On May 5-9, Baruch and I were in Serbia for our first meetings in that country. Teams coordinator George Popa accompanied us. Unfortunately, I was unwell upon arrival, so Baruch and George went to the meetings.

Before they left, we were able to have some organizational meetings together and to stop by the synagogue in Belgrade, Serbia.

The weather was great, so we were able to walk to see the Synagogue and walk along the Danube River.

Below is a report from George:

The first day of teaching, we first visited the kindergarten which is situated on the church property. The little ones were great. Then Baruch sat down with Miki, the leader of our Serbian work, to tape a teaching for our YouTube Serbian channel. The sound of the transmission had a problem but it was fixed with the help of the Romanian team who called Serbia to tell them how to fix it. Such teamwork!

The next day was such a great day! The hall was full, full, full!!! Eighty to ninety Pastors and Elders from many places came together to learn how to to prepare messages. Baruch taught the book of Ruth and shared techniques for preparing messages while teaching this book.

Above you can see the great turnout. The girl in the dress is doing translation for us into Serbian (the Revelation Shorts series).

Something unexpected was taking place when Baruch took out the Tallit from his bag. The audience was saying “Woa….”. It was amazing to hear that. The people were so interested in hearing about it.

There were also several Roma translators who are working on a translation of the Bible. Unfortunately, we found out that they are allowed to translate meaning by meaning, not word by word. However, they were very interested in learning more about word for word translating.

There was also a very special moment where the people prayed for forgiveness from the horrors of the Holocaust that they made upon the Jewish people. (Yes, I cried, if this is your question)!

In the night, we were in Labane (which means Leba [bread] ne [no, without] = without bread. We then went to a. hill in Leskovac, where there is a monument of the tragedy in 1941. Miki explained that over 300 people were executed–most of them Roma but also some Jewish people. Here is a short video Miki and Baruch filmed concerning what happened there:

The final meeting was in Leskovac. The people were very, very warm and they received Baruch in an incredibly happy and humber manner. Around 200-230 people were in the room and the worship was incredibly good. There was also a baby dedication and they asked Baruch to bless the child in Hebrew.

The trip to Serbia was very fruitful. We strengthened existing relationships and established some new ones. We pray for G-d to bring more translators to the Serbian team.