"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