A little Civil Disobedience

First a little back story:  Our dear friend Mira was/is in trouble of losing her home for the past 30 years.  To make a very complicated story, somewhat less complicated, I'll try to explain.  In the communist years hear the state owned all the apartments.  After the break up of communism the people that lived in the apartments could by them for a reduced price.  If they did not have the money, they would find someone that did who would buy it for them, then they would pay a little more and still get an apartment at a relatively cheap price.  (this happens to be how people can live here on $400 a month, they have no mortgage.  It also explains why multiple generations live together).  Well apparently this is what our friend Mira and her family did.  Shockingly the right paper work got lost, misfiled, never filed, shredded, pick your paperwork disaster in a post communist new government landscape.  Since the paperwork does not matter the state is claiming to own the apartment and wants to evict Mira and her family.  Mira is a pensioner (retired person) and her income is about $150 a month.  Finding and paying for a new place is an impossibility.  So that brings us to Friday and a little protest to keep Mira in her apartment.  Lets look back at this Retro Diary style:

Saturday April 14 - My Apartment

7:30 PM After Bible Study, Mira tells us all that the police are coming to evict her on Friday.  She asks that we all come and stand in front of her building.  The hope here is that if enough people come and some media show up, the police will not want to cause a seen....

Friday April 20  New Belgrade Serbia:

10:15 AM  Our friend Amy calls to see if she needs to go protest with us. Jen tells her if she does not go she will miss the opportunity to see me lead a crowd of angry Serbs in the classic "Hell no she won't go" and throw my body in front of the police.  Amy is in! We agree to pick her up at 11:30.

11:48  AM  Jen, Kyleigh, Amy and I arrive in front of Mira's building.  There are about 150 people milling around, music is blaring from huge speakers and 4 cops stand about 50 feet away.  The T.V. people are there, some important Parliamentarians and political leaders and one very slick looking lawyer. It really looks like more of a block party.  We visit with people we know, all the while keeping an eye on the police. 

12:01 PM The police begin to approach the building...and everything changes.  The block party is over and things are tense.  This group that was earlier milling around forms a solid wall 20 feet deep.  I personally think it was very strategic how they lined up.  Mira, her son, the politicians and lawyer were in front to meet the police, along with the very old ladies (what cop in his right mind is going to run over the oldest living ladies in the world to evict a sort of old lady with about 5 news cameras filming?)  Behind them was a level of  beef (super huge muscle guys) followed by ordinary citizens.  What is an ordinary citizen you ask?  Some one who has normal size muscles and was not a personal friend of George Washington.  After the normal citizens was the last line of beef and then some great folks praying.  What was amazing to me was how you could feel the tension - there was a spark in the air just waiting to get ignited.

12:05 PM Serious conference happening between the police, Mira, and the political people, and the lawyer. (there is an election in about three weeks, the political people were all about protecting the little guy). Lots of documents being shown and pointed to.  At one point I thought we lost Mira in a mountain of documents.  My little crew is on the fringe just waiting to see what happens, seriously praying etc.  I personally was deciding how much of a hero to be.  If things ignited I was somewhere between run as fast as I can and throw myself in front of the door.

12:07 PM For the sake of this blog know that by this time I have decided to throw my self in front of the door.  I am also trying to translate "hell no she won't go" to Serbian in my head. (... ona nece ici...) Couple of problems with this, I have no idea what the word for hell is and the rest of it does not rhyme.  I decide if we need to go in that direction we will stick to English.  It sounds better, I know all the words, and maybe it will attract CNN.

12:12 PM We hear the police say something about calling there boss.  Does this mean they are bringing in reinforcements (considering the running option more seriously if that's the case) or what.  Some one leans over and tells us these cops don't want to evict Mira, but they can't decide this so they are calling their boss.  In America we call that passing the buck.

12:13 PM Mira, the politicians, and the Lawyer are all huddled around the police car.  The wall is still intact (the really really old ladies are moved to the shade) but its a little looser, tension has gone down about ten notches, but you can still feel it.

12:20 PM Mira and the lawyer walk back to the wall and all the air goes out as the police have decided to let her stay.  The music comes back on (Serbian rap of course, it sounded kind of west coast late 80's gangster rapish).  Folks begin milling around, there are some final interviews for the T.V. people and the cops hop in their Fiat Punto and head on their way.

Some Final Thoughts: 
This drama is probably not over for Mira.  Until after the elections and a new people are in government the threat still looms of her losing her house.  We continue to pray for her because eventually people gathering at her apartment will not stop some one from taking it if that's what they want to do.  I was really impressed by the friends and neighbors that showed up to help Mira.  There is a real sense of community here sometimes and its fun to watch.  Being my first act of civil disobedience I was pretty excited about the results.  I felt like it was important to write this blog in the right frame of mind so please no it was written while only listening to 1960's protest type hippie music.

Police approaching the Wall

Leaving in the Fiat Punto

Doing something different in Belgrade

 Last month Kim and Megan came to visit us here in Belgrade.  Since Kim had already been we did not want to see the same thing and wanted to show her something new.  So we decided to go to Avala Tower.  Avala tower sits on top of Avala Mountain (which is barely a mountain by the official mountain measuring standards).  The tower was originally a radio/tv tower built in the mid-60's but was destroyed in the bombings of '99.  The people of Belgrade raised the funds to rebuild the tower and it opened in the late 2000's.  It is the fifth tallest self supported structure in the world and the only tower that sports an equilateral triangle as its base.  It has an amazing observation deck at 335 feet and we all went up to see the sights.  It was a beautiful clear day and you could see forever.  The employee at the observation deck said you could see Hungary. There was also a Barbie and toy train expedition which Wilson (and jen who was not a fan of the heights) enjoyed more then the observation deck.   Here are some pics.... ENJOY

The Tower behind us

At the Top

Barbie Museum

our little village of 2+ million

trying to get the best shot

Wilson was pretty excited about the trains

Is it really hopeless? Not now, Not today, Not ever....

My morning routine is pretty simple, have a cup of coffee (with Wilson usually waking before 6:00AM this is essential) and catch up on the news back home.  I usually look at the Dallas News online, and something world related (FOX or CNN, just depends if I feel liberal or conservative that day).  This week the world looked like a pretty hopeless place.  My friends back in Texas were huddling in closets and bathrooms as tornadoes struck all around, Syria is a mess, North Korea wants to launch a nuclear missile, Trayvon Martin, April marks the 20 year anniversary of a deadly war that broke out where I live now, and a really great and sweet lady we have come to love here in Serbia may lose her home of over 30 years because of a corrupt political system.   These are just a few examples of how one could really view the world as hopeless.  If you spent five more minutes looking on the internet then you could really find the awful stuff.  So as I sat and thought about these things, prayed for people I know and don't know, I thought how interesting that my thoughts of hopelessness (not that I felt hopeless, just thinking that some of these situations seem pretty hopeless) fell between two Sundays when the epitome of hope was reveled to us. Depending on where you live, last Sunday may have been Easter or it could be tomorrow.  Regardless of your choice of when to celebrate, it was a stark reminder to me that everyday there is hope. Hope in the fact that the God of the Universe is alive! It does not matter, what the news says, or what we see daily around us.  Those who have trusted Jesus, have hope, an endless well of living water.  Christ not only promises to hope for the future, but hope for right now and everyday.  One of my favorite versus is John 10:10 because Christ finishes by saying he cam so that we may have life, and have it to the full.  A life lived right now today, full of Jesus, that is a life full of hope.  I've embedded one of my favorite songs below and I think the opening clip says it all:
GOD'S NOT DEAD!!!!  That gives us all hope

I'm gonna do better PROMISE.....

Ok I think I started my ONE (one blog a month, disgraceful I know) blog in March with the following  phrase:  Things have been really busy but I am going to be a better logger this month.... I'll spare you the same excuse but I am blogging in April!  Mark my words :).  So this first April blog will be dedicated to catching up and some random thoughts

- Kim and Megan visited form the states.  Brought tons of goodies and we had a great time (full blog on that coming soon)

- The weather has thawed out and we are glad.  This is a different place in the Spring.  The Stevens Family is much happier in the Spring. 

- THE HELP:  Top five movie of all time.  If you have not seen it - do it now!

- Jen and I have committed ourselves to better eating and exercise (much easier to commit to when the temp is above freezing and there is not two feet of snow on the ground)

- Congrats to the Lady Bears and the Baylor Nation.  40-0 is a great accomplishment.

- Kyleigh along with being a great Serbian speaker, has now taken on French.  She loves it.  i find it amusing that she is learning her 2nd foreign language in her 1st foreign language.

- Big shout out to the Taylors on number four.  You are far braver then us in so many ways.

- Miki is changing so much, she reads now and she is just a smart as they come.

-Language has not gotten any better, It's just a great way to make us feel dumb. But we are still working hard and hopefully the light at the end of a very long tunnel will appear soon.