Departure date is July 31, 2015! Ed & LaJuana, Chuck & Janice are ready to go be with fellow believers in Pirot, Serbia. There’s an interesting story about how we ended up heading for Pirot.
Two years ago we were in Prokuplje, readying for an evangelization meeting. William, our pastor on the trip, was praying about his message for the meeting. The team was also praying for him. Days passed, and the morning of the evangelization meeting came — but God had not given William a message. We were seeing Him work, and we all trusted (with a little nervousness!) that it would work out.
At lunch, Marijan came in and told us that the evanglization had been cancelled. There was some problem with the venue and the sound equipment, and we were too late to secure another location. So we planned a prayer meeting instead. And what a prayer meeting! First we sang. Have I ever mentioned how they pour their entire heart into worship? It’s amazing. Then we prayed. Heavy on all of our hearts were lessons we were having on discipleship. We prayed fervantly for God to send workers for his harvest. We left the prayer meeting knowing we had done exactly what God had planned for us that night.
It was about 9:00 pm — dinner time. We were gathered in Marijan’s small flat in the center of town. The doorbell rang, and Marijan buzzed the people in. It was two men — Alen and his brother Ivan. They were in town because of the cherry harvest, but lived 107 km away in Pirot. What they asked us took our breath away.
“We have heard you can help us learn about Jesus. There is no one in Pirot (a town of 40,000) who can tell us. No (evangelical) church is there. Could you help us?”
Workers for the harvest! Answered prayer. Today — two years later, we have been blessed to be a part of evangelizing Pirot. Home churches have sprung up. Ivan rides his bicycle many, many miles taking the good news to new families. One evening, 17 people became believers in a home church. Now we go there to spend a week, training leaders, teaching children, participating in a wedding, baptism, and evangelization. Pray for us on this trip!
