Isodora

Last year in Novi Sad, Serbia I had the honor to help pioneer their first English camp. It was great. This was our team..


During that week I really got to understand the Serbs and a little bit more and learn about their culture. Serbs are very differnt from Slovaks. It is amazing to me how you can cross the border into another country (state) over here and it is like entering a totally different world. It is not like driving from state to state in the U.S. and everyone speaks the same language and life is pretty much the same.

The vast majority of Serbia's 8 million people belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Among the Protestant minority of 170,000, about 130,000 belong to the Slovak Lutheran and the Hungarian Reformed churches. The other 40,000 belong to evangelical churches. With these statistics you can see that the majority of Serbia is Orthodox.
Most Serbs believe that if you are Serbian then you are Orthodox...they go hand in hand.

This leads me to Isodora. She is a 17 year old girl that I got to spend a lot of time with last year. She kept me up most hours of the night and asked me many questions about life and about God. She is not afraid to come right out and say how she feels, she is very forward. Which most Serbs are. After camp was over I was not really sure where she was but knew she still had plenty of questions. Over the past year I have stayed in touch with her by email and SMS (text messaging). We would have the basic conversations of; "How are you, What is new in life, What are you doing this summer, Are you still with the same boyfriend....?"
Along with all of this I continue to pray for her because I knew she was hungary and searching, as is most of Serbia.

This year I had the opportunity to go back to Serbia to help promote camp again for another summer of English camps. I contacted Isodora to let her know I was in town. She and I met up for coffee along with my friend Anka from Slovakia. It was great! We sat with Isodora for well over an hour. We started off with the basics..."What have you been doing, How is school going...?" These questions lead into something much deeper.
Over the years in ministry I have often wondered and asked God, "How do I just come right out and tell people about you?" I feel like my life has relfected Christ when I work with these students but for some reason any time I try to come straight out with the REASON for life...aka, God, I feel like my toungue gets all twisted and then I get attacked by Satan with words such as, "you are too pushy, don't mention God, let them figure it out..."

Well, NOT THIS TIME! It was great. Isodora and I began talking and the next thing I knew I was sharing the Gospel. Telling her exactly what I believed and challanged her with a lot of questions in her own life. And the great thing was, I was not even nervous (when we left Anka told me she was praying the entire time I was talking...no wonder I was not nervous).
Isodora made the comment to me that in her religion class (Orthodox) in school, her teacher is pushy and it makes her not want to understand God. Humm? But then she said to me in the same breath, "I like listening to you because you challenge me to think about things." :) That was good, and my point. *wink
Isodora is seeking and reaching. She is at that point in her life where she knows there is a God but is not ready to let go of her life. She is not ready to let God be in control.
When we finished I asked her if she wanted to hang out again before I left Serbia that week. She said, "YES." Wow, after a conversation like we had, I would have thought she would not want to hang out with me. I knew she was hungry for God and wanted more information.
That night I went home, or back to the flat I was staying in for the week, and could not believe that this is my life. I got to sit in a small coffee shop in the middle of Novi Sad, Serbia, surrounded by buildings that were destroyed by bombs not to long ago and people who are lost and hungry. INCREDIBLE!
What a blessing it is to share the Lord with students around the world.

(this is Isodora on the left and Anka to my right)

In case you were wondering...Isordora and I got to hang out again, at church. Yes, she came with me to church on Sunday morning and I got to spend some time with her. When the service was over I walked her to her bus and gave her my Bible.

When you get the chance if you could please pray for her...she is reaching and just needs to grab.