My first journey into Serbia - Vrsac

Yesterday I got to venture out of my little Slovak village and go into "Serbia." There was a meeting for all of the Methodist pastors in Serbia in a city called Vrsac, which is located a few miles from the Romanian border. Even though I have officially been in Serbia for three weeks, it feels more like I am living in Slovakia. The people in Padina and Kovacica speak Slovak and the street signs are in Slovak (Latin alphabet). .I was really looking forward to the drive so that I could see more of the country, but it was unfortunately a rainy and dreary day.

I met about 15 other pastors from Serbia. There were about five women pastors in the group. Their superintendent here is a women which I think is great. It is nice to be in a culture and in a church where women seem to have equal standing with the men and are allowed to have leadership positions. I stayed for the first half of the meeting where they discussed Church issues such as declining membership which many churches are facing today. It's interesting to be sitting in a meeting not having much of an idea of what is going on and here your name mentioned a few times. I think they were talking about how offering English classes could be a good thing for the church because people who are not Methodist come to the classes. People from other churches are also coming which could help to develop a relationship or partnership between different churches. I know they would probably love to see church membership in Padina increase as a result of the classes. I have no idea what will happen as a result of me being here. My goal is just to teach English, but I do think it is nice that people in the community are starting to see the church as a place where they can be comfortable.

We went out to a very nice restaurant for lunch. Luckily Liljana remembered that I am vegetarian so they ordered a special meal for me. It's always a little awkward being the only vegetarian, especially in a place where it is not common. My plate came out first so every look at me and then looked at the veggies on my plate. Then, I heard the word vegetarian muttered around the table. Why are people so surprised to see someone eat a plate of veggies? I'm glad I got a special meal because the main meal was served family style. It was literally a plate of meat - chicken, pork, steak, sausage - all piled high on top of each other. Gross!

After lunch, Liljana and Janko took me up to see the old tower on the hill. The climb up the hill was steep and narrow and probably one of the most thrilling rides of my life - especially when Janko turned the car around on the top a few inches from a drop off. The little car chugged up the hill but eventually made it to the top. It was a scary ride, but at least I got to see Romania off in the distance! You can see pictures of the hill in the slideshow below.

We went back tot he church where the meeting continued. During that time, I got to explore Vrsac a little on my own. I didn't go very far because I didn't want to get lost. I wasn't thinking and printed out a map with the street names in the roman alphabet which made things a bit tricky because the street signs, when I could find them, were in the Cyrillic alphabet. It was a nice little town but Serbia isn't quite as accustomed to tourism as other parts of Eastern Europe.

I hope you enjoy the slide show below. I took a picture of what seemed like the local motorcycle shop for my dad. I also found it funny that they have beer vending machines on the street, so you will see that picture as well.