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The Character of the Bible School Graduates

LISA WRITES:

“In our time in Serbia so far, we have been privileged to meet a number of graduates of the Bible School, as well as their families. They are without exception fully devoted, highly amazing, inspiringly humble warriors of God.

“The work that is being done with children here is alive and growing, and appears to be making an impact in the lives of both the children and their families for the Gospel.

“We really got to see the servant hearts of the guys yesterday as ‘boss Jan’ and Dragan taught us how to build a road and sweated alongside us!

“As with everyone serving Jesus these families need our love and prayer to take on the immense task of reaching a lost world. I pray God will keep their eyes on him, give theme : strength and fill them with unbelievable joy.” 🙂

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DAY 4: Finishing at the Camp, to Kragujevac and the Belgrade

Right now we are finishing our work at the camp…

Floors are being laid, a fire of branches cut from trees that overhung the road we laid yesterday burns, rooms are being cleaned for a final time…

All of this work is punctuated by interviews with Bible School graduates who are coming and going. Jovica and Kaca shared about sharing about Jesus following the earthquake that hit their city (see older blog posts for more about this including videos). Jan and Ruzenka spoke about their next challenge as they move to a new city to plant a church there…

In half an hour we leave from here to head to the university city of Kragujevac. Here we will eat and explore Serbia’s fourth largest city before continuing north to Belgrade to the Bible School.

Thank you for praying for our safety and success for this stage of our journey. Amongst other things, we’ve laid a road that is about a quarter of a mile long, made thirty beds and laid flooring in eight rooms…

Here’s a photo of us this morning as we finished our next study in 1 John:

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“STRAVA!”

AS A MASSIVE THUNDERSTORM APPROACHES TONIGHT, MERVYN WRITES:

The Serbian word that best describes this experience so far is “Strava” which means Awesome”

It’s awesome that so many people from vastly different backgrounds and experiences have come together to share this time and already after what seems like at least a week, but which is merely 3 long days, there is incredible bonding as we share this work, putting our hands to things we’ve never tried before (I’ve never laid lino, a gravel road or used a ride on mower, but hey! What fun.)

More than that we’ve shared our faith in our conversations as we’ve worked together preparing this place for the children & young people with whom the team here will have the privilege of sharing the good news of Jesus who can transform their lives as he has transformed ours.

Today we met an incredible guy called Jovitsa, a Serbian Christian who felt called by God to move to Kraljevo, a city 15 or so miles from here. I’d met him at the Bible School a few years back. As he was talking with us his phone went off. Was it a surprise to hear the tune: “Our God is an AWESOME God.”

Along with so many others on this trip I thank God for all he has done in my life and all He is doing here and still has planned.

Ending with one of my favourite verses (from Jeremiah 29:11) “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; Plans to give you a hope and a future.” What a promise for us and for Serbia!

– Mervyn Roberts

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Marina’s morning reflections:

MARINA DODD WRITES:

It is 12.30 on Friday morning. We have had a fantastic morning, everyone has fully entered into the spirit of the challenge to get this camp site ready for all the children who will be coming here in three weeks time. Then it will be full on for the next 6 weeks or so.

Today we divided into groups to achieve as much as possible in one day. One team is responsible for spreading gravel on to the lane leading to the camp which gets very muddy in wet weather.  We are expecting 10 trucks holding 150 tons of gravel during today. Already we have spread out 2 trucks and the 3rd has just arrived.

Another  team are laying lino in 4 or more dormitories, this means that the bunk beds have to be moved. (They were only put together last night for our group to sleep on!)

A rotten tree has been felled and the branches moved away.

The kitchen and bathrooms are having a spring clean, we cleaned the girls dorms last night, disturbing spiders that have made their home there since last year’s summer camps.

Some of our group have been busy preparing vegetables for the big pot that hangs over the camp fire. Our numbers are increasing every hour, 4 young people have just arrived from Sth Carolina so the mammoth task of feeding us all continues!

We are having good sessions in the morning and evenings as Andy is taking us through 1 John. It is interesting to be reminded that John, who was a disciple of Jesus, was known in the beginning as one of the ‘sons of thunder’ and now he is coming across as a loving, caring father-figure…  We have been seeing how important it is to not have double standards if we say we are followers of Jesus. We cannot claim to be in fellowship with God if we are unforgiving and unloving towards our fellow human beings…

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DAY 3: Renovating the Children’s Camp Ground

Last night we arrived here at the Children’s camp ground.

We built beds that we would later sleep on…

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We cooked our supper over a fire…

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…then read the next part of 1John before sleeping…

This morning we are working in three teams to further prepare this camp ground…

We are building a road through the woods – this involves shifting around 150 tonnes of gravel:

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We are also cutting trees, hedges and grass as well as installing flooring and deep cleaning different areas of the buildings here.

Please pray for :
– safety for us as we continue;
– the many children who will stay here through the summer time – that they will grow closer to Jesus through the teaching, refreshment and friendship here;
– God’s blessing on this team as He continues to wonderfully unite, challenge, use and inspire us through these experiences.

Greetings from all of us!

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DAY 2: Driving South towards the Children’s Camp

Darko and Lidija graduated from the Bible School and began to serve with Child Evangelism Fellowship. They now lead this excellent organisation in Serbia and, amongst many other valuable activities, run camps for children throughout the summer time.

Some of the children who come to these camps are from the refugee families who we used to bring aid for… It is amazing to see these children thriving in the company of the CEF team.

After hiring camp grounds for many years, the team have been able to buy a piece of land right in the centre of Serbia – in the beautiful “Sumadija” area known for its natural beauty and Serbian traditional folk culture.

This camp ground will bring great blessing to many children but there is a lot to do to prepare it for the summer. We will be working alongside the children’s workers team to help to get it ready. We will be involved in making a road and preparing some of the buildings.

The atmosphere in our two minibuses as we drive is excellent – already we have had so many experiences to talk about… We look forward to arriving and starting work in two hours’ time.

Tonight we are cooking for all at the camp – about forty of us. We will cook a traditional Serbian meal and share the recipe here!

Thank you for praying with us all!

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News from Drago and Jaroslava!

Drago renovating the church building

We are so pleased by the good news we are able to share with you.  We are engaged in founding a church in our home town Ruma.

We have been praying for a bigger space for our services. With great joy we report you that Lord did provide a new space for us. This place fully satisfies our current needs. House we rented has service room for 30 people, room for children class and even a room for mother with small babies. We are very grateful to Lord Jesus Christ for providing this place for our church. Thank you for your faithful prayers, that helped all this to come true.

Again this year, at the beginning of march we started Alpha course, and it is about to last for eleven weeks. This time four people applied for the whole course. We are also proud to say that one of the women who studied the course last time volunteered to help us with this year course as a team member.

In cooperation with Gideons camp from Sremska Mitrovica we managed to give away 1470 New Testaments since the beginning of this year…

Again, God is giving new opportunity to publicly speak about Him and His love. Near new place for our church there is

Practical work completed!

an office building for the local community. The local government allowed us to rent their hall there for the purpose of public services. We had two evangelistic meetings there. Our plan and desire is to have public services at this place, at least once a month so that wider circle of people can hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are grateful to our Lord Jesus Christ that we are able to serve Him. Thank you for being faithful in your prayer support…

– Drago and Jaroslava

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“If a man loves God he will show his love by caring for others…”

Jovica and Kaca continue to do all they can to share with those around them in their new home city of Kraljevo about the God who cares so much that He sent Jesus Christ to die for us.
Recently they heard about a family living in very poor conditions, without water or other simple necessities.  Jovica went to use his skills to install a bathroom and to decorate their home…
Serbian television heard about what he had been doing…

TV PRESENTER: “This is  Jovica Gecan, leader of the Baptist Church who helped many people following the earthquake.”

JOVICA: “If a man loves God he can’t only go into the street and shout, ‘I love God’ but he will show his love for God by caring for others – particularly those he has never met before.”

It seems that many deeply appreciate Jovica and Kaca’s presence in the city.  Acquaintances are intrigued by the thought that there may be a God who can so change a person’s heart that he would step out to show this sort of kindness.  As Jovica and Kaca continue to carefully explain their motivation and point to the risen Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible, their lives are having a great impact…

Click below to see a clip from this news programme.

Click here to view clip of Jovica on news