For those of you who are extremely visual people, this blog entry is just for you! We found a way to get wireless in Leskovac. It was a treat to make a couple of phone calls on Skype while I prepared to watch the Super Bowl. Way to go Colts! I was only able to watch the first quarter. Irene, who works at the Internet cafe I’m at right now, let us stay after hours to watch a bit of the game. She’s been such a blessing to me!
OK, enough talk. I’ll simply write some captions for the pictures below. Enjoy!
Here are Courtney, Mallory and I in Nis (pronounced Neesh). We went there two weeks ago to visit another YWAM team and to be a tourist. We will be meeting up with this team on Monday in another Seriban town.
Here is the local Orthodox church in Leskovac (pronounced Leskovats). If you go to church in Leskovac, this is where you go. This is part of the Serbian identity. Protestant churches are seen as a sect or cult.I want to introduce you to some of the students from the evangelical church we’re working with I may have talked about in previous entries:
Marija (pronounced Maria) and Katia. Marija is Suza’s younger sister. She’s 13 and has lots of energy. She would come to the church and play ping-pong every day if she didn’t have to go to school. Katia is Craig’s youngest child, 6 years old. She has even more energy than Marija and the two of them have fun together.
Dusan (Dooshun) is 14. He’s the younger brother of Tamara and Tanja (twin sisters who don’t look anything alike.
Here’s Sara and Tanja (pronounced Tonya). Sara will be 16 on February 16. And Tanja who I mentioned before, is 20 and a second-year university student in Nis. She’s from Leskovac and travels back and forth for school. Right now she’s on winter break, but goes into Nis on occasion for an exam. 
Here’s the complicated ping-pong brackets for our tournament during the lock-in! We’ve continued the tournaments on our game nights which are Saturday nights and Monday nights.
Here’s Mallory with her amazing ping-pong skills. Her back-hand is deadly! *smile*
Tamara (pronounced Tam-ara) (Tanja’s twin sister) playing ping-pong. She’s also a university student in Nis. She’s studying English, and does an excellent job speaking English with our team.
I bought a shirt and boots for the disco. It feels funny to tuck my jeans into my boots, but that’s how everyone here wears them. This wasn’t the best background to take a picture. This is our room at the church. Yes, we live in the basement, but the whole room really doesn’t look as bad as it does in this picture. Looks sorta like a dungeon. *smile*
I mentioned that we went to Suza’s house for her birthday. And I think before I spelled her name Susa, but it’s really Suza. She recently turned 17 and we were invited to her house to celebrate. Her mom made the cake in front of her! It was delicious!
From left to right (front row first): Courtney, Renate (one of our YWAM staffers) and Suza’s grandma, Suza’s dad and Suza’s mom.
Suza and I pose for a picture! This week we’re getting together to take pictures around Leskovac. The communication barrier is still hard, but I’m trying to learn more Serbian in order to talk on a deeper level.
