We are travelling to Serbia in Eastern Europe today, as we hear a story of freedom.
Eight years of hard drug use and his closest friends said that Andrej’s* only future was to die on the heroin that enslaved him. That was until he met a group of people who claimed to have a similar recent history, yet were now free of drugs. As he pressed them for their story, they explained about Jesus Christ and the liberation He brings…
Soon, as part of a Teen Challenge rehabilitation programme, and growing in his new-found faith and redeemed life, Andrej thought of the friends who remained addicted.
After completing rehab and settling into a local church, Andrej studied at a Bible school in Belgrade. As he studied and travelled around the country with the team, a growing conviction came that he should spend his life sharing about the One who says, ‘I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.’ (Jn 10:10b)
Following his studies, Andrej moved back to the town in Serbia where he had become addicted and to which he had intended never to return – and began to plant a church. Ten years on, and a thriving group is growing around him and his wife Malina,* including some of those who years before had taken drugs with Andrej.
*names changed to protect identity
Pray:
- for Serbia to heal from the divisions and violence of the past and the tensions of the present
- for people who are unemployed and in poverty, that they follow Jesus rather than turn to drugs
- for the church in Serbia to be a witness to their neighbours and groups within Serbia, such as the Roma people.
