When God has His own agenda: Part 2 (Topola)

Backa Topola is located in the northern part of Serbia, called the Vojvodina. This region is close to Hungary and has many ethnic Hungarians that live here. The land is beautiful and has pitch black soil that is ideal for agriculture and is very similar to Ukraine’s Chernozom. This is the first city and church that we were introduced to in Serbia because this is where Stojce lives.

Stojce, Igor, Vladimir, Victor, and Taiwo.

Let me introduce to you the Topola church leaders, possibly the most unique missionary team.

Stojce: a Macedonian, with Hungarian citizenship (who picked us up from the airport). He came to Serbia as a bible school student and ended up returning as a full time missionary. Stojce has a kingdom mindset and is a church planter at heart. This guy has a ton of energy, is full of ideas, and always a pleasure to be around. As mentioned in the prior post, he is the reason we were able to come to Serbia in the first place.

Victor: an ethnic Hungarian with Serbian citizenship. This guy has a heart of gold and is the kind of person that you would have to try very hard to upset and even then, he will respond with the most patience and kindness. And of course, because of that, he works with the kids’ ministry. He is truly gifted for this ministry and is a crucial member of the team.

Matthew: an American who came to Serbia as a teen for a short-term missions trip and ended up coming back for full time ministry. He is married to a Romanian, and his kids are Americans who have never been to America (wow!). Matthew has been in Serbia/Romania for the past 20 years and has gone back to the states just a few times to visit. Matt speaks English, Hungarian, Serbian, and Romanian. He is the worship leader and wears many other hats.

Matthew and his wife Petra

Taiwo: a Nigerian, married to a Serbian, who moved to Serbia to study and ended up staying as a missionary. He is the oldest in the team and is considered like the senior pastor. Taiwo is less active in the day to day because of his age but is still a crucial part of the team. This is an anointed man and a true pastor at heart. I see him as the father for the team, and they all have mutual respect for each other.

The Topola church is considered a well-established church and has 30-50 people that attend services regularly. This is considered the base church, and from here they have a vision to plant 14 more churches in the surrounding towns and villages. This vision is already taking shape as they have one other church in Pacir, which is similar in size, and they are working with people in 2 or 3 more villages where churches could be established in the near future. The passion that this team has for preaching is the reason I believe God brought us together. Church planting is incredibly hard work, and few churches venture out with a vision like this, especially in Serbia.

During our first visit here in 2021, we were able to do several kids festivals (outdoor games, music, and a gospel station), visit families, and attend a youth meeting. I learned a valuable lesson during this trip, “God does not show favoritism” (Acts 10:34). Many, like myself, attend a relatively big church, with 2nd and 3rd generation believers, churches that are packed with talent. Churches that can sort through hundreds of people for the best voices, organizers, leaders, searching for people without shortcomings, and out of those we build. But, God does not show favoritism; He is willing to use people that we overlook. I saw how everyone was pulled into ministry, everyone given a chance, everyone was needed, and everyone was useful. Sadly, I can’t say I see that in our churches.

Early the following year (2022), I came back to Topola with Igor Rusev for just a few days to fellowship with the team, plan for the summer, and deliver funds to purchase a van. We took a step of faith and scheduled a kids’ camp, a few festivals, and a youth conference for August, when we would come with a team. The summer trip was a true blessing, and we saw how our team could be useful and productive— the one thing I was truly worried about. I have been on missionary trips that felt more like tourist trips than missions, and I was glad to see that every member of the team was truly needed there. Between English, Russian, and Ukrainian, we could communicate to some degree with everyone, and that is a huge factor! I remember on our last evening in Serbia with the team, we were sitting and reflecting—was the trip a success or a failure? Should we come back? And unanimously we said, “Yes! we need to come back.”

Girls leading a lesson during the first team trip

In April of 2023, Oleg, my cousin, served in Serbia for two months, and a few other brothers joined him during this time. In May, Stan and I came there for a little over a week. Our goal was to visit the local team in Topola, plan for the summer, and possibly start new projects. Now I want to be very honest for a minute—When you are there serving, the will of God seems very clear, but when you come home and some time passes, you begin to question things again. This was me in May of 2023. I was flying out to Serbia again and asking the same question—Lord, are we supposed to be here? If so, give me confirmation!

 Before flying out and after we arrived, for some reason, I continued praying a particular prayer “If it is your will for us to be here, answer our prayers during this trip.” I don’t know where this sort of idea for this form of confirmation came from, but that was on my mind and in my heart the entire trip. Sometime during the trip, we spent a day visiting families and we prayed for any needs that they might have. One of the families we visited, a mother said that she would like us to pray for her son who is in another country. He was sick and unable to get up and walk for a long time now. We prayed, and I had the same thought—"Lord, if we’re supposed to be here, answer our prayers!” Later that day we visited another home, and the lady asked us to pray for her family because she had not seen her kids in a while, and she would like to enjoy their company. We prayed. Later that evening Oleg gets a call from Victor, and he tells him that the house we visited and prayed for the son, she called him and said that she spoke to her son today and he felt better for the first time in a while and was even able to walk around that day. The following Sunday, after service, the second lady came up to Stan and said, “Praise God, my kids came to visit me this week!” I sat that evening both amazed but also skeptical—Why is it so difficult to just accept God’s miracles instead of speculating whether it is a coincidence or not? Later during the trip, we had the chance to visit Novi Sad and have lunch with Gale—I will introduce him in more detail in the next post, but in short, he is a youth leader/associate pastor at the Novi Sad church. Before parting ways, I asked if we could pray and if he had anything we could pray about together. He opened up about struggles he and his wife have been experiencing over trying to have a child for the past ten years. Currently they were going through various procedures at the doctors, and it was also causing a strain in their relationship. We prayed and left to Novi Pazar. It was May 3rd, 2023.

The sister we visited that asked to pray for her son

Fast forward to July 2023, we came back with a team for the second time and were able to do an English camp for 5 days, 3 festivals, and another youth conference. I won’t go into the details of the entire trip, but I would like to point out a few moments. Kids that have never had the gospel preached to them come to these events and are able to spend 5 days in an atmosphere where they are given attention and aside from learning English, they hear the good news! One boy that was at the camp last year for the first time, also came this year, and then attended the youth conference the day after English camp ended. The conference was a blessing, and the holy spirit was working in people’s hearts as people came forward to pray together. At one point during the prayer the boy from the camps came forward, and I asked him what he would like to pray for. He said one short but powerful phrase, “I want Jesus to forgive my sins.”

Toward the end of the summer trip, Andrey, Igor, Oleksy and I had a chance to go to Novi Sad again and have lunch with Gale. During our lunch, Gale announced, “I have some news to share. We are expecting a baby!” We all congratulated him, and I asked a follow up question, “When are you expecting?” And he said “February.” Now understand me correctly here—I am not claiming that God specifically answered our prayer that day in May and not all the prayers that he, his wife, and many others prayed over the past 10 years, but God’s timing is incredible. God gave us enough confirmation in May to come back in July, and in July gave us even more confirmation to come back the next time. Everything for us in Serbia started with Stojce and Topola, and I see how God is leading us one step at a time to continue the work that He started. Every step is a step of faith, and the steps are scary to take sometimes, but when you look back at the path, you see that God has been beside you every step of the way. That is all the encouragement we need to keep going.