“Hello, my dear friends, welcome. Are you tired?” – these were the words of warm welcome from our friend waiter from the restaurant “Kod Pirocanca” (“At Pirocanac – man from Pirot”), who remembered us well. That warm welcome made our day and during that lunch we felt all comfortable. Around 12 Caca, Niki and me headed to Pirot. Since my car isn’t in very good condition I had to drive slowly so we arrived in Pirot around 14h…(Prokuplje – Pirot = 100 km). In the meantime we called Ivan to come with us at lunch, but because it was too cold, they didn’t come on time so we picked them up on half way to their village from Pirot.
All together we went to a lunch at “Kod Pirocanca”. After coffee, we ordered good lunch so we enjoyed in fellowship and lunch. Since Ivan’s wife, Danijela was with us, we took opportunity and gave our attention and time for her. First, I gave “introduction” in what we plan to do and then Caca took initiative and talked with Danijela about how she has to be a support to her husband and together they have to serve to Lord. For that time we (Niki and I) talked with Ivan. Ivan told us that he is happy and encouraged because we are with him, for calling him by phone and we have intentions to visit him further. Ivan told us that there are 9 families now who are interested in listening to the Gospel. Almost every family he has visited before now, at least once.
Through our talk we came up with an idea what we think could be realized, and we think it would be good base for what we want to do in future. Our idea is that next time when we go to visit, to make it two-day-visit. In the morning we would spend time with Ivan and his son Dragan (22), pray with them, read the Multiply book, and after lunch we would visit people who wants to hear Gospel. Also Ivan’s wife Danijela, said what was really true. She said that she wants to work more for the Lord, but she doesn’t know a lot of things, and this visit would be helpful for her because she would have much more time to spend with Caca and learn from her. On these words we were just surprised and couldn’t believe in what we hear. From our experience we learned that some things don’t go as fast as we want, but this statement just left us in silence for a moment.
Niki, Caca, and Danijela
I think that moment, Holy Spirit, while we were all in silence, made us to thank God in our heart for what He does among these people. We were surprised by what we heard but we also waited for these words to come to our ears. After our talk, we all felt great happiness and pleasure, we were all aware that that was atmosphere of spirit which came to us from Lord’s Grace and love He has for us.
Our meeting we arranged at 17h in Ivan’s home (Mali Suvodol, village where Ivan lives, it is 7km away from Pirot)
Since our car wasn’t in condition to drive all the people to that house church meeting in Ivan’s home, Ivan called taxi to drive people, but because taxi was expensive, Ivan decided to go by walk in Roma community to find some cheaper transportation. For 1500 dinar (appx $15), a man named Srdjan accepted to drive all people to the meeting and to drive them back home (he had to drive in two groups). Around 16 h we were in the village and 15 minutes later the first group came. Between them few women and a man. Women came in house where Caca was, and Niki and I stayed outside with that man and Ivan’s son Dragan. While we waited for the second group, we had time to talk about God, church. Not long ago after that, there was second group. I expected that the driver will go home and after meeting will come back, but this was another great surprise, he stayed with us!
In our meeting was Ivan’s whole family (5 of them), all persons from last meeting (Dragana 44, Stana 60, Zaklina 38, Gaga 35, Andljela 15, Alen 9, Elnisa 9) and two new persons Najdan 48 (Dragana’s husband) and Srdjan 35 (Gaga’s husband, driver). Our meeting we started when Ivan, as host gave short introduction for what is in front of us, and called all the people to close their eyes and then prayed for us. After that, I asked if they had chance to pray or read New Testament – their answer was great surprise, they all said how they read about Jesus baptism (Mathew 3) and that they all prayed in their home few times.
The reason why they started to read that first was because they didn’t like genealogy, and the second chapter they didn’t understand, so they started to read from there. Ivan told us that he saw once Gaga and Srdjan how they read New Testament together, and after that Srdjan said that he is interested in it but he never could find right person who will help him to understand what is faith, Jesus, God. He also told us, he feels glad because he met us. After that Najdan told us that he had never had chance to listen about God in this way even though he knew about Bible because Dragana was earlier involved with another religion. All of them had a chance to say their experience, but most powerful was when Zaklina told us that she feels much more safe than when we started with gathering. “First time was nice. But we didn’t know how it will go further, but now when you are here we are more safe and we hope we will know God’s word even better” – Zaklina.
After all these, Niki lead us in praising with guitar. We sang songs “Devla bical to duho – God send your spirit”, “Devla slava tuke – God we praise you” and “Asunen Romalen – Hear Romas”. After that, a few of us prayed and then Niki testified about how he met God. Also we had a short word about last time (Matthew 24). The reason we talked about this were questions they asked. About this all I could write even more but I want to say more important things.
This group of people is educated, all of them know to read and write, and comparing to some other Roma where we work, they show more interest. I am not sure, but I think they all finished primary education level. This time we shared four copies of the book “Life of Jesus Christ”, four copies of the book “When your whole world crushes down” one book “Jesus, Our Destiny” we gave to Srdjan for reading so when he finishes he can give to another one. We left with Ivan the book “Righteous in Front of God” and “Jesus, Our Destiny”. We need more Bibles, that Ivan asked for.
About Oikos (circle of influence) in this group we have an interesting situation. I thought if we come to head of the family, and in our culture it is mostly man, we could find man of peace and also all other parts of family. But, here is different. Stana (60) brought to this meeting her son Srdjan, his wife Gaga, another daughter in law Zaklina, two granddaughters and one grandson. For me that was new experience, I put my attention to their relation. What I noticed is that all members of her family respect her a lot. Maybe I concluded too fast but I would like to hear your advice or some comment about this situation. Of course, in this there is nothing bad but I think this experience will be helpful a lot in our service.
After we finished our meeting, together with Ivan, his son and Niki, we went to another room and we worked on the Multiply book. We used the translation we’ve got from you.
What it means to be disciple and how to become one? – that is what we worked. Next time we wish to continue. Ivan is enthusiastic about material. It is important that we started on this way to work with him. His son Dragan first time meets with these things, and he said he wants to start, to be more active in visits, to work as Niki does, but he needs time to learn basics. What we worked on together helps him a lot to understand some things. All the time we talked about lesson, he was taking notes.
I think in this house church, there is potential and capacity and we need to use that fire and wish that these people have.
NEKA VAS BOG BLAGOSLOVI
God bless you, Marijan
