A Serbian Wedding

This month Jen and I got invited to our first Serbian wedding.  We were so honored and excited.  The groom, Nemanja, had been a regular attender at our fellowship and his bride to be, Jelena, is a strong believer.  Not only were we invited but we hosted the maid of honor as a house guest and got to pick up other guests from the train station.  We were excited to get to help out.

Serbian weddings are not like American weddings in a number of ways.  First they last all day, not kidding we left the house at 11am and got home around 8pm. Second you get married twice here.  The church wedding is not official (regardless of orthodox or protestant).  So the couple first gets married at the court.  Now I was expecting something really simple but the court had a room for weddings that was super nice and it was a great ceremony with lots of clapping and cheering.  After the vows are said, the roma are all hanging around outside the court because people throw money not rice (Jen and I are thinking about renewing our vows before our next vacation).  After the court wedding everyone heads to the church for the church wedding.  Since this couple are believers we headed to the Baptist church for second wedding and the reception.

After second wedding the new couple does pictures and every guest gets a picture with the newlyweds.  It was very hot on the wedding day and Jen and I being unaware hung out inside.  We had to get our picture at the end.  After pictures are done a great party starts as family and friends celebrate the new couple.  Now the reception was a blast as food was delivered for hours.  Meat, bread, cheeses, fresh veggies, and pies, lots of pies.  Meat pies, cheese pies, veggie pies.  And of course there was cake.  Lots and Lots of cake.  It was delicious. Jen and I just sat and visited with people and ate and the ate some more.  There was lots of dancing and again more cheering and clapping.

The bride and groom foot the bill for the entire wedding and reception and Jelena and Nemanja did a great job providing for their guests.  We know that they started this marriage with God as the focus and look forward to seeing how God uses them to change the world around them.

Some Pics:

The First ceremony at the Court

Gypsy Band celebrating the new bride and groom

Dancing, lots of dancing

Cutting the cake (after pictures they brought out about 5 more cakes )

Jen and I with the happy couple

Hiding the Word, Serbian AWANA Style

If you are unfamiliar with AWANA, it is a scripture memorization program for kids.  Thanks to the great folks at Lakepointe Church Jennifer was able to partner with our teammate Randi, and started the first AWANA club in Serbia.  Kyleigh, Michaela, Brooke and Kyle memorized almost 100 scriptures between the four of them in the past school year.  They met every Sunday evening and the ladies worked with them on their scripture.  They also studied different cultures around the world increasing their knowledge of the nations.  My kids have done some amazing things in the past 2 plus years, but working hard to hide the word of God in their heart will be the thing that pushes them through life events more than anything they learn as we live abroad.  Although Jen and Randi did the bulk of the work, it was my great pleasure to practice verses throughout the week and listen to scripture come to life for my daughters.

In true Randi and Jen fashion we had an AWANA banquet this past week to celebrate the kids.  We had international cuisine (spaghetti, fortune cookies, tres leches cake) and Jen decorated the house (see pictures below).  The young people (anyone without kids) dressed up in costumes from different cultures.

Everyone Dressed up, Miki is an Austrailian Surfer in case you are wondering. 

South America

Africa

Europe

Asia (with Jens homemade fortune cookies)

North America

Pred Skolska Graduation

This is a picture of my Pred Skolska graduate.  For all you Native English speakers out there, that is like kindergarten in the States.  After 9 months in a class with 36 other kids and two teachers (one of which none of the kids liked) Miki graduated and is ready for first grade.  On the last day of school her class put on an outstanding performance to cap off a week of amazing performances (earlier in the week 37 six year olds showed off their amazing English skills, and later there was a rhythmic gymnastics performance.)  They sang songs, danced - lots of dancing - and told all the parents and grand parents all the things they learned.  We were really proud of Miki, she has blossomed this year, making some good friends and really becoming a good Serbian speaker.  We were impressed with the job the teachers did.  Keeping 37 kids from killing each other is quite the feat, but the kids actually learned something too!  Next year Miki will be heading next door to her new school and a new adventure in Serbian priamary school, but for now we will remeber the good old days of pred skolska.

Miki talks about the letter "C", which makes an s sound in Cyrillic

Receiving her diploma!

Celebrating the end of childhood with homemade mortar boards

A proud big sister, and apparently that's on real proud mom in the background

Miki with her teacher Bojana

Miki and her BFF Daria