This past week they guys on our team have been helping out with an American football camp as “coaches.” Glad that month of football practice my Freshman year of high school 11 years ago could help. I was the defensive and offensive line coach for the week, and I ran them through some of the drills they have and some drills I remembered. Here in Serbia, we are looked at like we were almost professional players back in the States. The football club “Royal Crowns” are from Kraljevo, Serbia, a town about 20 minutes away from our camp. Their President Srdan (Sir John) started the football club over 10 years ago. When football started in Serbia 16 years ago they started out with a 2 liter coke bottle filled with rocks and wrapped in duct tape and no pads. After 5-6 years they got a proper pigskin and pads. This week has been full of football training, helping out in the kitchen cooking, cleaning dishes, and pouring into these 30 kids aging from 10-18. A couple of the kids asked the question “Why on Earth would we leave the American Dream? Most of all the kids here dream of making it to America one day and making something for their families.” Which was a great opening to share why we gave up our jobs, comforts of home, and the millions of dollars they think we make. All in all it’s been a pretty great week to share the gospel.
As I’m writing this, we’re on our rest day at Karl and Julie’s (Jarl’s) apartment resting up for CEF’s (Child Evangelism Fellowship) 80th anniversary celebration on Sunday. They are expecting 150-170 people, and we’ll be serving food and cleaning dishes and the bathrooms. Most will be leaving after the celebration, but about 40-50 will remain at camp until Wednesday afternoon for CEF Serbia’s annual meetings.
We’ll be heading to Beograd (Belgrade) on Thursday morning for our debrief with our entire squad. Then we’ll be on for Romania the following week! Talk to y’all then!
