Macedonia: Day Two

coffee with Spire

Danny had some time this morning to work on his notes for the seminar we led this evening. Kyle and Jackie were visiting a friend this morning and we had a visit from Spire, a friend that Danny met last year. Spire met us at the apartment and we walked to one of the many coffee shops in the center of town. All of the coffee here is caffeinated and because of a heart condition, I am restricted to decaf. Knowing that coffee visits would be on our agenda, I brought some decaf Starbucks Via. I have to rely on someone to order hot water and milk for me because I don’t know how to do it in Macedonian, but that hasn’t proved to be too difficult. Having coffee together is something that people do all day at any time of the day, thus the number of coffee shops around. There are no cookies or treats as we might have at home, just coffee and lots of talking. We enjoyed our visit with Spire this morning and Kyle joined us toward the end and sipped on a cup of coffee as well. We had planned to go with Spire to be introduced to the director of the Chamber of Commerce. Upon arriving, we found the business locked and Spire thought the person may have been in a meeting or out of town. I have already learned that things don’t always happen on a schedule here and that you have to be flexible with your time. It was about lunch time sooooo we just went to lunch!  We ate at a restaurant called Excalibur. It was very good and lunches are very leisurely. We tried again to contact the director of the Chamber of Commerce with no luck. Danny’s friend Tale who is from here but now lives in Ruston, LA had sent a wish list of some things he would like us to bring him back from home. We tried to find one of the items in a specific shop in town, but the shop was closed until 4 p.m. suggesting a “siesta” time. Shops seem to open and close at will. We found another church member, Betti, in a shop where she sells curtains, and stopped for introductions. When Danny was here last year, our daughter in law Ashley was pregnant with the twins. Many of these people, including Betti, are now his facebook friends and have seen pictures of the twins. They all ask about the twins and our reaction to grandparenting and of course I have to show them the latest pictures! After visiting with Betti, we met with Dime, a local jewelry artist, for coffee. Dime attends Kyle and Jackie’s Tuesday night Bible Study but was preparing for a fishing trip and missed this week. He is a very entertaining fella and did a really good job with his English while visiting with us. Danny told him that I used to make jewelry as a hobby and he has invited us to his home to see his jewelry and to watch him create. We will probably do that next week. We spent the late afternoon at our apartment preparing for tonights seminar and finishing some laundry. We led a seminar tonight based on a parenting book that we have read and that the group we were speaking to have studied. The name of the book is Shepherding a Child’s Heart. It was enlightening to us as we read it of things that we did both right and wrong in rearing our own children. We also learned that things we might have done right were done with the wrong motivation. Most of the time the motivation was purely selfish instead of God centered which did nothing to point our children toward the Lord and help them learn to model themselves after God’s own heart. Danny gave an overview of the book and we both gave examples of things we wish we had done differently. The book isn’t the authority on child rearing, but it is great food for thought and the thoughts on discipline are directly from scripture. We wish the book had been available when our children were young. We have great kids, but we could have used some help in the whys and hows of disciplining. After the seminar we came back to the apartment for a light meal and cookies. Danny is spending some time altering his teaching for a group we will teach tomorrow evening in Ohrid. Tomorrow we will spend the day doing some sightseeing in Ohrid before the seminar. Until tomorrow…