Through living in Uzice, Serbia for 1 month now and having visited Bucharest, Romania for 1 week, I've developed a greater depth of understanding of what we, as Americans ("the blessed ones"), don’t realize we have.
1. The Protestant Exposure
As I walk around our village, Bela Zemlja, I came across many new faces. I wanted so badly to speak with them, yet knew there was a good chance they didn’t know any English. I wanted to see if I could serve them in anyway, I wanted to learn about them, tell them about me, to build a relationship. I wanted to break the barrier between Orthodox and Protestant. The Serbian people are proud of being Orthodox. It’s more than a religion, it’s part of their identity. In Orthodoxy though, people are taught that the priest is the main authority in understanding the Bible and relaying God’s word to people. Most come to the church, kiss pictures of saints and icons, light candles for prayer and never experience a personal relationship with God. They even pay priests to bless them and their home.
Our mindset causes Serbs to view us as a cult or sect. This is something we have to be very careful of in speaking to people. Words that are openly accepted here are that we are Christian volunteers working with an American Christian organization.
2. Peaceful land
My previous blog describes the history of war in Serbia. The Serbs have brick houses so that if a rocket blows a hole in it, they can just rebuild it without much trouble…so I've been told. Our houses are made a wood…pretty sure a rocket would destroy that home.
4. Fast washing machines
Can you imagine waiting 2 hours for your clothes to wash? Crazy spin cycles that sound like a race car and soap suds left on your clothes because the washer decides it’s tired.
5. Driers
Hello drying racks!
6. A Dish washer
Their overrated anyway.
7. Thrones to sit on
So it is nice to go to the bathroom and actually sit down and rest. However, is it really necessary? And public toilets…do we really even sit on the seat or do we hover? Or possibly put half the toilet paper roll on the seat before sitting down. Well, forget the leg work-out and forget the resting…just get business done and move on with life with a squatty potty. I'm actually loving these things. However, if you have problems controlling yourself you might end up peeing on your foot every time, like one of my teammates.
8. Safe roads
Um, let’s just say it’s the Indy 500 everywhere for everyone in Serbia. Walking on the side of the road and having a car zoom past you, an arms length away, bouncing in and out of the potholes and rough terrain, honking as they blow a stop sign or pass someone on a ramp or even pass someone on the road creating 3 lanes out of 2, will cause you to love the way American’s drive.
9. The English language
Can you imagine going to another country and not finding one person who can communicate with you in English? This is highly unlikely. All we have to do is say “Hi” in whatever language needed (“Zdravo” for Serbian), followed by the questions, “English?” because we are bound to come across someone who can communicate with us without us having to try too much. (Although I have gotten pretty good at sherades and pictionary).
10. Church Service
Being in a city with very few born again Christians, leaves Orthodox churches versus home churches as options for worship. The people I am doing ministry with this month conduct the only home church in Uzice. Having translations between Serbian and English is new for us and is the way services are conducted. Sunday mornings we conduct a church service in our home with our teammates, our contacts, and a few local believers. Ben has been teaching, Michael has been leading worship through singing and guitar playing. One person has been giving their testimony. This transitions into the things we as American don't realize we don't have. Many times we don't realize the power of another person's testimony, but here they do.
As we Americans don't realize what we have, we also don't what we don't have. Confusing I know. We are missing out on so many great things. We may have some of these things in America and I may have been blind to them, but here goes (okay so the first few things are food).
1. Komplet Lepinja
So this is a bread bowl filled with the juice of cooked beef, cream, and eggs and then put into an oven…so good, so fattening and definitely hard on the stomach. Liquid yogurt accompanies this meal to balance out the greasiness.
2. Liquid yogurt
Why eat yogurt with a spoon when you can just drink it out of a cup like milk.
3. Natural Fruits and Vegetables
So full of flavor and so abundant. Not one bad watermelon (until we decided to eat Ben’s weight in watermelon as a team) or tomato (called ‘paradise’ in Serbian). I’m definitely getting my fill of these two fruits.
4. Pizza Toppings
How about sour cream and ketchup on your pizza with a cracked egg in the center? Take away the ketchup and it’s amazing!
5. Hospitality
These people have blown me away. I’ve never met a people group that desires to take in strangers and feed them all their best food. They love to serve you and watch you enjoy the food, and they eat later.
6. Kindness
They come up to you and ask you in English if you need help and they want to learn about you. If it were us we’d scold them for not knowing our language.
7. Give you Favor
Serbs always round their dinar in your favor. Your receipt is rarely what you actually pay for the item because they round 9.67 dinar to 9.60 dinar if you don’t have exact change…which is always.
