Impressions after 1 month

Yesterday marked one month here for the Stevens Family, so I thought I would share my early impressions.   We like it alot here.  The people are friendly and that makes things so much easier.  Even if it's hard to communicate a smile and nod of the head can say tons.  The kids are adjusting as well as can be expected.  Most days they do well.  Of course they have tough days.  Kyleigh is very popular at her school because she is new and very different.  All the kids want to talk to her and ask questions, but after a few hours of not understanding it's tough.  Mac likes school but does miss her time with mom.  Adjusting has not been as difficult as I expected.  The food's good, shopping is relatively convinent, food prices are reasonable.  The hard part has been the time.  Everything takes longer.  For example getting to language school takes an  hour because of all the bus/tram switches, its not really that far away.  Alot of our day gets eaten up waiting and riding.  Grocery shopping is difficult because we only by a little at a time because we have to walk or ride the bus home, therefore we shop 3 or 4 times a week.  Over all the first month has gone really well.  God has been very gracious and brought many people of peace into our path.  We are trying to grow those relationships and look for where the HS is working and how we can be a bold verbal witness.  We do miss fam and friends, and our church very much, but God has made this feel like home.
Kyle's Five Faves From Serbia:
1.  Friendly People
2.  Bakery's on every Corner
3.  Good Coffee
4.  Snow - it was glorious
5.  Urban Living

Heavenly Storehouses Laden With Snow

This is two post in one - so read the whole thing
FUN IN THE SNOW
For a family from Texas we have never seen this much snow!  When we woke up this morning there were about 6 inches and probably 3 more throughout the day.  We had to be out in it to get our buses etc.  It took us 15 minutes to get everybody dresses to leave the house - Kids were in full snow gear, boots, gloves, hats, hoods, snow suits- they looked like marshmallows.  Needless to say on the walk to school they only walked through the fresh snow not the nice packed snow.  After school we played!! Snowball fights, snow angels and snow men!!!! (the snow man was kind of puny because the snow was so dry and powdery).  We will probably tire of the snow and cold but for now we were all giddy kids today.  Scroll past the pictures to read part 2

HEAVENLY STOREHOUSES LADEN WITH SNOW
This is a line from one of my favorite worship songs -"Indescribable" from Chris Tomlin.  It speaks to God's glory and how he is the creator and God of miracles.  As I looked out the window, this is what struck me - Our God created everything including this great snow.  Then the sun began to rise and I saw the brilliant, pure, clean white look of the snow.  That early in the morning it was perfect and undisturbed and shone a pure white, then I remebered my heart is as white as snow because of the blood of my Saviour.  It was a great morning, to be here called by God and simply reminded I am who I am because of the blood of Jesus, and more then that, the message must be spread.  Eternity depends on it. 

The girls have something to say.

The girls had my computer and this is the result.  
THe girls have something to say

Toto, you won't find this in America

Coffee is a big deal here.  It's not just drinking coffee, it the social experience along with the coffee.  That happens in the Cafe.  so to be a successful resteraunt/buisness you need a Cafe.  All the big stores have a cafe as part of their store.  The mall has a cafe on every floor - it's what you do here.  Suprisingly there is no Starbucks here but we do have Mcdonalds.  In America when we left one of the new trends in Mcd's was the MCcafe.  You could get coffee and about three other items.  Well here Mcd's has taken that to a whole new level.  The MCcafe is in the same building but totally different.  They have an exaustive menu including espresso, machiato's, coffee, latee's etc. They also have pasteries, cake, cheese cake etc.  And take a look at these pictures - this is not how it served in America.  We do like our Mcdonalds - but we also eat other places :)

This is wierd

Some of you may remember us mentioning that Kyleigh would only go to school a half day here in Serbia.  They have two shifts - morning and afternoon.  They do this because of facilities and staff.  They do not have enough of both for all the kids to go all day.  In the half day they are at school they do pack a ton in.  Kyleigh is loving school but this week she switched to second shift.  I thought it would start  around noon (morning ends at 11:30) but no they start at 2 and go till 5:30.  It is really weird to pick up your second grader at dinner in the dark.

Belgrade - Two Cities

Belgrade is two very different cities.  It has a long history of violence and invasion.  The city itself has been invaded over 600 times.  It has bee destroyed and rebuilt numerous times.  Because of this the historic buildings of the city aren't all that old.  There is a fortress (Kalemegdon) that was built by the Romans then added to during Medeival times.  After that most buildings were built in the late 1800's.  In the 1400's the Turks pretty much destroyed the whole city.  The Following pictures show two buildings that were destroyed during the last invasion of Belgrade (NATO 1999).  I've asked why these have not been torn down and rebuilt and the best answer I get is they are Memorials.  ( I thank economics has something to do with it also). 

Just a few blocks from these ruins is this beautiful walking street with the best architecture Belgrade has to offer.  The buildings here are charming and beautiful.  This street is like a time warp.  When the weather warms up we will head down here and take a ton of pictures.  Please pray the people of Belgrade would look the bleakness and destruction of the past and find true safety and comfort with the Father.

Super Serbs - And God's Amazing Work.

Before we came here we were told by a number of people that the Serbs were very helpful.  Well over the past three days they have gone above and beyond.
First: On Saturday some of our team came to Belgrade and met at our flat.  When we went outside to all go to lunch one of the vans had a flat and we could see a nail in another tire.  Everyone left but myself and one other guy.  We changed the flat but were concerned about the other tire.  Of course I had no idea where to go to fix it.  I called the three Serbs I had numbers for but no one was home.  Just when we felt all was lost here came Nebishu, my neighbor,  I asked if he knew where we could get a tire fixed.  Instead of telling me he said "I'll take you."  We all hopped in the van and soon both tires were patched.  Now that's hospitality
Second:  Jen's been wondering whats going to happen when she rides the bus to the store with the girls and the grocery cart and I'm not there to help.  Well today she found out - the men at the bus stop pick up the slack.  They loaded her groceries on the bus and made sure Mac stayed in the seat when the bus stopped (Serbian bus drivers tend to be heavy on the gas and quick on the brake).  It was a blessing to me to know that Jen will be taken care of - and this was for a complete foreign stranger.
Third:  If you've read my previous post you know how difficult it is getting Kyleigh registered for school.  Go here, go there, go back here, get these documents, now get these etc.  Well today I got all the right documents, got them translated and headed to the Ministry of Education.  When I got there the lady I had to deal with spoke less English then I speak Serbian - thats a problem when dealing in a beuracracy.  So as she's rattling Serbian off to me and I am repeating "Engleski"  two young ladies in line say they speak English and would help.  They spend over 30 minutes sitting with me and filling out more documents that I never could have done.  It was great - I showed them pictures of my family and they live near us and would love to meet the Girls.  Their names are Veshna and Natasha, please pray we can develop a friendship with them and introduce them to the Father. 

These are just a few examples of how people have gone out of their way to help us.  Please pray that these hearts full of love can come to know the love of the Father and he will use us to demonstrate His great Love. 

Registering for School

This has been school registration week for the Stevens Family.  Getting Kyleigh registered was pretty simple - we walked to the school, showed them her grades and poof she had a class.  I still have to go the ministry of education and give them some documents but have been told that's no big deal.  Michaela was another story.  We went to the school and were given another address to enroll her at.  I figured out where that was on my map and walked there.  Problem is here in this country they don't post addresses so you have to guess.  After about an hour of wondering I finally found it and met the people I needed to talk to.   To enroll her we have forms to fill out and most of it deals with income.  Problem is all the forms are in Cyrillic and they want alot of information about our company. So after all that, we are looking into private preschool for her, and hopefully that will be simpler. I registered for language school today and that went suprisingly well.  I had to ride a couple of buses and trams but using my handy map I was only one block off, and after asking for help found the school.  It seems like a great place and the reputation it has here is top notch.  Hopefully I'll have a really patient teacher that wil help me learn this very difficult language. As soon as we get Mac school situated, we will enroll Jen in Language school

Random Pricing of the day

Went shopping today - Bought Oranges for 3 dinar a piece (that's about 4 cents apiece) on the other hand a tiny jar of Maple Syrup was 855 dinar or $13.
We got Kyleigh enrolled in school she starts tomorrow. 

Musings about Serbia

This is kinda random but here are some things from the past few days.
1.  Gotta brag on my wife - boxed and prepared foods are hard to find here and if you do find them they are about 4X the cost as in the States.  Jen has been preparing awsome meals from scratch and we are eating well. 
2.  I do about two loads of laundry a day in the worlds tinitest washing machine - then we hang it to dry. (of course I could be in a third world country with a bucket)
3.  Cigarette smoke is overwhelming here.  Serbs smoke eerywhere - even in the mall!
4.  The people are great they love to help out and we have not had any rude encounters yet.
5.  I love our neighborhood - we have a great Cafe (coffee shop) I visit daily as well as the pekara (bakery). 
6.  So far so good on the busses - this week I will be super exploring using the busses - bound to get lost.
7.  The super expensive mall (Usce) used to be the Yougaslov Communist headquarters - hows that for Irony! (see picture below)

8.  Europeans know how to package things and reduce waist - they use very little cardboard packaging and plastic bottles.  Mostly things come in pouches.
That's just a few random thoughts - hope you enjoy

Blog 1 from Serbia :)

Well we made it and it was a pretty good trip.  The girls did great on the plane - they played with a goodie bag my Aunt made for them and watched movies and slept.  Day one was fast and furious as we go in our flat, attempted to register with the police (as a forigner you have to let them know you are here and the give you a little card to keep with you at all times).  They did not have the forms so that waited until Sunday.  On Friday our TL (Kyle is his name) took us to a street fair in the city center (thats downtown).  The kids had fun and we were able to see part of Beograd.  We ate lunch at Mcdonalds - it was pretty good except  you have to pay for ketchup - the Stevens Family will be taking their own from now on!.  On friday night we were invited to a dinner party by our lnadlords, Milan and Gorica.  It was supposed to be a small gathering but there friends were curious about the American and there were lots of people there to meet us.  It was a ton of fun we ate traditional foods including Sarma, which is like stuffed saurkraut.  Needless to say we were wiped out after all the fun on Friday.  Saturday Kyle took us on a tour and to the mall.  The mall here is amazing - on par with the Galleria in Dallas. 
Anyway that covers our first few days.  More to come checkback later.

Kyle