Slobodan Gajić – Director of Operations, Serbia

Hello, I am Slobodan Gajić. I am 23, and live in Novi Sad, which is capital of autonomous province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia. I grew up in family of 4, together with my two brothers (older and younger) and mother.
Currently I serve in Linking Partners Ministry as coordinator for Serbia. My service is combination of networking with Roma’s in Vojvodina, transfer of knowledge and training in some basic skills (such as time management, finance management, leading etc.) and bonding people to the Word of God through many projects. I help Roma leaders in teaching newborn Christians about life in 21. century church that is to be as life in 1. century church – gathered around Jesus and His word and discipling others, and sharing the Gospel (for this we rely much on Multiply material of Frencis Chan and David Platt).

I started serving God 6 years ago, in small Roma community in Kucura, which is few miles from the town where I grew up. First I was helping in Sunday school, later I helped with translation from English to Serbian and vice versa for teams that were visiting our church. In meantime, I connected with Linking Partners and 4 years ago I committed to service in this Ministry, along the service in church. As the Ministry grew, it took much more time from me so I committed myself fully to serve Roma’s through the Ministry.

My work in Linking Partners cant be described as work, it is more as passionate dedication to help Roma people to reach other Roma’s for Lord and to spread Gospel in Serbia as much as we can. Everything what we have done is done through team work, joint effort and a lot of Gods will and leading of the Spirit.

My turning point in life, when I became Christian, happened in 2012, when I met volunteers from Netherland that were helping pastor Saša, (nowadays my pastor and friend), who called me, one Sunday, to go with them to his church. It all started on that Sunday in June 2012 when I saw that God is alive and that He didn’t abandon us, that He didn’t just die on the cross and that faith isn’t only church with big tower and bell. That day I saw that my whole life was leading me to that point, and I like to say that God wanted me to be there and that He was working in my life towards that moment, so I could accept His call and open my heart for His word and His way for my life.

Jovica Popov

Hello, I am Jovica Popov. I am married to Tatjana and we have five kids, 2 of them are adopted. Sara, Stefan and Filip are our biological children and Svetlana and Svetislav are our adopted children.

I serve in Christ evangelical church in Zrenjanin and I am serving in home churches in Melenci, Taraš and Aradac. Sometimes I serve in other churches of Christ evangelical alliance. I started my service back in 1989.

My short testimony is that 1985. I have started thinking about God as Creator of everything that exists and soon after that I understood and accepted message of salvation. I was baptized July 19^th 1987., and after that I started serving. My work with Roma communities started in 1996. and from 1998. I started raising home churches in different places (such as Melenci, Taraš, Aradac etc.) and 2003. I became pastor in church in Zrenjanin

Janoš Husar

Hi, I am Janoš Husar. I am married to Elizabet and we have daughter Lea. I started serving in 2008. and officially registered year of my beginning is 2013.

During summer of 2000 I was deep in unbelief, and I was on training when I had had serious injury – and in age where I was in my full energy, I couldn’t move, because I lost all strength. First I tried to heal: I was laying in my bed, used different tools but nothing helped. In that time, there were some operations in hospital in Zrenjanin, which were not successful so I was afraid to go to hospital. I was in my bed for months with no hope and didn’t have any solution for my situation.

But, one afternoon, my mother came into my room and told me: “God can heal you”. And I wondered: “How?” So she said that she will bring me some book. And she brought it. I started reading it and this book was talking about some verses in Holy Bible, so I asked for one Bible. I said to God, “I will do everything just to be healthy again!” In that book I was finding that I need to belong to Lord, and that I need to accept Jesus as my Lord and savior. As I found those instructions, I decided to do it. I repented, my sins were forgiven and I had new birth, and fulfilment with Holly Spirit. I did all what was asked from me but there was no healing.

Nebojša Dolić

Hi, my name is Nebojša Dolić. I am married to Biljana and have two sons, Nikola and Emilijan and daughter Sara. I serve in Pančevo and Belgrade. I started serving as a pastor after I finished Bible school in Novi Sad, in 1995. First I served in Bačko gradište in Roma-Hungarian community, after that I served in Srbobran and Kucura and after while i came to Pančevo where I currently serve as pastor, as well as in Belgrade. I am pastor in church in Belgrade from 2013.

I was born in Orthodox family, that had some tradition but didn’t have true faith in Christ. During my high school, I received New Testament – Gideonite. Because of that I started thinking about salvation and eternal life and I got idea to become a monk to receive eternal life. While I was in military in Novi Sad, at the beginning of 1993., I was invited to come in Evangelical church. There, I understood message of the Bible, about salvation, much better, and I gave my life to Christ. After that, I went to Bible school – Žetva – in Novi Sad. After I finished Bible school, I was invited to serve in church. I was youth pastor. Later, I was appointed as pastor of home churches from church of Novi Sad. My family and I moved to Pančevo (Belgrade suburb) in 2004. where we have started a new evangelical church.

Ivan Ibraimović

My name is Ivan Ibraimović. I was born 21. July 1973. In Prokuplje where I grew up. I was raised in one poor family of six, in small apartment. Despite situation that I was living in, I managed to finish elementary school and later high school for waiter. In 1991. I got married to Danijela who is my biggest support in life. We have three children – two sons Dragan and Nikola, and daughter Jelena.

I have lived a life of many struggles and sufferings. My father died in 2002. and my mother in 2010. While my mother was alive she was visited by some Jehova’s witnesses where I was also sometimes present, and later when I was old enough I was able to study with them. After a while they even offered me a service to be their unbaptized evangelizer. After my father died we stopped having contacts with Jehova’s witnesses.

My younger brother Alen was in that time visiting evangelical church in Prokuplje and he was always telling us about services and how they worshipped our Lord. I also decided to go to that church and to see how they worship and how they pray, and I wasn’t so regular in that. Because of some family issues we had to move to village Mali Suvodol, 8 miles from Pirot.

In 2014 I have met Jim, LaJuana and Slobo in seminar in mountain Kopaonik, and from that point my life has drastically changed. I praise Lord for the opportunity when I started serving people in Pirot. Even though we needed to walk almost 8-10 miles in one way towards home groups, my family and me were faithful and we kept serving our Lord and his people.

Because of some irregularities and lies told about my work from my overseeing pastor, I resigned from my position of a leader in church. After that resignation we were in pain, and we were broken, crying to God that he reveals the real truth to people and to the world. We were very surprised how one pastor could do what he did, but after our prayers, God revealed real truth and in meantime we established new home church in Bela Palanka – 13 miles from Mali Suvodol.

I am grateful to God that during this period He never abandoned us, and even though we went through many sufferings, God has used us to His service in Bela Palanka, where we continuously serve His people.

My testimony:

We are full of testimonies of the things that God did for us. God has taken us from situation where we had to walk almost 100 miles a week, because we didn’t have a car, he helped us to survive problems with the house where we currently live because we hadn’t have enough money to pay in the beginning, he sustained us when we didn’t have jobs and healed us when we had health problems. Thanks to Him we have a car to serve people, job where we can provide for our families, health problems disappeared and problems with house aren’t solved completely but they are not big as before. We are grateful to God for strength, patience, grace and love that he instilled in our hearts and that brough good people around us. He has changed so many things in our life and he blessed us in our service. In Bela Palanka, in only two weeks we have baptized more than 15 people, we are still continuing to serve in home churches, we preach our Lord and we plan to work with children and youth as extension to our home church programs. We do all of that in might of our Lord Jesus Christ. We also started again some home churches in Pirot. And for all of this, we bless our most High Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

Jelena Vukićević

Jelena Vukičević has worked with Linking Partners Ministries since January 2014 as an English to Serbian translator and interpreter.

She has been a freelance translator and interpreter since 2001. Her experience includes the fields of Christianity, Religion, Environmental protection, and Anthropology. Besides translating a number of published books, she has authored and co-authored several published academic works in the field of Education.

She has a Master of Arts in School Education, currently a student of Doctoral studies in Pedagogy. Has experience in applied education research and high education practice, understanding and implementation of most advanced educational approaches such as a student-centered and individualized approach, and is highly knowledgeable and skilled in designing curricula, tailoring teaching and learning materials, supervising, mentoring, and assessment in education settings.

She is active in the field of civil non-profit organizations and non-formal learning since 2003 and is highly experienced and skilled at designing, developing, and delivering trainings and consulting. Her areas of expertise include organizational and project management, leadership, teamwork, communication, and conflict solving. She was one of the founders of two successful nongovernmental organizations operating in Serbia.