Wednesday in Serbia — busy day. We awoke in Prokuplje, had an early breakfast, and headed straight to the government center — think: city hall, but for a whole region of the country. There we met with Nebojsa Vukadinovic, the governor of the region in southern Serbia where Prokuplje is. He is an old friend. Three years ago, he was the director of the regional hospital which is in Prokuplje. We had acquired a refurbished defibrillator, which Linking Partners donated to the hospital.
The meeting was very warm and welcoming. We talked about the possibility of future medical equipment donations, and also about some of the other needs of the area. We were surprised to hear that there were many schools in the rural areas that did not have running water! But Nebojsa made clear this wasn’t just a meeting to ask for help. He wanted us to know how much our work in the area was appreciated. We do very small humanitarian aid projects, targeted to raising leaders who are able to plant churches. That leads us to donate school supplies to village elementary schools. And of course, we donate knitted and crocheted caps. He seemed intrigued that a group of women all across America would care enough about Roma children to do that for over two years, and two thousand caps, so far.
After our meeting, we all piled in the “combi” (12 passenger van) along with Marijan and Slavica and headed to Pirot, an industrial city near Serbia’s border with Bulgaria. We checked into our rooms, our homes for the next two nights. The rooms were bright and cheerful, and a little bigger than the last rooms. We all appreciated the extra space.
Lunch was a south Serbian staple, pljeskavica, similar to a hamburger patty, but seasoned differently. We also a typical cabbage dish that is canned for the winter months. After lunch we had a little time to rest, because we knew we would have a late evening. The plan was to meet back at 4:30 and head to the Nova Mala (new little) mahala, split into two groups, and attend two home church meetings. After that, the children would be back from school — the school day is divided and some children go in the morning and some in the evening, with the evening kids returning home around 6:30 or 7:00 pm — and we would again distribute knitted caps.
Both home churches were a blessing to the teams. In the ReNata/Lorie home group, after sharing introductions and meaningful moments from individual Bible study during the week, Rodja shared a message on encouraging one another, based on scripture in Philippians. The evening ended with the group pairing up, visitors and home church members, to pray for one another. ReNata was particularly blessed to pray with Gabriela. They realized that although they live in two different worlds — in several ways — they have much in common as mothers and wives.
Some background — in March of 2014, Linking Partners staff and Roma church planters met for a leadership workshop in a cabin on a mountain called Kopaonik. There was teaching on the mechanics of leadership, on how to study the Bible, on time management, on the Teach A Man to Fish project, and other topics useful to their work. The Linking Partners team was delighted to hear Ivan, the church planter in Pirot, say to this home church group, “Ever since I was on the mountain, my life has been different. My friends and my family have recognized the change. I learned there how to really study the Bible.” We believe the rapid growth of home churches in the Pirot area is due to principles found in the book of Acts, and outlined in books such as Radical, by David Platt and Multiply, by Francis Chan and Mark Beuving.
In the home group Teresa and LaJuana attended, LaJuana shared some of the history of Linking Partners, and the knitting project. Teresa built on that by drawing parallels to the sister meetings that the church women in Pirot are having on a weekly basis, with our “Knitting Ladies” groups, where we not only knit, but also pray together, share insights we have gained into scriptures we are studying, and encourage one another in our Christian walk. Marijan shared a message in the Roma language. Although we couldn’t understand his words, we could feel his heart in his delivery and the reception he got.
We were impressed when the members of the home church shared with us that they meet on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. For each meeting, they rotate between three different people’s houses. They also have set up designated times during the day that they all stop and pray, no matter where they are or what they are doing. No wonder we are seeing such growth in God’s church in Pirot!
After the home church meetings, we all gathered together on the dirt/gravel road in the mahala, and distributed caps to the waiting children. We gave out over 40 caps to children, and another 20 were set aside for children who weren’t able to come tonight.
We closed the evening with . . . pizza . . . at Mama Rosa’s this time. It was really good, too, but I think we’re all getting a bit burned out on pizza. We’ll see what tomorrow night brings. Until then, please keep us in your prayers. We are having a wonderful trip, with a team that is working very well together, and we can tell your prayers are keeping us strong.