Malta and Ilidza churches

Zdravo!

Things have still been pretty mellow here, which hasn't been such a bad thing. But they are starting to pick up..and fast!

So in the past few days a few exciting things have happened. Yesterday, Petula and I went to help at the secondhand store that both the church in Malta and Ilidza own. (They're like an Eagle and Eagle at Avon kind of church, same church different locations) We separated and tried to match up tons of shoes for a couple hours. The store gets shipments of clothing and shoes from a place in Sweden. The cool thing, and the factor that drew everyone to the store, was the fact that they get shipments of tons of clothing from H&M (one of my favorite stores!)

<-- This is Ilidza church..and Mark Eikost being a goof.

On Friday the church at Malta (Petula's church) had a prayer meeting over the camps that are going to be taking place over the next couple of weeks. Camps for kids, teenagers, and adults. Also, prayer for the Ilidza church site.

Saturday night Petula has a small women's group that comes to her house. Its a time where they can just come and hang out and eat food, talk about important things going on in their lives, and most importantly, pray for each other. It was a really fun, relaxing time. All of the women that came were really sweet, funny and welcoming. The age range was between 19 to late 30's.

Today (Sunday) I went to church services at both the Malta and Ilidza churches. The Ilidza church, where the Eikost's attend, has about 20 people that attend, give or take a few. Mark Eikost gave the sermon. Since today was the first Sunday of the month, communion was served. And here they do it with legit wine. So, for any of you that know me you can imagine how I tried to hide the look of disgust as I gulped it down. And fortunate for me both services had communion today!

After the service at the Ilidza church, Petula showed me around that part of Sarajevo. It was kind of on the outskirts where a lot of Sarajevans go to get out of the city. To put it simply, it was absolutely beautiful. Its really not too far away from the church. It was just a huge open park area with trees and cafes and beautifully restored hotels. These were like major 4 star hotels. So after we walked around for awhile we got to go on a carriage ride! Down this beautiful tree lined lane, which they call the Boulevard. Down this path is where all the people who benefitted from the war; warlords, druglords, diplomats..live in these huge houses. All of the trees that line the road were planted when the Austro-Hungarians were in control of Bosnia and all of the really wealthy families would take carriage rides on nice days. But actually, one of the houses is used as a nursing home, and Petula knows one of the guys that works there. It was so breathtaking and of course the backdrop is the beautiful mountains. So at the end of the lane is another park area where the Bosnia River runs throughout. Its really famous because this is where the source of the Bosnia River is. So you see everyone filling up their water bottles since the water is completely pure.

<-- The Boulevard


<-- One of the houses (which most people use as "weekend" or "summer" houses)


<-- Source of the Bosnia River. Woman filling up her water bottle.

Lastly, we went to the service in Malta. The service is at 6 because many of the people in the church work with Campus Crusades and Inner Varsity. So they work a lot on Saturdays and they kind of refuse to get up early on Sundays. Neno, an elder in the church who is filling in as pastor since the actual pastor, Sasa (which is pronounced Sasha) is on sabbatical, delivered a really great sermon on the importance of giving and tithing and how we reap what we sow.

This has been a really long post..I hope I haven't bored you to death, haha. But before I end I would just like to ask you to keep a few things in your prayers:
-- Both the Malta and Ilidza churches that they may continue to reach out to their communities. And for those that are in the church to continue to stay strong and grow in their faith despite all the opposition that they receive.
-- For the camps that will be happening in the next few weeks. That God would work in ways that they couldn't imagine. For the full time teams that will be working in the camps (there will be a team from South Africa and a team from Fredricksburg, VA) that they would be Christ-like examples and that they too, would receive blessings from their work.
-- That God would use the secondhand store as a source of ministry to the people of Sarajevo.
-- One last thing, I'll be traveling around sometimes by myself in Sarajevo. So if you could be praying for my safety, and maybe a good sense of direction because the trams are kind of interesting to navigate :)

If you read this far, bless you :)