We are Isa and Elza… from Macedonia

Over the next few days, you will meet a number of the students currently studying at HUB…

We are Isa and Elza… from Macedonia – the area of Prilep.  We’re from Romany Muslim families…

Isa: When I was young, my uncle told me about Jesus and took me to a church.  Because my family was a Muslim family, my father eventually banned me from going with my uncle.

As a teenager I made many mistakes and problems – yet I knew that God could see everything.  One night, I had a dream of Jesus coming from the East in great glory and I was not good enough to say “Let me come with you”.  At that moment, I awoke and said, “God thank you that this was only a dream…”  I knew that I needed to experience change.  I started to read the Bible in secret and go to the church in secret too.

After a year, my father saw a change in me – neighbours no longer came to complain about me!  The money I earnt, I gave to my family instead of spending it on myself.  Finally, one day, my father asked me, “What is with you?  What has changed?”

I explained that I had become a follower of Christ.  I expected that I would be rejected by my family, told to leave my home and lose everything that I had but because of the positive change in my life, he said, “It’s better that you go to church than you create havoc in the neighbourhood.”

I felt like the happiest man in my county – I could now freely meet with others who love Christ.

Elza: The pastor in our local church is my cousin.  He came to my home for family events and he took these opportunities to tell us all about Jesus.  Each time that he spoke about Jesus, my older sister would listen but I would go and switch on the TV or the radio…  He thought I would never be open to the Message.  He gave me a little brochure with questions about Jesus and I used to take this and leaf through it…

A friend of mine invited me to come to church with her and there I heard Christians worshiping together, it was very good to hear. Over the next week, things changed very fast as I entrusted my life to Jesus.

My mother was a very religious Muslim and began to make problems for me because I went to church.  My father said, you are now 21 and no one will want to marry you because you go to that church.  I could see that they were trying to control me but I said, “If the day comes that God wants me to marry, He will provide a husband for me.”  The whole of my family and community rejected me as insane becasue of my growing faith and accused me of many things.

After a year, I met Isa…

Isa: We met each other and for three months I prayed that Elza would be my wife…

Elza: Meanwhile, I was praying that Isa would be my husband!  When we finally spent some time together, we knew that we would be together for always…

Isa: After 18 months of our marriage, we went to Veles to serve as missionaries alongside a local church.  We went to particularly work amongst Muslim Romi people.

Elza: We now have three children – Sara and twins Aron and Arona…

Isa: We have come to the school after these four years of mission work in Veles.  Throughout this time we have been praying that one day God would open the way for us to come to this Bible School.

We pray that this time at the Bible School would be one of refreshment and study.  Our hearts are with our people and although we don’t know exactly where God will lead us after our studies, we pray that He will use us among them.