Celebrating 25 years of blessing in Serbia: 10th June 2021

9/6/21

Tomorrow, former students from across the Balkans are meeting at the Bible School building to celebrate a quarter of a century of God’s faithfulness through the Bible School. We praise God with them!

Refugees who met Jesus
It was 1996 when the Bible School began in Backi Petrovac, northern Serbia – not long after the civil war had finally come to an end. The Bible School was set up in response to some of the refugees from the war having come to know Jesus. They had met Him as a result of seeds sown by local believers working in partnership with the Oak Hall teams who had travelled out from the UK all through the war.

Bible study for future leaders
The vision was to run a full-time residential Bible study centre where these ‘future leaders’ could be discipled and experience service before heading back to the towns from which they had come. We thought that the project would run for one or two years…

25 years and hundreds of students
Now, over these two and a half decades, hundreds of students have studied through the whole Bible together, served as teams of evangelists and experienced a year of Christ-centred fellowship. Dozens of wonderful Bible teachers have travelled from all corners of the globe to generously teach at the Bible School.

Much fruit
After completing their studies, many of these graduates have headed out to all corners of the region to plant churches, launch children’s clubs, lead projects that served the most vulnerable and share the Message of the love of God shown in the Lord Jesus. Many have seen much fruit.

You have prayed and God had graciously blessed
Through all of this, you have been among those who have prayed – and even travelled out to the Balkans – to stand with the Church of the Lord Jesus there. As you have prayed, God has worked in wonderful ways – raising up leaders like Sladjan and Jaroslava to head up the work, providing the ex-hotel that is now the ‘HUB’ centre… and blessing His people.

Every tribe, tongue, language and nation
One day – in the not too distant future – all of us who have trusted the Lord Jesus for His rescue, achieved through His death and resurrection, will stand before His unspeakably wonderful glory. He will be honoured by all nations and among that throng from every tribe, tongue, language and nation, we will hear words of worship in Serbian, Slovak, Hungarian, Romany, Macedonian, Croatian, Slovenian… Some of these voices will be of those who turned to Him as you have partnered with the work of the Lord Jesus through prayer.

For the Lord is good and His love endures for ever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.’ 

– Psalm 100:5


We praise Him together on this 25th anniversary – and we pray on together!

Every blessing,

– Andy and Faye

HUB news – July 2017

Dear brothers and sisters, friends, supporters…

We are rejoicing that we can greet you this summer and share with you even a small part of what is happening in the ministry of HUB and the Bible school.

With a mission conference and gathering former students of HUB and many guests we’ve finished 21st year of the Bible school.

studenti 21. generacije HUB-a

A year of many blessings and life together is over and we are glad that we could share our lives with students for this time and see how God has taught them and built them up while they were studying God’s Word and serve to many.  Pray for this group of people and their further steps.

Enrollment of the 22nd generation

Enrollment is now open for the new school year and new students. We pray that God will bring the right people who will study next school year here.

The HUB Bible school by now has finished over 350 students and many of them are included in the mission work, church ministry, christian organizations, etc.

HUB Bible school in Serbia

HUB is still the only one interdenominational evangelical school in Serbia that offer full time intensive studying. Only in the first year of studying, students have over 900 classes of teaching, while studying all the books of the Bible with over 50 teachers, they have at least 30 days of practical ministry and countless hours of traveling, serving, visiting churches, etc.

During this school year we have visited over 50 churches with the students, where we could serve. We pray that the HUB Bible school will continue to be a blessing to many while equipping people for a ministry in Balkans.hub

Summer at HUB

DSC_0746 Someone said that Belgrade is a city that never sleeps. We say that HUB is a place that is never empty.

So this summer also at HUB we are hosts of many camps and retreats.

We are especially inviting you to pray for our Camps of Hope. Camp for families with kids who were treated for malignant diseases is from 13-17th August, as well as camp for families with kids with disabilities from 20-24th August.

We still have a need for volunteers who will serve with us to these families.

My little café in Opovo

A year ago, from dreams to reality! „My little café“ in Opovo has been opened for 9 months now and we truly see that it is a real thing that through this work, as believers, we can be closer to the community, meet new people, be more visible and more accessible. As people of God, we can offer many things and as ’’the greatest missionary’’ of all times, Jesus, we walk and meet new people every day and offer them an opportunity to see us and get to know us. That is a zone with less comfort, than in which we maybe  used to be, but that is a zone where God is calling us to be.slika kafe

We organize in the cafe many events, creative and educational workshops, musical nights, … We pray that this place will be a good model and that something like this would be expanded in many cities and villages in our region and wider. So, we still continue to „dream“ dreams and pray for what is from God to stay!

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This is just a glimpse of what God is doing through the ministry of HUB. Thank you for your faithfulness and for standing firm with us. Pray for us while we continue further on! God is great!

Yours in Christ,

Sladjan and Jaroslava Milenković

with the HUB team

HUB Bulletin – Summer 2016

Dear friends,13517416_1159252527458754_4910541142569211513_o

Heartfelt greetings from HUB and all of us. I hope this email reaches you well.

We wanted to look back onto the past period we’ve had here at HUB, and share a little of what God’s doing here.

We just finished our last semester of the school year and the students have gone back home.
The 20th generation of the Bible school left and we can’t wait to see how God will use them while they continue on in ministry. We’re thankful to God for giving us the opportunity to serve them here and help them acquire a lot of knowledge, experience and many blessings. It’s amazing to see how God have been working in them in this past year.

20th years of HUB – GOD is faithful !

Veran je Bog

We had a huge event on June 18th here at HUB. Praising God for his faithfulness in these past twenty years of the School and the ministry of HUB here in Serbia.

We gathered with around 500 other people from all parts of our country and region to praise God for the abundance of faithfulness in our ministry, and especially in the lives of many through our whole region. It’s amazing to see what He has done! Watch this short and exciting video that we recorded that day – https://youtu.be/T095-gKQ4XA

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HUB Summer camps !

As always – we’re expecting a “hot” summer here. HUB will, again, be a host to many this summer. We are glad that we can offer churches and organizations a good place to organize summer camps and our hospitable staff team and volunteers.

Apart from that – again at HUB, we’re organizing a family retreat for families with children that were treated for cancer, and also another camp for families with children with disabilities. This is something that we had at HUB last year that was really amazing. The volunteers, the staff team and the guests were all blessed by what we’ve experienced at camp in those days. We see that HUB can contribute so much to those families. We are honored for opportunity to be their “hands and feet” as they are experiencing unforgettable moments here. Pray for those events.

HUB team!

ElenkaOur Elenka Kraljik, has spent almost 17 years at Hub serving others. She is leaving HUB and moving to Belgrade where she will live and continue to serve at an adult disability care center. She’s been visiting that place with the HUB students for a long time, and has many dear friends there and her wish was to be able to be there “full time” – to continue serving others and be a salt and light to people with disabilities.Pray for God’s guidance and strength while she continues her life there.Also, pray for the further development of the HUB staff team – that God may bring the right people who will be a part of this ministry.

New good titles in Serbian

As HUB we published a couple of books in Serbian – which was our wish and vision, to omot za biltencontinue to publish good Christian literature, for it to be accessible, as an answer to the great need that we have here in Serbia and in our region. We already have a new book translated that we’re publishing in Serbian, by John Piper – Seeing and savoring Jesus Christ. We also published a book by Vaughan Roberts – God’s big picture, and also Dig deeper by Nigel Beyon and Andrew Sach.

Our wish is to publish more books like that, so if you, in any way, want to help us with this, contact us, please. It’s a great blessing to have access to good Christian books.

Community center – café club – in Opovo

Our prayer, for a long time, has been to start some sort of public work in Opovo, a place where some of us on staff live, and a place that’s closest to HUB. Although HUB geographically belongs to Belgrade, the closest place is town Opovo.

HUB with the students and lecturers really has the potential in many ways to minister and be useful to many. We visit many churches, organizations, and serve people in different ways, and so we want to be able to serve more the locals here. We rented a place in the very center of Opovo, for the needs of this café club, where we will organize different workshops for youth, parents, elderly, also have lectures, music and movie nights… There’s always going to be someone there that will welcome our guests, talk to them, etc.

The church and Christians should be an active part of the society and be with the people – so that they could be the light. Please, pray for these new and large pioneering steps which we are making in faith. If you want to know more or want to be a part of this exciting beginning, let us know, your help and prayers for this are very much needed.

New, 21st year – enrollment

The enrollment of the new student generation is in progress. We are excited for the new people and the new school year. We want to thank everyone who is faithfully supporting and praying for this school that it might exist, progress during all these years, accept new students and enable them to get a good quality biblical education.

Thank you for everything! It’s great to know that many of those who love us pray for us faithfully and support us.

God is good !

Yours in Christ,

Sladjan and Jaroslava Milenković

With HUB team

Write us, keep in touch with us. There are so many things we want to share with you.

Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/hub.serbia

Email: info@hub.org.rs

Tel: 00381.(0).11.88.086

 

 

 

Twenty Years of the Bible School in Serbia…

This is a year of celebration in Serbia as the Bible School heads towards its twentieth year…

Bible School beginnings in 1996

It was autumn 1996 that the first group of students arrived to begin their studies in the village of Backi Petrovac in the north of Serbia.

With the wars that had marked the early part of that decade only just coming to an end, a number of those first students had come to know Jesus through the humanitarian work that we had been involved with since 1991. Time after time we had arrived in “Yugoslavia” with coaches and trucks loaded with supplies that had been lovingly prepared by friends across the UK. Every time that we shared these gifts in refugee camps or in sport stadiums we carefully shared the Message of a God who loves us and has come to us in the person of Jesus to rescue broken humanity through His death and resurrection…

Some of you reading this bulletin were involved right back in those earliest days as you prayed, prepared aid and even travelled with us.

Image below: arriving at a refugee centre with an Oak Hall coach. 

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A Year of Study through the whole Bible

igorThrough that first year of studies, we explored through the whole Bible with around thirty different Bible teachers who gave their time to serve with us. Each week, the students headed to the refugee camps to continue to share the message of Jesus with those there… our lives were shared together as we lived in community.

Graduates Serving across the Region

As those students graduated, many of them headed to new locations to plant churches and launch other initiatives that brought a great and positive impact to the country and shared the Message of Jesus Christ still further. It was clear that it was right to run a second year of the Bible School and so the new year was launched…

As well as visiting refugee camps, we also travelled across the region to stand with – serve alongside – those students who had studied through the first year… and so the work gathered momentum year after year.

Image below: a children's camp organised by graduates Dragan and Danijela. 

Children's Camp...

A New Centre for the Bible School in Belgrade

It was soon clear that although the welcoming, small northern village of Backi Petrovac was a perfect cradle for the beginning of the Bible School that, ideally, we should seek a base in the capital of the country. After years of prayer, research and preparation, God wonderfully provided the amazing building on the edge of Belgrade that is now our centre.

In 2003, after a summer of repairs and renovations carried out by graduates and team of the Bible School, the ninth generation of students began their studies in the “new” building Belgrade. This has proved to be an ideal base for the work as it grows year on year and now the twentieth generation of students approach their graduation.

Image below: students outside the Belgrade Bible School Building. 

16th-generation-of-students

The work continue to grow in this Twentieth Year

With former students serving in Bosnia and Hercegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia, it is amazing to see how God is building His Church across the region as we reach this twentieth year.

We will continue to send stories of the graduates as this year of celebration continues…

Thank you so much for your prayerful partnership!

18 new students in the 18th generation of the HUB Bible school.

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Sladjan and Jaroslava write…

Dear friends, brothers and sisters,

18 new students in the 18th generation of the HUB Bible school. What a great start! Praise God for the good work that He is doing.

Please keep praying for this ministry. It is great to see these wonderful people from Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Croatia who are eager to get to know God better through the Scriptures.

An amazing year of fellowship, experience, joy and studying is ahead of them, and us in the team will have a privilege to serve them and be a part of what God does here.

Thank you for your prayers. God is faithful! God is good!

Yours in Christ,

Sladjan and Jaroslava Milenkovic with the HUB team and HUB students

Two new births in Ruma!

 

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Ruma

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We would like to take this opportunity to share two very important events that have occurred during the past month.

As mentioned in the title, I would like to share the news about the two births – one in our family and one in our church.

Every birth is a very important and positive thing. New life brings joy, blessings and prosperity. So it is in this case!

 

                                                           Luka has been born!

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          As a family we are so glad that we got another child. Luke came as the sixth member of our family. All about Jaroslava’s pregnancy and delivery went well. Now we enjoy the wonderful gift that the Lord has given us.

 

                                                               Marko’s birth!

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Last month has been rich with the new beginnings.

I would like to tell you a little bit more about Marko. Marko is from Ruma and he is 34 years old. Last month he has been born also! Let me explain. Marko had actually been born 34 years ago, but last month Marko has experienced the new birth. He met and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. It was an honor and a privilege to baptize Marko. Marko’s baptism confirmed his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I had a chance to talk to several Marko’s friends and they told me they were amazed by the change he underwent in such a short time. We rejoice and praise God, as Marko became part of our great Christian family.

As a church and as a family we would like to thank you for your continuous support for the work to which our Lord Jesus Christ has called us.

Drago and Jaroslava

News from Drago and Jaroslava

 
We would like to share news from our family and church in Ruma.
We are truly blessed with our brothers and sisters in the church.It is wonderful to have such a lovely family around.
We thank the Lord that we can grow and build as the body of Christ.
Psalm 133:1‚‚ How good and pleasant it is  when God’s people live together in unity!‚‚
DSCI0073                   DSCI0004                   DSCI0007
      
Holy Communion is a new thing that we started in the church in Ruma.
So far we have received Holy Communion in the church in Sremska Mitrovica.

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An interesting statistic is that in the church we have 17 people and 15 children. There is a saying: “Children are our future”. We can freely say that children are our present! We are really grateful for all the childrenin our church.
The new project that we are planning to start, as a church is to help drug addicts. We believe that God could heal these people and we are praying for God’s guidance for this new ministry. I will write more about this project in our next newsletter.
Jaroslava and I have special news that we would like to share with you. We are expecting fourth child! Jaroslava is seven months pregnant. With great pleasure we expect our sixth member of the family! Please pray for us in this exciting moment in our lives.
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Please pray for our church and believers in Ruma. And also please pray for the other people to get to know real truth and life, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for  your support.
 
Kind regards from Chruch in Ruma
 
                    Drago and Jaroslava

Praying for the work in Serbia

Thank you for being connected to the Oak Hall in Serbia website and for praying as the work continues.

Praying for Bible School Graduates – With over three hundred Bible School graduates across the region, there is much news to share!  A growing number are publishing to you directly through this site – we hope that it is giving you useful, prayer-fueling information.

Praying for Family Milenkovic – many of us are praying for Sara as she begins chemotherapy this week – please click here for all the recent posts about Sladjan, Jaroslava and the family.  These are very challenging days and the family continue with great grace and courage supported by your prayer.

Praying for the Bible School team and students – led by Riste and surrounded by an amazing team, the Bible School is continuing extremely well.  There is an exceptional group of students studying this year.  Riste is regularly posting news here so that we can pray as the students study and travel across the country.

The best way to keep connected to the news is to “subscribe” to the blog by entering your email above…

You can leave comments that will be read by all who visit the site – the comments that you leave are often a great encouragement.

Our prayer together is that the Lord Jesus would be honoured as we stand with each other for His glory wherever He has placed us.

Thank you for being a key part of this work.

– Andy Mayo