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DAY 1 on our Oak Hall in Serbia ATOM Expedition…

Tonight we write to you from Belgrade.  It has been an excellent day of travel, introductions and orientation…

Highlights included:

  • watching the sunrise from the wide windows of an Oak Hall coach as we made the first leg of the journey towards Luton airport…
  • hearing something of each other’s stories as we travelled first on the coach, then by plane and finally by minibus to reach the centre of Belgrade;
  • exploring Serbia’s capital city – today 36 degrees Celsius – and sipping home-made lemonade in cafes before climbing the castle walls above the confluence of the mighty Danube and Sava rivers;
  • receiving a hearty Serbian welcome at the Bible College and being served “rostilj”;
  • praying about the week ahead and reading the first verses of 1 John – the book we are studying this week;
  • playing frisbee and then sitting by a fire and finally watching the sun set on the Vojvodinian plains beyond the Bible College;

Tomorrow after a welcome sleep, we head south through Cacak to begin our first assignment as a team…

Thank you for following this blog and praying with us!  Greetings from us all!

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Oak Hall’s 67th Journey to Serbia leaves at Sunrise Tomorrow!

In the morning, the next Oak Hall “Taste of Mission” journey – the sixty-seventh – leaves for Serbia…

In 1991, as the wars in Yugoslavia were tearing the country apart, we used an Oak Hall coach to take supplies to a group of Christians in Serbia who wanted to serve the refugees flooding across the shifting lines of the fighting.  That journey was just the first – “YU1”.  As the wars continued and friendships with the refugees and local Christians deepened, we returned time after time.  We experienced many instances of God’s intervention and protection and had opportunity after opportunity to explain publicly about Jesus Christ – the One who is “God here” – who came to die in our place so that we could know the God who loves us.

In 1996, I moved to Serbia with my wife Faye to help to establish a Bible College for future leaders – some of whom had come to know Jesus Christ through our speaking about Him as we distributed aid…  The Oak Hall journeys continued, bringing supplies for refugees and friends who would go on to make a long-term commitment to pray for the students and team of the Bible School.

These “Taste of Mission” journeys have continued right up until today.  Each journey is unique yet our prayer for these “expeditions” is that:

  • those coming with us will be changed and challenged through the example of the small yet growing Church in Serbia including the graduates and team of the Bible College with whom we will serve…
  • that the journey will serve the Church in the Balkans through encouragement and the commitment to prayer for the Balkans that many will make on the journey…
  • that there will be those who hear about and respond to Jesus Christ as we serve practically and speak of Christ clearly…

With a 3:30am breakfast, the next journey begins in a few hours time.  Please pray with us  – we will post news here as the journey unfolds.

With warm greetings from all on “YU67”

– Andy