Mark Play

 I've spent the past week in good old Graz. Over the weekend, we had some great times!  This weekend was the "GrazFest," their annual city festival. There was music and lots of delicious food set up near Hauptplatz.  Saturday, I hung out with Tugba and we had so much fun together, as usual. We went for a little bike ride along the river, and while we were biking we stumbled on a kayak trick team. (I tried to post a video, but I'm not sure if it will be able to play or not)... but I also got a series of photos as he was doing a back flip in the water!

On Sunday, we went to church at Sebastian's church. Stina, Carmen, and Tugba all came with me. It was Tugba's first Christian church service!  It was very different for her, because in Muslim mosques, they cannot have pictures or icons inside, they cannot have instruments or play music, you have to be "clean" to go inside, dressed appropriately, wearing long and loose clothing and covering your hair, you take off your shoes, and they cannot have any food inside. Pretty different! After the service, there was coffee and juice, bread and spreads, fruit, and muffins for everyone. She was so surprised!  It was great. I wish it could have been in English, though, so that she could have understood what was being said and the lyrics to the songs. 

Sunday afternoon, I went with Stina and Carmen to a play about the Gospel of Mark. It was so great! It acted out the life of Jesus. The actors started preparing 6 weeks before the play, be reading Mark very thoroughly and studying each part. They didn't find out which part they would play until 3 days before the play, so that each person would study every role. Pretty cool concept!  We had been praying that God would bring people to this play, and He did. The place was packed on Saturday and on Sunday- great turnout!  He is so faithful  :)

Sunday night, I hung out with Tugba, Stina, Carmen, and our friend "Tony 2." His real name is Ardlin, but we all call him Tony because we used to think that was his name.  Anyway... he only speaks German, so it's kind of hard to communicate with him, but he's so much fun. We had a great night, listening to music and hanging out downtown.