As our month in Serbia comes to a close, I can easily say that the most rewarding part of the month for me has been working with my new friend, Petar Zivkovic. Petar is a new Christian, and he clearly has a hunger and a longing for God. This past week especially, we have poured over the Scriptures (Genesis, Romans and Hebrews, to be exact) at his request. Petar clearly has a heart that has been tampered with by God and it is evident both in the way he speaks and in his incredible testimony. Though this will never do his story justice, here is a bit of it in interview form:
What was your life like before you became a Christian?
“I grew up in an Orthodox family, though I did not have any close contact with God. My Orthodox church was how people made their relationships with God. I did not find it to be friendly to kids, so I did not enjoy it. I did not feel freedom in it– freedom to worship the way I wanted to. I knew some Bible stories, like Adam and Eve, and a few from the New Testament, but by the time I was a teenager everything was different.
I started using drugs and alcohol and had a passion for fighting during football games. At first it was just light drugs, but later it was cocaine, heroin, speed, and prescription pills. Anything I could find on the Serbian market, I used. I became addicted and during the addiction I was looking for an answer – where is my place under the sun? I was in rehabilitation in the hospital, but it did not help me quit.
My head injury was a key moment in my life. I can look at my life before and after my head injury and it was very different. I was in a coma for twelve days after being hit in the head many times with a steel pipe during a fight before a football game. The doctors had to remove pieces of bone from inside of my brain. I wasn’t supposed to live and I still cannot remember all of May 2006.”
How did you discover God?
“In autumn of 2009, I met a missionary from Canada, Matthew, who was living in Uzice. I met him in the center of town while he was looking for an Internet café. Because I knew English, I started a conversation with him and we exchanged our phone numbers so we could keep in touch. He said that I could come meet up with the team he was living with.
I didn’t expect anything, but he called me two days later and we had a meeting together. I met his teammate, Leah, in a café, and I started to talk to their leader, Chris. I told him my opinion of Christianity. I told him that I thought there was a God but sometimes I did not believe it on my bad days. In Serbia when there was poverty and crisis, I wondered why God didn’t stop it. That was my opinion.
Chris explained to me that everything was perfect and we were close to God, but we have cut off our relationship with God and that the “wages of sin is death”—and that made sense. I felt something in his personality that said “this guy may be right.” The only people who can talk about the Bible in Orthodoxy are the Priests—it is not so pleasant to talk with them. Chris was huge and bald, so I thought he was a hooligan. I thought that religious people had beards and kept silent all the time, and were not funny guys from Holland who smiles all the time.
Chris also talked to me about God, and Chris was a guy like me—this was completely new for me. Of course, little by little, I came to Chris’s orange house on Sundays for church. I also went with Chris and Mirjam to Romania and went to a church where I felt free. Chris gave me a New Testament and wrote me some guiding wishes.”
How has your life changed since then?
“There have been some ups and downs—at first I felt alone when Chris and Mirjam were on holiday in Holland and I felt like I needed them. Now, I have a wish and a will to read the Bible on my own.
I think that I have accepted a new value system now. In the past, I didn’t have any value system at all. I can live according the Bible’s instructions and I just feel better now. When I say to my mother or sister “Sorry for not doing this or that”, I am more open to other people and I want to help other people. I like to say simple words like “sorry”, “please”, “I can fix that”, and I believe that is me being a new person in Christ.
Pride is still a problem and I still feel it, and since I applied God’s word and I noticed some changes. I have started to hear other people and not just tell my own stories—it is a kind of understanding and that is a new thing to appreciate their world and their deeds. I still feel that I need some more Christian people around me. It is easier for me to see what changes I need to make.
Since last year, I have started to pray and talk to God every day and every night when I am in my room. With only doing that, I feel better. From the beginning, I prayed for other people, but now I pray for myself too.”
How can we pray for you?
“Just pray for wisdom to make right decisions. Life is full of decisions, and we are on a good path. Pray for me to understand the Bible better so I can come closer to God. You can also pray for people from outside of Serbia to come and make Uzice the center of Christianity in the future.”
What are your plans for this next year?
“This year is my last year of school (studying tourism), but it’s not about my plan, it’s about God’s plan. I just know to pray and to notice what God gives to me. When I realize that, I will know what God has for me. Maybe I will be a missionary; maybe I will work in tourism. I want to see and recognize God’s plan.”
How do you plan to bring the Gospel to Uzice, Serbia?
“The older generations are not ready yet and are very closed to influences of foreigners, but I think the younger generation is more open. I might be the first protestant believer of my age from this town. The keyword is time—this is just the beginning, and any kind of beginning is always difficult. It is good to talk to the younger generations.”
