Here are the last two stories in this series that we have been publishing since the Autumn.   Each of the students you have read about need your prayer as they continue to prepare for mission at the Bible School in Belgrade, Serbia. 

Mateja:

I heard about God when I was very small from my believing parents and experienced Him as my closest friend.  As I grew, whilst I was experiencing and more of His great love, I found big difficulties at school from those who didn’t understand my relationship with Him.  I used to “escape” to my room – the one safe place where I read the Bible religiously and understood the words but I didn’t put them into practice.

The great pressure and humiliation at school led me to fall into depression – I was full of bitterness and pain.  One Sunday, my father spoke the words of Jesus – to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us – I realised finally that Jesus had suffered for me.

The difficulties continued but I saw that it actually was an honour to suffer for Jesus – that He could use me in the midst of this.  I had a joy as I continued.  Now I open the Bible – I don’t read mechanically…  knowledge isn’t what makes a difference alone: it is living out, putting into practice the truth that changes things.  I am now at the Bible School where I continue to learn to put into practice Jesus’ teaching…

 

Nenad:

I’m from Leskovac – South Serbia.  A few years ago I was an aggressive, hard man.  I looked for real freindship but didn’t find it – I felt overwhelmed by emptiness.  My father was an alcoholic.  I decided to commit suicide.

A woman came to my home and said, “Nenad, what are you doing?  She encouraged me, she said “This kind of action is not from God – it is from Satan.”  I sensed God working around me.  I began to cry and decided to turn away from my wrong habits.  But I quickly found myself in the middle of these wrong things again.

Finally I prayed, unable to resolve all of this by myself, “God – only You can keep me from this kind of life – only You can rescue me.  I cannot.”

I lived in the Romany part of our town where there was a group who loved Jesus.  I began to sense peace and God’s love.  I began to be a blessing to my community as I started to love those around me.

Once I was dead – now I’m alive in Jesus Christ!

Here, Vladimir – who has just graduated – shares his story.

I’m Vlada from a Slovak village called Padina in north Serbia and I have just graduated from the Bible School.

I first went to church when I was nine years old – my Mum started to go to church and I went with her.  On my tenth birthday, I said to everyone in the church that I wanted to follow Jesus.  When I was fourteen, just before I went to High School, I thought I would stop walking with Jesus but through nearly being involved in an accident that could have killed me and various other events, God showed me that He still had His hand on my life.  I began to more seriously read the Bible and to pray.  I felt challenged to admit before God and others that I was a sinner who needed God’s grace… I tried to seek peace with those who lived around me and to seek God’s touch in my life.  I began to experience God’s Word living in and changing me.

I finished my year at the Bible School at Christmas time following what has been a year of growth for me.  Some of the best times have been taking my notes from lectures in the day and in the early evening finding a quiet space to go through them and reflect on them alone.

Pray for Vladimir as he begins to serve in Padina…

Hearing the stories of the students of the Bible School is a great encouragement and often a challenge.  Here is Amir’s story followed by Snezana’s – we will send more over the next week…

Amir:

I’m from a Muslim Romany background – my home town is Bosnia.  I heard about Jesus in 2005 when my middle brother – who had heard about Jesus through his wife – sent me on a camp.  The camp was by a lake and there I heard good teaching – I was really impressed too by the way that I heard people worshipping.  On the last night of that camp, they asked, “Who wants to trust Jesus to be their Saviour?”  I said that I did.

Four months later I was baptised and two days after that, my oldest brother died of a heart attack.  I found this a great challenge to my faith but I have learned to trust Him through those hard times and the good times.  I am here at the Bible School to study God’s Word – I am enjoying getting to know others here.  I want to be open for God to use me as He chooses.

 

Snezana

I am 19 years old.  When I was 3, my father became very ill.  When I reached 6 years old, it became clear that he had cancer.  Half of my extended family are followers of Jesus Christ and they wanted to pray for my dad and because of their caring concern, my mum started to go to church.  Near the end of his life, my father was declared clinically dead and my mother prayed that he would live just a little longer so she could prepare for him to go.  One month later, he died.  But in this time he too had trusted Jesus.

My mother looked after me.  When I reached 12 years old, I was on a camp, I dreamed about my father.  I also sensed God’s preparedness to complete and fill me.  I gave my life to Him on this camp and was baptised shortly afterwards.

I pray that with this that life God has given me, I would serve God and be a blessing to others.  I particularly love to work with children.

Two years ago, I came to the Bible School to help to look after children during a conference.  I was so impressed by what I saw that I began to pray that I would be able to one day come to study here.  Almost all of my church is praying for me as I study here and I feel that it’s definitely God’s will that I am here.  It’s been a great blessing so far.

One of the Bible School team, Marijana, taught me when I was 7 years old on a Christian camp.  It is great to be now in the Bible School with her involved in the team.

Last week was the 12th anniversary of my father’s death, I pray for God to take away my brokenness and to have that sense that God is my father.  I have a great peace that I will meet my earthly father again one day with Jesus.

As I look at the future and the mission fields of my town on the Croatian border, I am greatly encouraged by this verse

“Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.  For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

The students of the sixteenth generation of the Bible School continue to share their stories.  This is Dubravka.

 
I am from Veles in Macedonia.  I used to pray and read the Bible but I didn’t understand it.   I even wrote some verses and stuck them in my bedroom.  As I searched for Him, I always felt I hadn’t done enough… My heart said, “There must be more”.

Then, last year I heard about an evangelical church in our town – one of the things that drew me there was that they met in the evening.  When I went there for the first time, they were teaching about the Holy Spirit.  Some used gifts, others sang – it was strange for me.  It was their love for me that drew me to their message…

During the three years before my visit to the church, I couldn’t sleep.  I was afraid of the dark.  I always felt like something was watching me.  I never allowed the light to be turned out at night.  On the evening after hearing about Jesus at the church, the fear was so strong that I expected something to attack me.  In this fear, I began to call Jesus and as I called Him, I repented from my sins and I prayed.  I knew that I needed life, I needed something that was different from the world that would fill me: I needed Jesus in my life.  After my prayer, I fell into a sleep that was deeper and more peaceful than I had ever experienced.

Since then I have been growing in my walk with Jesus…

So many people are in the dark around me and I am still learning to forgive those who have wronged me.  I don’t know the details about what God wants from me when I go home after the Bible School but He has been encouraging me that He has a plan that is good and cannot be stopped!

Zeljko:

My family are Orthodox – I grew up a religious man, praying every night… 

Two years ago, a man called Daniel, who had studied during the the eleventh year of the Bible School here in Belgrade, invited my sister to a group where they talked about Jesus. She came home delighted about Him. I knew that Jesus is the great King – but I had never had any personal connection with Him. When my sister talked to me about Jesus in a personal way, I was very intrigued and asked to come with her to the next meeting…

I realised that I needed to respond personally to His sacrifice for me and this is when everything changed… I was later baptised and am now committed to helping Daniel and others in my church to share the Message of Jesus with our town!

I am here in the school to grow spiritually, to know God’s Word better so that I can share this Good News in turn with others around me.

 

Marija:

I’m from Negotin in Macedonia. I came to know Jesus only in January of this year.

In my home town there were some public lectures in the theatre about spiritual themes. I came and heard the story of Zachaeus. I was struck by the words, “The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost…”  I felt lost – one reason for this was because I had not known my father – he left us before I was even born and was then killed in a car accident when I was eleven. I spent my life trying to find a father’s love in my friends or in my boyfriend but I never found it. I was searching for what I was missing but didn’t know where to look.

At this lecture, I received a Bible as a present and began to read it.

I worked in a bakery and the owners talked with me and encouraged me to respond to what I was reading. I went to meet with this couple’s church where the Message of Jesus brought me to tears. I prayed – I wanted Jesus to forgive me and clean me and I wanted to follow Him.

I began to help my church by telling others about the fulfillment that Jesus brings to a person’s life, travelling to the towns around our own.

I have now come to the Bible School now because I want to know God’s Word better and to mature spiritually. I sense that I am growing and changing here.