging. He took us back to Lake Ada for the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine and to see if we could find God in some of the thousands of young people gathered there. After a frustratingly unfruitful first couple of hours we were ready to give in and sat down to decide what to do in a cafe. We looked round the cafe in desperation, hoping that there might be someone who we could at least speak to. Clare and David nervously approached a guy who seemed to be heavily engrossed in a book...would he even want to say hello? Well he did. Marko has studied for a year in the US and has a real heart for the nations and to see Serbia embrace what the world has to offer, rather than trying to escape to where the grass is greener! We found ourselves sharng so many dreams and desires, if from a different perspective. But after an hour of discussion it seemed more of a 'refreshing debate' - but again we were in danger of missing why God had given us a nudge to speak to him. We asked him about how he related to God and if he prayed. Although God is a distant concept to him he admitted he did pray and believed it made a difference. "I'm here" God shouted. The conversation continued with a new intensity and we were able to share why we believe that we are able to have a 'personal' relationship with God ourselves because of what Jesus did on the cross. It culminated with us praying for him and exchanging details - being delighted to hear that our conversation had 'made his day'! We pray that God continues to work in him and that we may have a further part to play in that!
How could we doubt that God was at work? He was just looking for us to take a small step forward and we would find him waiting there. Was so encouraging after such a hard pevious day, Nino came home and ate with us and shared how encouraged he had been and now had a new desire to look for God in the people around him. Ordinary people, but an amazing God!! Today we have hade a 'day off' so have been 'chillin with our homies' (i'm sooo street). We can't wait to see what God has planned for tomorrow - we are fully refreshed and ready for the next round!! |
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WANTED: GOD
LAST SEEN......... in the generosity of the people in Belgrade!!!! Following the theme of looking for God in Belgrade from a hide and seek approach, we have been praying and thinking on where God might be hiding and how he might be calling us to find him. Through meeting up with contacts over the past few days and starting converstions with various strangers in public (stepping well out of the comfort zone), we have discovered God in a place we hadn't realy expected- in the giving nature of the people here. Thursday saw us take it in turns to spend an hour each in the prayer room during which a thunderstorm occured. Need I say more?! God is in this place!! The evening brought a meeting with Igor, Alex and Ivana, and a couple of long conversations, a late-night stroll and a 'free' bus ride later, we found ourselves not walking on water but dancing on water as Clare and I boogied away at Exil, a (literally) thumping club on the river. Before long we all found ourselves shouting our way through conversations with various people (shouting over the music, not to threaten people into acknowledging Christ), including Tanja and Jasmina, Ratko and a friend of Alex whom we met that night. Yesterday was also fruitful with Grant and Clare meeting Leo in the afternoon, Dave and I taking a walk aroud the lower part of the city and then meeting with Nemanja and his friend Paula in the evening. Through talking to people about their lives and their opinions of Belgrade and the country as a whole we have been learning lots about them and have been given a great oppertunity to show God's love for them. In doing this, we have also seen His love for us in Nemanja's willingness to pay for drinks, the welcoming attitude of complete strangers such as Tanja and Jasmina, the hospitality in being shown around and their open attitude in sharing their lives, stories and feelings with us. What an encouragement this is to keep reaching out for God and continue searching for him in Belgrade, more open to the different ways he might reveal himself to us! Waking up early this morning and beginning the day with a prayer walk around the Kalemegdan gave us a fresh sense of God being new to us each day and with that the urge to 'hide' in the places of Belgrade where God needs to work.......
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Getting started!
ok, so we have been here 2 days now. after settling in on tuesday, we set up the prayer room yesterday (apparently its a lot better than david expected!), prayer walked a little around the centre of the city and st sava's temple, before going out in the evening. when i say going out, i mean that we tried to go to about 3 different places, finding them all shut before hanging out in republic square trying to find some people 'to be friends with' (thats how our serbian friend anjeklia introduced us to people!) grant chatted with some skateboarders called pedja and nikola, ruth with vanja and daria, and david and i met vlada and a couple of his mates. although these were good conversations - particularly the listening aspect of conversation - we are trying to come to terms with the though that we might not get to see these people again, but have to trust in god using the small stuff that we do.
some thoughts on creativity.... exploring the value of creativity, we have been thinking about it less as having to come up with really good, original ideas, and more letting god explode and expand our horizons and limits; being open to new and fresh thoughts of god; and not letting ourselves get in the way of what god wants to do, but totally giving ourselves over to him. also, we have been trying to find out what god is up to in belgrade, but at the moment it feels a lot like hide and seek with god.....and he seems to have found a really good place to hide!! however, we really want to let this help us really seek after god, for it to keep us on our toes and to be really desperate to find him. it also sounds like a lot of fun, just playing a game with our father and finding a sense of joy and laughter while we are hunting for him. so we have finished counting to one hundred, and taking today to actively listen to and find god, both in the prayer room and in the city. ready or not, here we come.... clare |
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