Our location this month is Požaravec, Serbia. It is a small city about an hour east of the capital city of Belgrade. There are a LOT of young people in Požaravec. Every night the main streets are blocked off and all of the cafes and restaurants are open. The very first night we arrived, some friends from the church we are partnering with took us into town to walk around and get a feel for the city. We were amazed at the amount of kids, teenagers and adults are out every night.
The next night we had a meeting with Pastor Dragan, the Pastor of the Church we are partnering with, his wife Katya, Lydia (one of our hosts and our lovely translator), and another member of the church about our month of ministry here. While we will be helping with church services by sharing testimonies, helping with worship, and helping with weekly sisters/brothers meetings and house churches, what they really want from us is for us to reach out to people in their city and to love them.
The Church is a small evangelical church of less than 50 people. They meet in a refurbished garage on Sundays that comfortably sits about 32 people. For the last 9 years they have been trying to raise money for a bigger building closer into town. Most Serbians consider themselves part of the Orthodox Church and that evangelical Christians here aren’t even considered Serbians anymore. We also want to pour into our hosts and give them rest. Pastor Dragan has been the only full time pastor at the church since he started it 21 years ago. There aren’t enough people who attend the church, so he doesn’t get paid for the work that he does. To make a living, he and his wife also own a clothing store in town.
Our ministry this month is flexible, most days we go into town and sit at a café. We ask the Lord to reveal to us who he wants us to speak to and we talk to them the best we can with the language barrier. Most young people here speak at least some English. Although we may not see the fruit of the work we are doing, we love the people of Požaravec the way that Jesus loves people. We are being the hands and feet of Jesus and seeking to love people by genuinely caring about them and being willing to listen to their stories.
We don’t have a ministry this month where we can just go through the motions. It is completely and solely relying on the Lord and listening to what He is asking us to do. It is walking up to people that we don’t know and having a conversation with them.
Požaravec needs your prayers. My team and I can’t save this city; we can only share the Gospel with as many people as we can. People here are thirsty for the love of Christ, even if they don’t realize that is what they are missing. They are looking for a well to drink from that will satisfy them. In the book of John, Jesus said “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never become thirsty again” (John 4:13-14). The people of Požaravec are drinking from a well that will only leave them with a deeper thirst. Our purpose here is to offer them a drink from the water that Jesus offers so that they will never be thirsty again.
I’m still figuring out a lot of things. All of my comforts have been stripped away: family, friends, speaking my native language, my autonomy, my house… the list keeps going but what I have realized is that without those things I truly have to rely on Jesus. Something I read from the book Kingdom Journeys describes what it feels like to leave all of your comforts behind to seek Him: “Jesus knew we would never learn to rely on God unless we walked away from the crutches we’re prone to lean on. Just the physical act of leaving brings about spiritual fruit. We learn to depend on his Spirit by breaking unhealthy habits and addictive comforts. Learning to leave is how we find our true selves.” The time spent in this city has shown me that I need to drink the water Jesus is offering daily, because without it I have nothing to offer them.
Prayer Requests:
- For the people of Požaravec to recognize their need for Jesus
- For the Pastor, his wife, and for the other members of the church that work hard to ensure that there is a service every week
- For our team
- that we would develop an authentic, Christ centered community with one another
- that we would be obedient to what God is calling us to do here in Serbia
- For funding—most of my team, including myself are still not fully funded. In order to stay on the mission field, we need those funds by the end of November.
