Ministering to students in Serbia
We are able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with an increasing number of students. On 17-19 November 2007 we had the biggest ever attendance at an Evangelical University Students (EUS) conference, with 155 students registering from all over Serbia and Montenegro. For the second year we held it in the refreshing surroundings of Zlatibor, located in the mountains between Serbia and Montenegro.
A team of twelve student leaders looked after the organisation. As they take on more responsibility, I am able to step back and take less. Our autumn conferences are shorter than the summer camps, so we had just four main teaching sessions.
Dan Denk, regional coordinator for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) in the Balkans during the 1990s, was our main speaker. He challenged us to take a new look at our life. We should be like jet airliners, with clear direction and purpose, not like moths flying around in circles without any purpose in life.
From the Epistle of James, he helped us find practical ways of building up our personal spiritual life and fighting temptation. He spoke on vocation, and challenged the students to invest time not only in academic study, but in student ministry – taking part in Bible studies, prayer and evangelism.
Special time
As usual the conference started with an excellent worship session. Then representatives from the various cities with EUS groups gave presentations on student ministry within their area. After the talks, the conference divided into small groups for discussion. These gave excellent opportunities for applying what we had learned, especially since around 30 students were unconverted.
The prayer event on Saturday night was a very special time. A few students gave their lives to Christ, and more than 20 came with different prayer requests. Some wanted prayer because they had been living in sin. Some had been ‘passive’ Christians. Others requested prayer over difficult family issues like alcoholism. Many were crying; and we cried with them as well. Many had never been to a Christian conference before, and Zlatibor was a powerful experience for them.
In EUS, we feel like one big family, and many felt God’s love during the conference. One of our student leaders in Novi Sad has chronic arthritis, which prevented her from joining us at the conference. We prayed much for her and in one of the meetings called her up on a mobile phone. We told her that a few people wanted to greet her. She was quite overwhelmed when 155 students shouted – ‘We love you Daca!’
Please pray that the seeds planted at these conferences will bear fruit in the students’ lives.
Samuil Petrovski
