“Job Creation” Training, HUB, Serbia, April 27-29

​Everyone, 

Just a quick update on something that happened at the end of last month. On April 27-29, our church took part in the 2nd ”Job Creation” conference that was held in the historical Belgrade Christian Association. The event was organized by Roma Networks - a network of Roma churches and ministries from all over Europe (and it becomes global!) that we’ve been a part of since 2014. 

This event was a follow up of the last year’s event on the similar topic, as job creation, poverty alleviation, partial/full sustainability has become an important conversation among the Roma churches and ministries all over Eastern Europe. The awareness of necessity for Roma churches/ministries to become less dependent on the support from e.g. the USA and/or Western Europe is becoming greater and so there are many independent initiatives popping up from different corners of “Roma ministries universe”.

Some of you may remember that we are being active in this field for a couple of years now. Unfortunately, some of our plans have been greatly hurt by Covid lockdowns and inability to travel freely across country borders. Still, the project has been active locally and it did provide income to a few individuals from our church for couple of years. Eventually, it did help one of the church families to get on their (financial) feet, as they’ve demonstrated both the commitment and skill and therefore we’re entrusted with continuing the project on their own. 

This year, we had an opportunity to present another business idea, this time coming from one of the women from our church, Svetlana Markovic Lajovic  a single mom of two. Svetlana (in the photo) has been a part of our church for some time now and although not being a Roma herself (only partially) she felt strongly that God was leading her to our church, where she was welcomed and embraced by everyone. 

It was wonderful to give Svetlana an opportunity to present her business to Roma church leaders from all over Europe and it is our prayer that it will give her new ideas and create new opportunities for her. And btw, being a former journalist and TV person, she’s done a terrific job presenting!

We are thankful to God for her, for a family that Roma Networks is, for an opportunity to share from the Word and lead us in worship during the event! Please pray for Svetlana, her family business to be successful and to grow beyond of what she expects and that it becomes a tool to bless others and our church! Pray for more ideas like hers and for more people like her to join our church, as we firmly believe it is time for our church to overcome all racial, ethnic and cultural barriers and demonstrate that “there is no longer Jew or Gentile, no longer slave or free, no longer male and female” and that we are truly all one in Christ Jesus.