I greet you with well known words of apostle Paul:
“Grace and peace of God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you”.
I hope that you are well and that you enjoy the grace and love of our Lord. Before I say anything, I want to pass on the greeting of our church to you. They send their greetings and prayers. Jim, we learned so much from you and Luana and it is our pleasure to grow beside you. I want you to know that you have a great impact on our growth and development of our church. This is what the whole church thinks because from time to time I talk with church members about what God is doing through you.
There are many things to be said what was going on in November, but I’ll try to be short and give you information about great things God is doing among us.
In few months it’ll be three years since we have our meetings in the premises we are right now. Many people walked through this room, people with different intentions, but those who were touched by God’s Word stayed. Unfortunately, many just passed through, because of life troubles and worries and they did not have enough faith, patience and willingness to hear and do God’s Word, so there was a small number of people who attended our meetings. We believe that God hears our prayers and also that those who pray are honest in their prayers and expect that God will answer.
Before we went to the conference in November at Beli Kamen, we understood that God wants to do something new with us and our church, but we were not sure what that was. In mid-October I understood that I should talk about heroes of faith and Hebrews 11. Even though this was not something I planned, I understood that God is accomplishing His purpose.
Beginning November, during service the whole church felt great movement of the Spirit. All of us understood in the Spirit that God wanted to do something at the service. After the sermon I made a call for repentance. The very next moment one person stood up with eyes full of tears.
Milica (20) prayed a prayer of repentance. As she stood in front she was shaking all over. She had a great burden on her heart. It was almost as if we were able to physically see this burden of hers. After she prayed God gave her peace, assurance and relief.
Three months ago she started to attend our church regularly. She and her husband Aca (27 years – he is believer) visited us in our home, we talked about church, prayer, Bible, etc.
When we asked her what made her to make a step of faith she said that for the first time she felt great unrest and a burden in her heart. As she was listening God’s Word she was thinking more and more about God and His Son Jesus who gave His life for us. She knew that only God can free her from her fears and the burden she carried for years. She also told us that our life made a great impact on her because she wanted to have a peace, love and warmth in her family. We encouraged her and told her that it is possible if she and her husband give their life to Jesus. First book they took to read was “Secrets of Successful Marriage” – this is a book we have in our church library. It is interesting that Milica, before she converted, was singing in an traditional church choir.
To be honest, these things don’t happen often in our church and that’s why we all were so happy and thankful for the blessing God bestowed upon us in this way.
We understood that God wanted to do something else in the month before us. The seminar at Beli Kamen was an opportunity for us who attended, to get closer to each others, to spend more time in prayer and fellowship. Whenever we had a time, Caca (Slavica), Niki, Alen, Pera, David and I talked about ways how to implement what we heard at seminar – we prayed for wisdom and guidance of the Spirit. We also talked about spiritual growth of our church. At the seminar we received confirmation for certain things we prayed for and the joy we felt in the Lord was even greater and stronger.
Since our high school students, David, Pera and Niki don’t have many opportunities to attend seminars like that – this seminar was one very important experience. They met new friends, they were part of everything what was going on, they took part in worship and in some technical things. They really enjoyed this seminar very much so they wanted to give their best to contribute as well. They were very encouraged, but also challenged by the lectures, especially concerning spreading the gospel. Since the theme was familiar to them, it wasn’t difficult for them to understand the message for their life. We all are very grateful for this opportunity to be part of a conference like this.
Since I had opportunity to talk to almost everybody at the conference, almost everybody said the same thing: It is too bad that we don’t have a conferences like this more often, because there is a great value in what we heard here.
Not long after the conference David and Pera started to implement some things they heard and prayed for. David started to spend more time with Milos (15), to pray with him, talk about church and the work of the Lord. They started to read together materials David brought from the conference. Niki is doing same thing with Seba (19). Pera is trying to work with Braca (14). Pera is facing greater challenge because Seba started to attend the church just few months ago. Since they meet almost every day in the church for rehearsal, they almost at the same time started to work with Milos and Braca. This is something we started in November: I work with David, Pera and Niki and they work with Milos, Seba and Braca. In time Milos, Braca and Seba will start to work with somebody else. The goal of this is spiritual growth and progress of every individual in the church. We are aware that this is not going to be easy, but we want to be persistent.
As we were more and more determined in our attentions God was working more and stronger among us. We as a church recognized that we are entering a new phase and we all started to have great expectations. I had a feeling that everybody couldn’t wait for the service, even though we spent a lot of time visiting people during month even more than before, everybody was excited about Sunday (regardless of the cold and rainy weather). You could see joy and laughter on the faces of the people every Sunday, even though some of them don’t have firewood and the cold days have started.
During last month God has prepared hearts of those who asked Him to become their personal Savior. On last Sunday I was preaching on Noah and his certain future he had with the Lord. After the service I sent an invitation for repentance. Few minutes after that there was a great silence which we never heard and then all of a sudden four people came forward and raised their hands toward God surrendering their life to Him. We prayed a prayer of repentance kneeling with them and their eyes were filled with tears, their hearts with joy and power – I cannot describe the feeling, but to say, thank you Lord for love and grace. That time we stayed longer in the church than usually and we felt to stay all night long together, for we were very happy and filled and the moments like that one cannot experience anywhere.
Aladin (37) and Goca (36) accepted Jesus in their hearts – you talked to them about the Teach A Man to Fish project in the restaurant. This couple started to attend our church at the beginning of the year. Then false teachers separated them from the church for some time and thank God, they started to attend the church again now for a few months. They said that they decided to follow the Lord. They were looking for the truth for a long time and they understood that the Word of God is the only truth they should follow (before that they had a contact with teachers from other faiths, but couldn’t find a peace). During November we visited them. They also went with us to visit Jasenica and Zitoradja. We also visit church in Leskovac with them and another couple (Arben and Marina).
My parents also prayed a prayer of repentance. My father supported our ministry from the very beginning. He never stood up against our faith and work. Whenever we invited him to the church he replied, “It is not yet time for me”. We as his family, but the church also, never stopped to pray for him. At the beginning of the year he visited church service few times. During summer he worked seasonal jobs and since last month he started to attend church on regular basis. My father is from a traditional heritage. Earlier he strictly followed the tradition, but by the time his whole family converted and he was able to see practically our faith and learn about God we serve. He believes, but we also, that God can deliver him from the bondage of alcohol. He tried to fight in his own strength, but he understood that only God can deliver him and that he cannot help himself. My mother also prayed a prayer of repentance – she has been in the church for a long time, but only as ‘viewer’, not ‘participant’. She said she had a need to pray this prayer because God’s Word has touched her heart.
We don’t want to stop here, but plan to do two things we believe God is calling us to do:
– We want to make our visits more often – prayer and Bible study in houses.
– Since there are younger sisters in the church, Caca wants to start a ladies work and plans to start a sewing workshop with them. They will use sewing machine we bought with the money you gave us.
Selim’s brother, our good friend, visited us in November and preached in our church. He also encouraged house group in Zitni Potok.
As for the work with children, it is going very well. We made a plan according to which we work with them. Last thing we did with them was a series of four Bible stories from the Old Testament. After that we had a quiz and games. Now we have preparations for evangelistic meetings and we have our rehearsals with children three times a week. This is also our prayer need – please pray for this evangelistic meeting.
As I said before we have started with English lectures – twice a week we attend English class (David, Niki, Caka, Elvira and I). We cannot learn as fast as children but we do our best. Children are very good and their English classes finish by the end of December. Their classes are on Saturdays for two hours.
Thank you for your prayers and every help.
May God bless you
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Marijan
