Serbia 2013

On April 11^th, Downline led a team of 9 people to teach at an evangelical Bible school outside of Belgrade, Serbia.  The school – the only Evangelical training center of its kind in the Balkan region - consists of students who represent most of the Balkan nations.  During our week, we taught over 30 hours of discipleship training and walked through the Biblical books of Esther, Zechariah and Titus.  While the formal times of training were impactful, it is always the intentional conversations that happen outside of the classroom that seem to be the most meaningful.  This is one of the few trips where we actually stay with the people we are ministering to.  We saw our students all day, every-day, and the relationships we formed are deep and lasting.  We knew the whole trip was worth it when we heard Ivan, a Serbian student, say “I now know that God accepts me solely because of the work of Jesus.” 

 

The team with the students at the HUB school in Serbia

Many do not know that the leader of this Serbian school, Sladjan Milenkovic, is currently in Memphis as his 9-year-old daughter is battling brain cancer.  This was the first time in 4 years that Downline has been to Serbia without Sladjan being there.  I was curious to see how things were running in his absence, but I was encouraged by the faithfulness of God to remind me that His work is not dependent upon one man.  The school is still doing great, and the students’ spiritual lives seem as vibrant as ever.  In fact, the current interim director, Riste, said this past week was the greatest week he has experienced at the school thus far. 

 

Morning devotions

Every year we go to Serbia, I cannot help but anticipate a refreshing time with the Lord.  The students’ commitment to Christ is a great encouragement, and their heart for the nation of Serbia and the world is contagious.  This is one of the most strategic training trips Downline embarks upon, but at the same time I believe it is a trip where the Downline team is impacted more by the lives of the students than the students are by our teaching.  We are certainly glad to be home with our families and friends, but there is some sadness that comes with leaving new family and friends thousands of miles away.  

Ecuador

Pictures could not be uploaded and will be added later.

Day 1: Guayaquil, Ecuador

A group of us decided to go see the famous Iguana Park Sunday morning before church.   It was a beautiful little park a couple blocks from our Hotel and literally had 50 or more iguanas in every tree, just hanging out!

Sunday morning we went to Verbos Church, meaning “The Word” and Pepper and Ron had an opportunity to share a little bit of their stories and help cast a vision for discipleship in this church!  After church we spent the day with a Korean family living in Ecuador and then traveled to Pasaje and taught that night!

Day 2: Pasaje, Ecuador

Monday morning a couple of the pastors from the churches we are partnering with took us see some of the city and surrounding area!  Ecuador is the largest exporter of bananas (or Bananos) in the world, so we got to stop and watch a couple of the workers get the bananos ready… from cutting them off the bunch to putting the stickers on them and boxing them up! 

After seeing the Banana plantations we hiked up to a couple of waterfalls!  They were beautiful and we had a lot of fun swimming and playing around!  We all really enjoyed spending the day with these pastors, getting to goof off with them, hear about their churches and families, and then watch them lead and serve not only us but their churches!

Last night, We went back to the church in Pasaje to teach some more!  We started off split up, Craig and Kelly both taught “The way Jesus made disciples” and then Pepper taught about multiplication! 

Day 3: Cuenca, Ecuador

Today we traveled to Cuenca, a beautiful town located in the Andes Mountains!  We will spend the next couple days here teaching and learning more about Cuenca and Ecuador!