Final Day and Being a Tourist

(a note from Mike)

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Today was our last day of work here at Camp Timok.  We had finished all of our major projects yesterday, so today was a day to clean, organize, and spruce up the camp.  We worked until 1:00, had lunch, cleaned ourselves up, and went into Zajacar one last time.

Some of our group stayed in town to relax and access the Internet while some of us went exploring.  Zajacar is only 15 kilometers from the Bulgarian border so we thought we'd go and check it out. :-).  We walked up to the Serbian check point (if we drove we'd have to pay a large tax) with Novica, who translated for us.  They thought we were a little crazy for wanting to just cross the border, check it out, and come back....but they allowed us.  We then had to cross 300 meters of "no-man's land" and then we had to go through the Bulgarian border crossing.  They too, thought we were a little strange for wanting to do that, but checked our documents and let us through.  Once in Bulgaria we took pictures (regular as well as "jumping" :-) ) and had fun checking out the scenery as well as some of the abandoned structures just over the border  After about 45 minutes, we reversed the process and went back to Serbia with a few more stamps in our passport and the ability to say, "We visited Bulgaria!" :-)

We met back up in Zajacar and then headed back to the camp for one last meal there.  Novica made it a special one by grilling 5 different kinds of meat!  The food was delicious, the fellowship great, and the sense of accomplishment that we shared from the last two weeks of hard work....priceless!

We all love this place and feel that God knew what He was doing when He sent us here (as He always does). :-)  The need is SO great and the workers are FEW.  Out of 7 million people living in Serbia, only about 11,000 are "born again believers".  We praise God for directing us here, to this ministry, through a wide variety of circumstances that He has been orchestrating over the last year. :-)

God truly is good ALL the time!

We're all looking forward to reuniting with you, our family and friends in a couple days.

Thanks for sending us!

In Him,

Mike