Encouraging the body of Christ in Serbia!

Where on a world map would you look for a country that had only 700 evangelicals in its capitol city of 2 million people? What if I added that this country recently had a civil war and is now home to 200,000 Muslims?

Mark Orcutt (right) flew over from South Carolina to travel with me. Here he is speaking to a Serbian student in Novi Sad, Serbia, during a distribution of our evangelistic magazine, "Vox."

Would you place such a country in Europe?

The country I am describing is called Serbia. Serbia is in the Balkan Peninsula and is what remains from the former Yugoslavia. Serbia shares a border with Hungary.

Before the USA was attacked on Sept 11, Serbia was the world’s hotspot. Perhaps you remember such words as Sarajevo, ethnic cleansing, Kosovo, Slobodan Milosevic.

Last week I was there in Serbia in the capitol city of Belgrade: 2 million people with less than 1000 born again believers while the Muslims multiply throughout the country, particularly in the south.

I was with Mark Orcutt, a good friend from South Carolina, who came over just to spend the week with our family and join me in my travels and ministry. Mark and I spent many hours together processing all we experienced and getting to know each other better.

Errol (left) is our Serbian country director for Campus Crusade; Mark is on the right. Goran (middle) is a psychology student who is not a Christian (yet) but enjoys hanging out with the guys in our ministry in Belgrade. They are holding up copies of the evangelistic magazine we distributed. I think it is great when our ministry attracts non-Christians!

It was asked to come to the city of Belgrade to train their new missionaries and to encourage the laborers there. Campus Crusade has 7 missionaries there, 4 are Serbian and 3 Romanian. Just north of Belgrade is the city of Novi Sad. Campus Crusade has there a team of 5 American young people witnessing on the campus. One day we helped them pass out an evangelistic magazine that our ministry created and gathered evangelistic contacts for them. The magazine looks great and is very professional!

One student approached me who was helping our American missionaries hand out the magazine. He said, “Do you remember me?”

“Yes, I do,” I replied. “You came to an outreach I spoke at 2 years ago here in Novi Sad. Your name is Evan.” Evan told me how my message impacted his life and a short while later he came to faith in Christ. Our team of Americans has helped him grow and now he is helping them reach out to other students. It was great reconnecting with Evan!

Evan, in the light blue shirt, through our ministry in Novi Sad, Serbia, went from a lost student to a Christ-centered laborer!

We returned to Budapest in time for a great outreach done each year by Campus Crusade’s high school’s ministry. “Battle of the Bands.” Amateur bands from around Budapest get a chance to perform live and compete for prize money. Entry fee is to fill out a spiritual interest survey from which our high school staff can do follow up. I have not heard yet on numbers but I saw the gospel clearly communicated between acts and I saw young Hungarians in attendance who otherwise would not have gone to a church or any “Christian” event. What a strategic outreach!

Back in Budapest, these Hungarian students attended "Battle of the Bands." Though they probably would not attend a church service, at our outreach they heard the gospel.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and your partnership in our ministry. Please keep praying for us and those impacted by the work of the gospel here in Eastern Europe!

"Therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1

March Madness in Budapest!

Wow! What a few days! Our kids’ school (ICSB; International Christian School of Budapest) hosted a basketball tournament where we invited International High Schools from across Central and Eastern Europe. Friday and Saturday had around the clock high school basketball games for both girls and boys as the tournament progressed.

The teams came from Salzburg, Austria; Vienna, Austria; Kiev, Ukraine, Bucharest, Romania and our cross-town rival, the American International School of Budapest (AISB), where embassy families and business executives send their kids. While most of the high school athletes were American, the rosters from these schools contained kids from places such as Belgium, China and Iran.

While the high school boys from our school took second in the tournament to local rival AISB, our ICSB girls went undefeated in the tournament and won the girls division! The crowd was rowdy, school colors were everywhere, the pep band was energetic and the gym was loud! This tournament is certainly the highlight of the athletic year and generates the most school spirit! EB and I haven’t had this much fun as sports fans since college days at Ahearn Fieldhouse.

Our Elizabeth, AS A SOPHOMORE, brought home a whole shelf-full of awards, including: From 100+ athletes, the coaches voted her: 1) Most Valuable Offensive Player, 2) onto the all-tournament team. She was also 3) high scorer and 4) brought home the championship trophy! We are so proud!

The championship ICSB 2007 Lady Bulldogs basketball team!

On a cultural note, we had to adjust to a new way of refereeing. In America, we expect the refs to be objective outside observers of the game. In Europe, where authority is emphasized and individuality is discouraged, the refs make it clear that they are in control of the game and they will favor their calls toward the losing team. This is an attempt to make the contests fairer. Frustrating to our American minds but a fact of life here in Europe all the same.

Rebekah and her friend won an award for the best poster. Here it is!