Greetings from Chelsea Ban, the vaginacologist (as Bata so kindly refers to me),
Place: The Church of Leskovac
Congregation: Roma and Serbian
Agenda:
10:00am Blood Pressure and Glucose Check/ "Ask Doctor Laura"
So many active young church members came to help with translation and greet the congregations.
At a little break,
Sladjana shared her incredible testimony with me: Growing up in communist Lebone, admitting that you were a Christian meant persecution and imprisonment. Being 13 and impressionable, she also questioned her own faith. But her mother invited people to her house and freely shared the Good News. Her landlord ridiculed and mocked her, even threatened to tell the authorities on her... until one day, the landlord received news that his brother was in a car accident and in critical condition. Struck with fear and helplessness, he ran down to Sladjana's mother for any bit of comfort. She held him in loving embrace and had a vision. She saw an injured man on a hospital bed who went into cardiac arrest and a team of doctors and nurses were resuscitating him. After 10 minutes of describing the events in detail, she awoke from her trance and begged him to leave immediately to a town 100miles away because his brother was alive!
The landlord left that evening and arrived at the hospital. He asked if his brother had stopped breathing for 10 minutes. The doctors were surprised to hear this because none of the family was notified yet. The doctor reported to him details and times of when the events occurred. It was exactly the same as her mother's vision.
When the landlord returned, he accepted Jesus as his Savior and devoted his life to God. This miracle that Sladjana personally experienced was a confirmation that she needed to pursue her life in discipleship. She studied at the seminary in Croatia and have dedicated her life to disciple the Roma people alongside with the Serbians.
1:00pm Lunch with Pastors
In the Serbian Culture, women are not to dine at the same table as the men. They are to cook, serve, clean and then eat the leftovers.
Today the Roma pastors, Bojan and Serif cooked, served, ate with us at the table and cleaned. Progressive! Serif's son, Nis shared his father's amazing testimony:
In 1993, Serif was working for the Communist in Lebone when he noticed a tumor in his 7 year old son's neck. Doctors confirmed that it was leukemia. After a round of chemotherapy, the tumor continued to grow and spread. The prognosis was poor, 2 months at most. As Serif saw his son growing weaker and dying, he himself began to die. He lost all hope; he was determined to end his life when his son passed away. His wife was stricken ill with grief. In the Roma community where Serif was residing, when one member fell ill, the whole community mourned. A Christian group came and offered to pray for them. If the Communist authorities found out, he would lose his job and be sent to prison. But Serif didn't care; he had already planned out his suicide when his son died. He had nothing to lose. He began to pray alongside the Christians. He bargained with God, "If You save my son, I will dedicate the rest of my life to You!"
Slowly Serif began to see changes in his son. His hair began to grow back; his color returned and the tumor started shrinking. 6 months later, he took his son back to the doctors. They were amazed after the test showed no residual cancer. They said their machine was malfunctioning and used a 2nd machine to repeat the test. Again the same result. With unbelief, they tested him a 3rd time. Still no signs of tumor. The doctor asked Serif, "Did you pray to your God?" Hesitantly, he thought to himself, do I tell him the truth and risk losing my job and freedom? Or do I lie and renounce the God that saved my son. He asked "why do you ask?" The doctor responded, "There is nothing in modern medicine that could have cured your son's cancer. This is a miracle that could only be accomplished by the hand of God."
Pastor Serif dedicated his life to discipleship; he has brought so many people to Christ with his unquenchable thirst for God and his brilliant talent for music.
Wow. Have you ever bargained with God? Give it a try sometime. I guarantee He will be faithful. He has ben to me.
2pm: Lecture Series Begins:
1. Margaret's God's Perspective on Women's Health
2. Chelsea's Topics on Women's Health
a. Breast Health
b. Reproductive Health
c. Methods of Birth Control
d. Abortion
e. STI's
3. Break and Question Time:
The men came up to serve coffee and cakes to the women.... Ultra-progressive!
MY unforgettable moment:
The Serbians rarely speak about the above topics. Birth control and discussion of "female problems" were never mentioned in public. However, these progressive pastors have taken the leap to invite our team to address these very topics in response to the requests of the female members of the Church.
I welcome questions; If I don't know the answer, I am the first to admit it. But, I have never been stumped.....until today:
A member asked a question which was translated to me as:
"How do you know when you have reached climax?"
I repeated the question to see if I heard it correctly...yes.
Wow! after 4 days of lectures, this is the most progressive question I have been asked!
I stumbled a little, turned a bit shade of red, and thought to myself:
How do I formulate a response? Should I discuss the physiological changes leading to climax for a women? Should I just start groaning, incrementally louder and start pounding on the top of the pulpit like Meg Ryan on When Harry Met Sally?
Seconds which felt like minutes ticked by. My team started whispering. The audience awaited. I took a deep breath, threw out my inhibition...
"In our culture, we commonly refer to climax as ORGASM...."
My response was immediately interrupted by a sheer look of terror from our cute innocent translator, Tamara, "No,No,No. Not that, climax like when a women gets old and stops getting periods."
"Ohhhhhh! You mean menopause."
There was a roar of laughter from my traitorous health team.
A quiet wave of calmness passed over me; God would never give me anything that was too difficult for me to handle. "Thank you for the words that were lost in translation..... I will be more prepared for that questions next time. " ;)
While I ran down to give the men a talk, the following topics were addressed to the women by Darla, Dr Laura and Terri respectively:
4. Hygiene
5. Childhood Illness
6. Nutrition and Exercise
So there was our mission for today-accomplished. It's 1:30 in the morning Serbian time. Until tomorrow. This is Chelsea Ban signing off. Laku noc (good night).
Place: The Church of Leskovac
Congregation: Roma and Serbian
Agenda:
10:00am Blood Pressure and Glucose Check/ "Ask Doctor Laura"
So many active young church members came to help with translation and greet the congregations.
At a little break,
Sladjana shared her incredible testimony with me: Growing up in communist Lebone, admitting that you were a Christian meant persecution and imprisonment. Being 13 and impressionable, she also questioned her own faith. But her mother invited people to her house and freely shared the Good News. Her landlord ridiculed and mocked her, even threatened to tell the authorities on her... until one day, the landlord received news that his brother was in a car accident and in critical condition. Struck with fear and helplessness, he ran down to Sladjana's mother for any bit of comfort. She held him in loving embrace and had a vision. She saw an injured man on a hospital bed who went into cardiac arrest and a team of doctors and nurses were resuscitating him. After 10 minutes of describing the events in detail, she awoke from her trance and begged him to leave immediately to a town 100miles away because his brother was alive!
The landlord left that evening and arrived at the hospital. He asked if his brother had stopped breathing for 10 minutes. The doctors were surprised to hear this because none of the family was notified yet. The doctor reported to him details and times of when the events occurred. It was exactly the same as her mother's vision.
When the landlord returned, he accepted Jesus as his Savior and devoted his life to God. This miracle that Sladjana personally experienced was a confirmation that she needed to pursue her life in discipleship. She studied at the seminary in Croatia and have dedicated her life to disciple the Roma people alongside with the Serbians.
1:00pm Lunch with Pastors
In the Serbian Culture, women are not to dine at the same table as the men. They are to cook, serve, clean and then eat the leftovers.
Today the Roma pastors, Bojan and Serif cooked, served, ate with us at the table and cleaned. Progressive! Serif's son, Nis shared his father's amazing testimony:
In 1993, Serif was working for the Communist in Lebone when he noticed a tumor in his 7 year old son's neck. Doctors confirmed that it was leukemia. After a round of chemotherapy, the tumor continued to grow and spread. The prognosis was poor, 2 months at most. As Serif saw his son growing weaker and dying, he himself began to die. He lost all hope; he was determined to end his life when his son passed away. His wife was stricken ill with grief. In the Roma community where Serif was residing, when one member fell ill, the whole community mourned. A Christian group came and offered to pray for them. If the Communist authorities found out, he would lose his job and be sent to prison. But Serif didn't care; he had already planned out his suicide when his son died. He had nothing to lose. He began to pray alongside the Christians. He bargained with God, "If You save my son, I will dedicate the rest of my life to You!"
Slowly Serif began to see changes in his son. His hair began to grow back; his color returned and the tumor started shrinking. 6 months later, he took his son back to the doctors. They were amazed after the test showed no residual cancer. They said their machine was malfunctioning and used a 2nd machine to repeat the test. Again the same result. With unbelief, they tested him a 3rd time. Still no signs of tumor. The doctor asked Serif, "Did you pray to your God?" Hesitantly, he thought to himself, do I tell him the truth and risk losing my job and freedom? Or do I lie and renounce the God that saved my son. He asked "why do you ask?" The doctor responded, "There is nothing in modern medicine that could have cured your son's cancer. This is a miracle that could only be accomplished by the hand of God."
Pastor Serif dedicated his life to discipleship; he has brought so many people to Christ with his unquenchable thirst for God and his brilliant talent for music.
Wow. Have you ever bargained with God? Give it a try sometime. I guarantee He will be faithful. He has ben to me.
2pm: Lecture Series Begins:
1. Margaret's God's Perspective on Women's Health
2. Chelsea's Topics on Women's Health
a. Breast Health
b. Reproductive Health
c. Methods of Birth Control
d. Abortion
e. STI's
3. Break and Question Time:
The men came up to serve coffee and cakes to the women.... Ultra-progressive!
MY unforgettable moment:
The Serbians rarely speak about the above topics. Birth control and discussion of "female problems" were never mentioned in public. However, these progressive pastors have taken the leap to invite our team to address these very topics in response to the requests of the female members of the Church.
I welcome questions; If I don't know the answer, I am the first to admit it. But, I have never been stumped.....until today:
A member asked a question which was translated to me as:
"How do you know when you have reached climax?"
I repeated the question to see if I heard it correctly...yes.
Wow! after 4 days of lectures, this is the most progressive question I have been asked!
I stumbled a little, turned a bit shade of red, and thought to myself:
How do I formulate a response? Should I discuss the physiological changes leading to climax for a women? Should I just start groaning, incrementally louder and start pounding on the top of the pulpit like Meg Ryan on When Harry Met Sally?
Seconds which felt like minutes ticked by. My team started whispering. The audience awaited. I took a deep breath, threw out my inhibition...
"In our culture, we commonly refer to climax as ORGASM...."
My response was immediately interrupted by a sheer look of terror from our cute innocent translator, Tamara, "No,No,No. Not that, climax like when a women gets old and stops getting periods."
"Ohhhhhh! You mean menopause."
There was a roar of laughter from my traitorous health team.
A quiet wave of calmness passed over me; God would never give me anything that was too difficult for me to handle. "Thank you for the words that were lost in translation..... I will be more prepared for that questions next time. " ;)
While I ran down to give the men a talk, the following topics were addressed to the women by Darla, Dr Laura and Terri respectively:
4. Hygiene
5. Childhood Illness
6. Nutrition and Exercise
So there was our mission for today-accomplished. It's 1:30 in the morning Serbian time. Until tomorrow. This is Chelsea Ban signing off. Laku noc (good night).
