We arrived in Serbia two days ago after another long, hard and interesting travel experience. By the time we got here we had been traveling for 24 hours and we were exhausted and slightly delirious. Our contact, Lydia, and the Pastor of the church we’re partnering with met us at the bus station. They led us to our house we’re living in for the month, we dropped our stuff off, and then they took us to the Pastor and his family’s apartment for lunch. I kept thinking I was hearing what the Pastor’s name is but then I just wasn’t sure if I was hearing things correctly. Once we got to his home I discovered that his name really is what I thought I had heard, Dragon. His name is Pastor Dragon.
While we were at his home, getting spoiled with Turkish coffee and a delicious meal, I began to ask him and Lydia questions about their lives. How they came to know the Lord and how they all came to know each other. Their stories are incredible. Lydia became a Christian 16 years ago, her oldest son was three years old and she discovered he was blind in his right eye. This was also during the Balkan War and times were very difficult for Serbians. She started attending a church and that is the same church that Pastor Dragon was attending. Pastor Dragon was the very first Christian in Pozeravic. Can you imagine being the very first Christian in your entire city?
He became a Christian as a young man through a young woman whom he grew up with in his village. He smiled and his wife jokingly walked out of the room during this part of the story as he said that he had a crush on this girl and she began writing him letters telling him all about Jesus. She wrote him letters consistently for many months before he finally decided to go back to his home village to visit the girl. She invited him to church and that is where he met the Lord. He said that he felt as if the Pastor was speaking only to him. After church he asked the girl many questions and she was very patient in trying to answer them all for him. Again, this was during the Balkan War when all the men were being called on to go to war.
The Lord spared Pastor Dragon over and over again. Every time they would go to his house or his work to find him he just happened to not be there. His younger brother had to fight in the war but he never did. It is clear that Pastor Dragon is a special man and many people saw that in him. From the girl faithfully writing him letters to tell him about Jesus, to the many men in his life who spoke to him telling him he was going to be a Pastor, to the Lord sparing him from the War and making him the very first Christian in his entire city – Pastor Dragon was set apart by the Lord. And now Pastor Dragon is a strong man of God, eager to breathe the fire of the Holy Spirit into this city.
The Lord called up Pastor Dragon and his wife whom he met later in the church, and also Lydia, all at the same time, in the middle of a war, to start a different army, an army for the Lord. They are the first, and besides their children, the only Christians in their families. Their children are the only Christians in their schools. Walking the streets of the city you do not see any churches. Their church meets in a hole-in-the-wall rented room and there are only ten people from the city who attend and maybe 20 people from outside villages that come. They are literally pioneers of the faith here and they have a daunting calling before them. And as missionaries coming alongside them, we have a daunting task as well. We are here to serve these absolutely amazing brothers and sisters in Christ in any way we can and encourage them in the work they are doing for the Kingdom here in Serbia. We are the first missionary team to come here so please pray for us. That we can accomplish much in our short time here and lay a strong foundation for future missionaries to be able to accomplish so much more.
