Last night we held our concert in the rented hall. We spent about an hour in the afternoon specifically praying for the meeting. As we were ending our prayer meeting about 5 in the afternoon, it started to thunderstorm and rain heavily. That was refreshing as it cooled the temperature about 20 degrees F, but we also were concerned it may prevent people from coming that night, so we prayed that the rain would stop within an hour, as we have also prayed on many past tours for the rain to stop. Our God is a prayer answering God, it stopped before 6 PM, just in time for us to walk to the concert venue without getting wet and it did not rain anymore the whole evening but it was comfortably cool for the first time since we arrived in Serbia. We also prayed for several of the Vision members who are sick. We had been healthy all trip until yesterday (except for something that happened Monday night – Melissa had another attack of IBS and was bent over with pain, but after several in the group prayed for her and Pastor Darwin anointed her with oil, the pain went away within 10 minutes and she was able to sing that night. By yesterday, Victoria was quite ill, Esther, Echo, Glenna all had various sinus and stomach problems while Jamie had lost her voice. Because of these illnesses, we prayed for them, and all were able to sing last night.
The concert last night went well, although we did not give a calling so we have to leave the results to God. The hall was almost full by the time we started at 7:30 and people were still coming in. Two groups of youth from our host church's Gypsy service performed two choreography routines which depicted Jesus dying for us on the cross for us to very loud music. We sang and Melissa shared how God miraculously healed her two nights ago and Esther shared about how she had a troubled childhood trying to gain God's favor until she found that God's love for her was unconditional. After the concert, a man came up to her and thanked her for sharing, telling her in his broken English how he also had similar struggles and how she encouraged him. Some of our group also had a chance to talk to several Serbian youths who had never been to this church. One of them had received a flyer we passed out Monday night, and two of his cousins had come down from Belgrade the night before. Having nothing to do, they came to our concert, enjoyed it. We had a chance to share the good news beads with them, and they said they were coming to the Serbian service tonight. Indeed, God works in ways we do not expect.
After devotion and breakfast, we went to Vranje, another city about 80 km from Leskovic. There is also another small Chinese community in this city and has a three story Chinese business store owned by the Chinese businessman, Mr. Lan, who became a believer (whose wife bought us pizzas on Monday). He welcomed us to his building (which he subleases to the various store owners) and we broke into 8 teams to just chat with the Chinese business owners. Since this Chinese community is smaller than Leskovic's, we were warmly greeted by the merchants and many of us had a chance to engage in long conversations with these folks. We stood on the stairs inside the store and sang all three Chinese songs we learned, March on Forward, In His Time, and Majesty and Glory. We gave them Chinese tracts provided by the Cerritos team as well as bilingual 4-laws booklet which we had brought with us. Mr. Lan served us drinks and snacks and then bought lunch, delicious hamburgers, about 1/3 to ½ pound burgers, actually better than In-and-Out's. While Pastor Darwin and Meiring stayed to talk and encourage Mr. Lam on his new found life, the rest of us walked to visit a Turkish museum located in the city. We then returned to Leskovic, where Marshall has a short interview with the Gypsy pastor. Later tonight, we will sing for the Thursday night service, and Slim will be directing Vision for the whole service.
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