Slobodan Gajic, born 1995 in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. My mother lived in Croatia, and when I was 5 months old, my family had to leave Croatia because of war. We struggled with coming to Serbia, and had tough life since then. First, some people looked at us, like we are „croatian garbage“ as they called us; besides that we were always referred as „refugees“ at first place, and it was forgotten that we were people. We were dependent on humanitarian aid of a different organizations. I spent early childhood in refugee camps, where we never had room for 3 of us (my older brother – who suffered from epilepsy and head injuries, my mother – who was wounded in war and had emotional and physiological breakdown and I) bigger than a 4 square meters. I started schooling from that situation, but in meantime we have got help from a state – small apartment where my older brother and I could finally get our privacy.
Since I started schooling till the moment of my graduation at high school I was one of the best students. My marks were always showing that my situation couldn’t stop me from using gifts and talents that God gave me. Besides school I was active volunteer in different humanitarian organizations such as Red Cross and organizations fighting for the rights of discriminated people. While volunteering in such organization I met Saša Subotin from Kucura, where I first heard about church and God on totally different way. I have always imagined church and God to far from me, since it was always hidden in magnificently build churches and inside of the heads of “those guys with long beard” – orthodox preachers. When I met Saša, I figured out that God is always with us, and that we must decide if we want to let Him to be our Lord and Savior. Before that I was just thinking that you need to be a good boy and do good stuff, and one day you will end up in Heaven. Anyways, I have started going to Sašas church, on Sunday services, and soon afterwards, since I had some useful talents for his service, I became one of his helpers. I helped with some organizational stuff, did some hard work and translating from English language when he had guests from abroad.
Sasa – Slobo’s first mentor
Once, I was asked If I can translate some short documents which I tried to accomplish, and soon afterwards I was asked If i was interested in joining this Ministry. So, I said yes, and started helping Roma people from Serbia to communicate with Americans and vice versa. Since that moment till today, I am helping these guys to fulfil our Great Commission. We have our ups and downs, but what is most important, God never let us down, no matter of situation and no matter how wrong we were. I learned that with hard work for Him, you can achieve a lot, and that He will notice and bless you, much more than what you could ever dream of. Our God is awesome!
