Seder in Podgorica

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Last night we celebrated a Seder meal with friends from church. It started out as our language teacher wanting us to teach about Passover and a Seder meal. In our broken Serbian, we explained that you can't teach it, you must experience it as a meal. She was heart broken that she would have to wait an entire year to do it. She talked to the pastor and explained that it would be a lot of fun and we could do it at the church. A lot of things had to come into place for it to happen, most importantly we needed a Haggadah translated into Serbian so that people could understand it. Marianna, the pastor's wife, translated the text -- difficult and time consuming. We agreed to do this meal 6 days before it would happen!!! Praise the Lord, it all came together -- despite difficulty with printers and copiers.

There were originally 35 people signed up, but the closer we got to the day, the number grew to over 50. It was a wonderful explanation of the picture Christ in the Passover. There were at least 15 unbelievers there! How exciting that they were presented a clear presentation of the gospel.

Quick story: Our language teacher's (Vera) brother and his family came. He was not going to stay, but drop off the family and come back at a later time to pick them up. Then he decided to stay for dinner -- probably not understanding that dinner was 1 hour into the evening. He stayed not only for dinner, but participated in all of the responsive readings! Afterwards, he stayed until 11:00 pm and helped clean up! This was the first event that he ever came to, even though he had been invited to many.

Cultural point: Montenegrins love tables with table cloths as well as using real plates! Lots of dishes to wash, but no one complained. It actually seemed that they enjoyed the fellowship as they cleaned and washed dishes. Actually, two men washed the dishes!! You don't see that in Russia :).

OK another quick story: Vera also invited a family that she is a nanny for to come. The mother is from Cameroon and the father from England, and they have 3 children. They called at the last minute and asked if they could bring a friend from Norway. So it was an international night! Chris was able to spend an hour or so talking to the gentleman from Norway explaining more in depth about a relationship with Christ. They did not leave until after 11:00!!

Next Year in Jerusalem!