Unreached people groups are defined as having less than 2% reached. The Roma in Serbia barely squeak by with 3% of these precious ones reached for the gospel.

A group from one of our partner churches, FBC Sherwood, leaves Friday, June 28 for two weeks working among the Roma. Please let us know if you have any questions. We LOVE Serbia, and we LOVE the Roma, and are happy to share!

"God, give us more chairs . . . . "

“God, give us more chairs so that everyone can be sitting and we pray that more children come to hear what our teacher is teaching us.” – This is a prayer of ten years old Andjela. This prayer has warmed our hearts because we see that children are very interested and understand what Slavica is teaching them. They also recognize the needs of our church. There are 32 children who regularly come to our children’s meetings. We have room only for twenty, so we had to put all girls age 12 and 13 into youth group. We also think about splitting children group into two, but we are still not sure about that. We are going through the book “Pilgrim Progress” with children and these lectures are very good and educational. As we teach them biblical truths the children also have opportunity to read a text out loud, so at the same time they learn how to read. (Some children, even though they are first, second or third grade, still don’t read well. Their parents don’t spend enough time with them, because of their work, while teachers in the school don’t want to bother much with Roma children, not expecting that they can be good in school. That’s the reason why so many Roma children don’t even finish Primary School).

Since most children are from Roma settlement (where we had Children’s Club with Amigos), they have to cross some streets with very busy traffic to get to the Church, so we decided that David, Pera, Niki and Milos take children to the Church and back to their homes. Many parents were encouraged with this, for they see that we do care for their children.

Another good thing is that we managed to build very good relationship and communication with some parents. Some of them come to church. We understand that this relationship is very important and we do our best to have positive influence. We are happy how things develop, but we can still improve.

On the International Day of Roma people we had appearance in the city museum. We sang two songs (‘Hear o people what will happen’ and ‘Brother, sister, don’t be afraid for Jesus is here’). Stefan and Elvira recited two poems. On this occasion we rented our projector to the Roma Association for 1.000 dinars (some $12). We allocated this money for the room rent. The whole event was covered by the media. Interestingly enough, some people thought that the event was organized by us for they believed that we were able to do that. We praise God for opportunities like this.

After we visited Jasenica, people expressed their desire to visit our church, so I went to pick them up by our car and brought them back after the service. They were thrilled with the atmosphere in the church. They were especially touched by worship our youth performed. Since they knew some songs, they joined us in worship. They were touched with songs, sermon and fellowship. They were able to see, hear and experience, so we believe that this will move them to share the gospel with others in their village. We would like them to attend our church meeting once a month and we want to visit them twice a month.

Also in April, I invited brother Rade from Zitni potok to come and spend few days with us, to be encouraged and spend some time with young people in fellowship with God. He experienced something really special. He had opportunity to see God’s work from different point of view. I believe this will improve the work in this house group. Rade is willing to learn, but he said he needs someone to teach him. I’m thinking about taking him every month for a few days to come to Prokuplje and work together on discipleship and Bible study.

A few new people have started to attend our meetings. Some of them are parents of the children who come to our church. Some older people come from another Roma settlement (I go by car to pick them up and then after service I bring them back to their home). For now nobody have his/her life to Jesus, but I teach them God’s Word and God’s plan of salvation. This means that the offering is also bigger. We are aware that financial income will be bigger if more people come, but this room is now getting small for all the activities we do now. Very quickly the room warms up and there is a lack of air, but we are very thankful for the room because we believe, when time comes, God will give us something better and bigger.

As the youthwork is concerned, I could write a lot, but I’ll point out only few things. We are still working on the worship team. The group which leads worship is functioning well, but there is a lot of work to be done yet. David started to play keyboards. He had an old keyboard in very bad shape, but we bought some parts for it (we cannot buy some parts), but some parts cannot even be fixed, so it works only 70%. I would like to use this opportunity and ask you to help us to buy a better keyboard. This is what we really need. (Someone has already stepped up to meet this need, so please read the rest of the post for other items that are needed!)  

Niki quickly progressed in playing the guitar which we bought thanks to you. Beside them Pera plays that interesting instrument (something like tam tam). They meet every day after school at 7 p.m. for rehearsal. This change in worship is an answer to our prayers. We are very happy because of this small, but blessed band.

A few young people, under the leadership of David, are responsible for many activities – music rehearsals, organizing prayer meetings, maintaining the church room… This is of great help to me because now I have more time for preparations, planning, visits, etc. and it refreshes us spiritually. It took a lot of hard work to get there and we are thankful for all good things that are happening. We study some modern themes with our young people, such as: Alcohol and the Bible, Life in the world and spiritual life, etc.

The summer is approaching and we know that many people will go after seasonal jobs, but we know that some new people will come. We know this is inevitable, but we still are concerned about the people who will be absent for some time due to the job, but we believe that God will take care for His Church.

Right now we are going through very interesting period in the life of our church, but every new period helps us to see God in a different and better way. God is with us. He hears our prayers and answers them. Very often when we felt that we were losing strength God gave us that supernatural strength. The experiences with God and knowing that He will continue to work among us gives us strength to believe even when we cannot see clearly what’s going on.

Thank you for your support and your prayers Jim. It means a lot to us. We are very much thankful for God’s mercy and for all of you.

Yours in Christ,
Marijan and Slavica

After many years, God has been preparing the way . . . .

We rejoice for the great work God is doing among Roma people in this part of Serbia. I want to share with you one of our experiences which can also be a testimony for the glory of God.

During years we have been visiting house groups in Dubovo and Zitni potok. We have always been praying for the villages we travel through, but also for other villages which are neither far nor close to Prokuplje. We have been thinking a lot about those villages as we’ve been passing through them and looking for the ways to get in touch with anybody from those villages to be able to start a house group there, but we never found opportunity. Maybe it was just our desire, but not the right time. After many years God has been preparing the way. We knew that God is doing something, but we were not sure what and when things will start to happen, things for which we’ve been praying for and still are.

On Wednesday, April 10^th, Caca, David and I visited people in the house group which we officially started last month. Of course, as every time, we prayed during our journey there and were very excited, looking forward to get there.

This time we had a meeting in the house of Velja and Malina. Alongside them, three more people came for the first time. Their relatives (one person from the village of Jasenica and three persons from the village of Sainovac). Velja invited them to come to hear from us directly what we believe.

Velja lives in the house with his wife Malina and son Nikola. Velja is ex musician who stopped to play guitar many years ago. The song we played and sang last time woke up a desire in him to start to play again. Velja said that he needs some time to start, but this time he will be playing different kind of music – music which will glorify God. Last time we visited them, he asked if we could obtain an old guitar for him. In my basement I had an old guitar and I gave it to him. He was really happy for that.

This was an opportunity we knew we should not miss, but we did not hurry. After the warm welcome and getting to know each others, we started to talk about God and our ministry. To be good speaker means to be patient and to be good listeners. That’s exactly what we did this time. We listened those people first. They shared their problems, their experiences with God and the way they believe in God. After that Caca shared her testimony, her experiences and twenty years of walk with God. As people listened to her testimony, they couldn’t stay indifferent. They felt that she spoke with the power and that it doesn’t come from man.

After that we sang two Roma songs (To you be the glory God, for you know my troubles and Hear o people, there will be sickness and famine). I have to say that Velja and his family joined us in singing. It had good influence on other people who were with us. After songs we were talking about our faith and God’s Word.

At the end a person from the village of Jasenica (Valentina) asked us to come to her home to pray for her baby who was born with problems similar to our son’s Filip. The baby is still in the hospital and is two months old. We suggested her to talk first to her husband and if he agrees we would come. We encouraged her to trust God and shared our testimony about Filip.

We know that this is still very fresh and that we have to be very careful and wise to be able to share the truth about Christ and His love in the best way to these people.

We pray and believe . . . .

Report from Marijan and Slavica -- home church, Toponica, south Serbia:

As I have said before, we meet in the house of a man called Ljubisa, but during our visit another family expressed a desire to meet in their house. This time a few new people came to see what is it that we believe and preach. So, out of 22 adult people (Roma population) in the village, 12 came to the meeting. We pray and believe that all of them will have the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

Stefan was with me. Stefan shared his testimony at the beginning and read a few verses from the Bible which show that life without God has no purpose and that everything this world offers is only fake comfort, which he experienced before he met the source of life. Since some parents alongside their children were present, of a similar age as Stefan, his message attracted their attention. You could see on their faces that they were touched because their family relationships are not as they wanted.

They told us they heard about God from Jehovah Witnesses, but they were not impressed with their talk because they didn’t recognize the honesty and love they saw in us. Stefan’s message and his testimony, as well as good atmosphere during Bible reading, was excellent introduction to worship. We noticed that unlike first time, this time everybody was singing with us. They shared that they enjoyed songs that we sang. The songs were about God sending His Holy Spirit, songs of thanksgiving and prayer for help. As we were singing these songs, many of them were so touched that they couldn’t hide the tears.

Last time as we visited them, we had a discussion about tradition and customs, so we continued to talk about it, comparing faith in tradition and Biblical faith, which comes through repentance. Since people in this village are a bit more educated and literate, they understood what Bible teaches about repentance, so they had some very interesting questions about it. So far none of them gave their life to Christ, but we don’t want to push it, but rather let them to come to that point by themselves and we believe it won’t take much time.

After our meeting, we distributed five New Testaments and as much tracts “Who is God” and “The life of Jesus Christ” and three CDs with Roma Christian music. We hope that next time we visit them we’ll hear that they started to read the Bible. Since we visited them only once, traveling expenses were 1,000 dinars/$13

Short, and So Very Sweet

A report came in this morning from south Serbia. I am pasting below, with photos taken on various trips. All photos are of the Roma community in Serbia, taken by Linking Partners.


We have good news. Yesterday we were visiting the village Toponica. There were people from the village Jasenica and Sainovac.

We were unable to take pictures. People from the village of Jasenica call us today to visit them so that today we spent 5 hours visiting people in the village.

Pray for us as God is leading us to announce the Gospel in this village. I'll Let you know how it was. Marijan and Slavica

This makes at least five villages that are begging for the Gospel to be brought to them, in addition to the church in Prokuplje. Pray for Marijan and Slavica, and their sons Filip and Andrija, as this is a big responsibility. Pray also for the young men who are stepping up to be disciples who make disciples -- David, Stefan, Petar, Danijel, Nikki, and others.

God is in the miracle business!

This post is directly from pastor Marijan in south Serbia. Please note that David is a young man in high school!

FBCSherwood group visiting home church in Zitni Potok, Summer 2012

At the beginning of the month I visited brothers and sisters in Zitni potok. As we were interring the village I had a strong impression of a spiritual pressure. Since David was going with me, I shared with him my „experience“. We immediately new that something was going on in the village. Since we were a bit late (around 5:30 p.m.) first we noticed that whole settlement where Roma people live doesn't have electricity. When we gathered in the house of brother Goran (Rade's father) we heard that they were not having electricity for 36 hours. But their problem was much bigger than we thought. Many brothers and sisters who attend the house group have big material needs. Some of them ran out of wood for heating and an electric heater was the only mean of heating. Since there was no electricity they were in a cold for 36 hours. The reason electricity was turned off is that the whole settlement is not legalized and almost 95% homes don’t have an electricity meter. Officials from Electric Company demanded that each family has to sign a contract for legal introduction of electricity, but it is unacceptable for people who live on 10-12.000 dinars per month ($115 to $138 American Dollars). That’s why Electric Company unplugged the whole electricity altogether.

I am talking about this not to show you the extent of the problem, but to share with you how great is our heavenly Father who changes circumstances when their children pray and makes possible what looks impossible to us.

As I was listening our dear brothers and sisters and their problem, I just couldn’t believe that God would not react to such things..

1.     David had a short, but very encouraging message. He spoke from Mathew 7:7-8. As he was speaking from the Word we were aware of God’s presence and even then our hearts were more and more filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. After that I also shared something from the Word of God about prayer – a kind of prayer that reaches God’s throne and a kind that doesn’t.

2.     In that home atmosphere we were able to smell the victory. We just wanted to praise God and pray for all of us were in the state of expectance. We knew that if we seek God and ask Him for the electricity that He will answer our prayers. We didn’t know how, we just simply believed.

3.     We started with worship and prayers. Many prayers were said in faith, with sighs and cries and tears. In those few minutes we all were in the spiritual battle – all together – grownups, even children joined us in this battle. We prayed as one, confessed, proclaimed and thanked God. Those moments were very special and unique. Many till then never experienced anything like that, they did not know that such dimension, power, anointing and power exist. We’ve received great revelation from God.

4.     We were all in prayer with our eyes closed and nobody noticed what happened (except David who was taking pictures). Little girl called Marija (7) who also prayed out loud in faith. As she was praying all of a sudden she cried out: Electricity! Electricity! When we opened our eyes we saw electric bulbs turned on after 36 hours. This is great miracle. After that we continued in prayer, now even louder giving thanks to God for His faithfulness and goodness.

5.     God answered our prayers and the words David had read just a half an hour earlier came true - "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh  receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

            We really don’t know what happened that they decided to give electricity to those people, but we are immensely thankful to God for what He is doing. As we were going home leaving the place, we saw many people amazed about what happened. They didn’t know, but we knew that it was an answer to our prayers.

"I heard you can tell us about Jesus. Would you please visit us?"

 

 Toponica village is on the way to Dubovo, few kilometers behind Zitoradja.
It is situated some 20 kilometers from Prokuplje.  We have learned that
there are about 150-200 people who live there (some 69 families). People are
mostly Orthodox and pretty poor and Roma families in the village live beyond
poverty and mainly engaged in seasonal work. We don't know how they learned
about us, but they told us that they heard about us from some people. They
met Sasa and wanted to know more about our church. Sasa told me about them
and we visited that family.

When we visited them for the first time David, Arben and Sasa's wife
Lidija came along with us. We are especially glad that Lidija came because
we wanted her to be more active in visiting people, because we believe that
it means a lot for her spiritual growth and development. We believe that
we'll be able to motivate her for that, but we also need Sasa's support in
this.

As I have informed you earlier, Ljubisa (40) has opened his home for the
gospel. He is very educated man and in comparison with other Roma houses in
the village, his house is quite good. He lives with his wife, two sons,
daughter-in-law, his mother and two grandsons. They welcomed us in their
home with much gratitude. We told them who we are, what we believe and
preach. Sasa also shared his testimony. They were listening with much
attention , asked questions about Roma's tradition. We are very happy about
this first visit and much encouraged. Right then we set our next visit.

After ten days we visited them again and we were happily surprised.
Beside Ljubisa's family there was also another family whom Ljubisa invited
to join the meeting. That's a family of three, so during our second visit, 20-22 people attended, and there were 9 new people who came.  

For the first time we have experienced that a house group which is not yet
formed has been visited by so many people. We think that it might be because
it is very small village and there is not much going on there, people were
curious and wanted to see and hear what it is about. Whatever the reason we
were very excited about that.


David had opportunity to share how God worked in his life, how his heart
has been changed and that he is great testimony in his home and the place
where he lives.

Sasa also shared what we believe, why church, etc. It seems that they liked
everything they heard, but not much excited until we started to sing. We
could have seen the radiance on their faces during time of worship and we
were able to see that the Holy Spirit works in their hearts. After that and
a prayer they tried to explain their experience during time of worship. They
were especially touched with the prayer in their own language. They told us
that the prayer gave them assurance that we are "the right ones". They told
us to bring them CDs with songs in Roma language and material for Bible
study. We couldn't believe what we heard, because we thought that maybe it
is still too early for something like that, but God has taught us a
beautiful lesson.

Maybe it is too soon for conclusions, but we can see some faith in these
people's hearts. This small faith has a potential to grow and to become
faith which God wants all new born believers to have. I know that we are
responsible what will happen with this people and the village so we pray for
God's guidance and wisdom, especially when time comes when the whole village
will hear about us, their comments and reactions.

We want to visit them more often and every time to bring some young people
with us, to give them a chance to share God's Word with those people and to
grow in their faith in such a way.