Last Sunday my team traveled to Zlatibor, Serbia (about 30 min. away) to join a team of believers for worship. This team of people, from different areas of Eastern Europe, are involved in a 6-week training to disciple youth through Child Evangelism Fellowship. We were their guests and thus enjoyed watermelon (which is very abundant and flavorful, along with tomatoes and many other fruits and veggies in Serbia) and tea with them. We spent time sharing our ministries with each other and playing with their kids before worship.
At the front of the church, I introduced my teammates and myself and the work we have been doing in Serbia. Ben was invited to give his testimony, and this was actually the first time our team has heard it also (we are working through everyone’s testimony; one each morning).
We sang worship songs in Serbian…songs that were familiar to us so we could easily know what we were singing.
We heard an amazing teaching from a pastor who is from Hungary. This man taught on the extraordinary reality that God appears to humans (ex. to Abram in Genesis 17:1)…that God, the creator of all things, speaks to humans (to Abram in Genesis 17:2)…that when we speak of God, to speak of it with authority, not to condemn with the law (as Jesus did in Matthew 7:29). This man was on fire…my team sat back for the first 10 minutes to feel him out. He could have been mistaken as an actor from Saturday Night Live. He had this bouncy energy and this huge grin and spoke as if he was acting out a story to a group of kids. There was an urgency and a peace in what he was saying and the way he was saying it. He was filled with the Holy Spirit for sure…to the point of seeming foolish. He filled his simple but profound message with humor, joy, and faith like a rock to teach with absolute assurance.
Originally, we were invited to be an encouragement to the believers of this church. I pray that we were an encouragement. Further, I know that what we received from our time in Zlatibor was definitely an encouragement to us in many ways. First of all, to be worshiping with a group of believers was quite refreshing, since we live in a town that does not have a body a believers that gather like this. I was able to learn of their work in surrounding countries, such as Croatia. Secondly, a few members on my team were feeling discouraged since a lot of the work we do this month may not bear fruit for us to see while we are here. One example of this was our labor in preparing a camp in Cacak. We left right before campers arrived and were not able to be a part of the kids learning about Christ and their desiring to pursue a relationship with Him. However, before worship on Sunday, it was announced that a young man, at the camp in Cacak, decided to pursue a personal relationship with God and began diligently asking more about this new relationship. What an encouragement to us!
God’s perfect timing is becoming more evident to me every day.
