58 pounds of fabricMaybe some of you remember the story of the "Lost Fabric for Serbia"?! It's really not as dramatic and mysterious as it may sound. But it was sort of a strange thing that happened last summer on our trip back to the states.
If you're a First Bible Church member, you know of the work that has been done on the church plant in Erdevik, Serbia. Several First Bible Church men have come and worked on this church with Curt. What a precious congregation and they have appreciated the interest and care for their church by First Bible Church. The Erdevik church is getting close to completion and will be dedicated this fall.
One of the needs this new church had was fabric for their church pews. Access to quality fabric and in large quantities is a challenge in this part of the world. So, Curt was able to work with a company in the states that graciously DONATED all the fabric for the pews. How excited we were to hear of this BUT we did know it would be a challenge to get the fabric across the ocean and then to Serbia. So, last summer, we smashed, pushed, rammed about 80 yards of fabric into our suitcases for the trek across the ocean. Unfortunately, through a series of events (late planes, missed connections, unusual interest in our bags by customs, etc), half of the fabric was lost. And we do mean LOST. The airline never found that bag of fabric. We were disappointed, of course.
Curt took the fabric we did have to Erdevik last summer. They were grateful for this and we all hoped that somehow we could get some more of the same fabric and then get that fabric across the ocean again. Well, while we were back for Christmas, Curt worked with the fabric company again and offered to pay for the replacement fabric for Erdevik. Incredibly, the fabric company DONATED the fabric again! Amazed we were. Then the process started again. Smash, push, ram fabric into our suitcases to get them across the ocean. Many thanks to Mark Elder for his help with that in weighing and packing! The picture is of the fabric wrapped tightly to go in our suitcases. Those bundles sort of look like bodies or like we're disguising drug running, don't they??! We're glad to say that the fabric, this time, arrived safely to Budapest.
This week, Curt and Shay went to Serbia to drop off the fabric with someone that could get it to Erdevik. We were a little concerned that crossing the border into Serbia could be interesting if they decided to open our hatch and see those strange bundles! But we prayed that the guard would be uninterested and he was. Didn't even bother to look. In fact, our car got checked on the WAY BACK. And, of course, we had nothing in our car that was unusual. All those things had been left in Serbia.
This fall when the Erdevik church is dedicating their building to God and praising God, they'll be sitting on beautiful fabric from the United States that had a long journey to arrive.
