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Dear friends thank you for your selfless support, prayers and encouragement. Last couple of months we were the witnesses of God’s great move. He showed us great things and taught us to trust His lead and to relay on His power.   Read On SOZO Festival 2013 Darijo Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We would like to take this opportunity to share two very important events that have occurred during the past month.

As mentioned in the title, I would like to share the news about the two births – one in our family and one in our church.

Every birth is a very important and positive thing. New life brings joy, blessings and prosperity. So it is in this case!

Luka has been born! As a family we are so glad that we got another child. Luke came as the sixth member of our family. All about Jaroslava’s pregnancy and delivery went well. Now we enjoy the wonderful gift that the Lord has given us.

Marko’s birth! Last month has been rich with the new beginnings.

I would like to tell you a little bit more about Marko. Marko is from Ruma and he is 34 years old. Last month he has been born also! Let me explain. Marko had actually been born 34 years ago, but last month Marko has experienced the new birth. He met and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. It was an honor and a privilege to baptize Marko. Marko’s baptism confirmed his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I had a chance to talk to several Marko’s friends and they told me they were amazed by the change he underwent in such a short time. We rejoice and praise God, as Marko became part of our great Christian family.

As a church and as a family we would like to thank you for your continuous support for the work to which our Lord Jesus Christ has called us.

Drago and Jaroslava

Today we drove from Sarajevo towards the East passing over the mountains towards the River Drina. At Zvornik we crossed into Serbia and then drove north to Ruma.

In Ruma we met Drago and Jaroslava along with Pero. Drago and Pero shared with us about the way that Jesus Christ has freed them from their heroine addiction. Now planting a church in this city, this dynamic team are connecting with others who have struggled with the same kinds of traps – and are pointing them towards the liberation that Jesus can bring…

Two more hours East and we reached Belgrade and the Bible School. Brilliant to be welcomed by Sladjan and the team…

Here are a few shots from our day: Sinisa and the team from Banja Luka, Bosnia write… 

We would like to share news from our family and church in Ruma.
We are truly blessed with our brothers and sisters in the church.It is wonderful to have such a lovely family around.
We thank the Lord that we can grow and build as the body of Christ.

Psalm 133:1‚‚ How good and pleasant it is  when God’s people live together in unity!‚‚ Holy Communion is a new thing that we started in the church in Ruma.
So far we have received Holy Communion in the church in Sremska Mitrovica. An interesting statistic is that in the church we have 17 people and 15 children. There is a saying: “Children are our future”. We can freely say that children are our present! We are really grateful for all the childrenin our church.
The new project that we are planning to start, as a church is to help drug addicts. We believe that God could heal these people and we are praying for God’s guidance for this new ministry. I will write more about this project in our next newsletter.
Jaroslava and I have special news that we would like to share with you. We are expecting fourth child! Jaroslava is seven months pregnant. With great pleasure we expect our sixth member of the family! Please pray for us in this exciting moment in our lives. Please pray for our church and believers in Ruma. And also please pray for the other people to get to know real truth and life, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for  your support.
Kind regards from Chruch in Ruma

DARKO SRNKA WRITES… “Serving Christ isn’t easy and it’s often a fight against the waves, in caring for the lost and weeping… sometimes when we see the hungry and the weak, we remember Jesus’ words – “Give them something to eat.” And other times we meet people who only want to use us. Walking on the water requires faith and a clear view of Christ…”  CLICK HERE TO READ ON

Thank you for being connected to the Oak Hall in Serbia website and for praying as the work continues.

Praying for Bible School Graduates – With over three hundred Bible School graduates across the region, there is much news to share!  A growing number are publishing to you directly through this site – we hope that it is giving you useful, prayer-fueling information.

Praying for Family Milenkovic – many of us are praying for Sara as she begins chemotherapy this week – please click here for all the recent posts about Sladjan, Jaroslava and the family.  These are very challenging days and the family continue with great grace and courage supported by your prayer.

Praying for the Bible School team and students – led by Riste and surrounded by an amazing team, the Bible School is continuing extremely well.  There is an exceptional group of students studying this year.  Riste is regularly posting news here so that we can pray as the students study and travel across the country.

The best way to keep connected to the news is to “subscribe” to the blog by entering your email above…

You can leave comments that will be read by all who visit the site – the comments that you leave are often a great encouragement.

Our prayer together is that the Lord Jesus would be honoured as we stand with each other for His glory wherever He has placed us.

Thank you for being a key part of this work.

– Andy Mayo Our dear friends,

Warm greetings from the Milenkovic family.

After a longer period of time we are writing to you with the news on what is happening with us. Sara and I have been back home since a few days ago. We are thankful to God that the family is reunited after a log time, together with the new member, Sofija Lena. The two months of our life in America passed, and how was it? It was good and hard and sad and joyful. There were many situations in which we could only pray to God to give us strength to endure, while thanking Him for bringing us to a place like St. Jude hospital. Sara had great care there, and other life conditions, and a possibility to keep enjoying the things that make a child’s life. We are thankful to our brothers and sisters there who made an effort, visited us and cared about us, making us feel at home as much as it was possible.

Because of the side effects Sara would sometimes feel very weak and exhausted, eating poorly, losing weight, but what she’d never lose was her cheerful spirit and courage to cope with everything. In these few months she has become a more mature person. It even seems that she took the hair loss easier than we did. Other than all of that, we tried to life lives as normally as possible. We would go to church regularly and meet many wonderful people. Sara enjoyed her Sunday school classes. We would go to the Zoo, shopping, watching cartoons and skyping with our family back home every day. We are staying home four weeks altogether, that is, until February 3, where Sara’s chemotherapy will start, which would last about 5 months. Sara is in a category of high-risk patients, which is why she was taking high dosages of radiation, and it is going to be the same with the chemotherapy.

Our battle with the cancer has only started. We believe God that He could end it today, but we trust that same God that He knows all our days and our future. We know that sometimes sufferings which seem so painful to us bring a purpose which is so much higher and more wonderful. How did God see His own Son’s pain and death? Could He have saved Him from the cross and death? Who can listen to a child’s cry and not respond to it, or watch His own child’s death, being able to stop it, and still not do it? It is God, because He knew that precisely this death would bring blessings to mankind through the millennia.

We pray every day that God would give us strength to trust Him even though we are sometimes overwhelmed by the feeling of helplessness and a desire for an instant solution. We will do everything that we can to provide the best care possible for Sara, but we know that it’s all in God’s authority and His hands

Today is Sara’s 9th birthday. We rejoice that God gave us Sara to have her through all these years and that she is with us. Sara bought a bracelet to her mother, on which it is engraved that every day is a gift from God. This is true for both her and me and all of us. If there are a few more days ahead of us to live, it is a gift from God, and if not, again, it is all from Him.

We would like to have Jaroslava, Jana and Lena join us in America at the end of February or the beginning of March. There are many things to arrange about visas, traveling, accommodation there. Please pray for all this to be possible so that we can all be together during this long and probably more difficult period for Sara.

Things at HUB are going great. Last semester finished and 5 students finished their one year long education at the school. The rest are continuing their education and in a few days only, a couple of other students will join them. A youth camp at HUB finished yesterday, where we were able to be their hosts. What a privilege it is to serve others! Thanks so much that you keep praying and supporting the ministry of HUB and the Bible school.

Thank you for praying faithfully for us as a family and for asking us about the news. Thanks to all those of you who sent us emails, letters, presents, greeting cards etc. So much care and love, from those we never even met. We usually were not able to respond and personally thank you for it, but we do thank you now wholeheartedly.

May God help us all in this New Year to have Him closer and more dear to us than ever.


Sladjan and Jaroslava, with Sara, Jana and Lena Dragi naši prijatelji,

Veliki pozdrav od porodice Milenković.

Posle duže vremena javljamo vam se sa vestima o tome šta se dešava kod nas. Sara i ja smo se vratili kući pre nekoliko dana. Bogu smo zahvlani što smo posle duže vremena porodično na okupu, zajedno sa našim novim članom Sofijom Lenom.

Prošla su naša 2 meseca boravka u Americi. I kako je bilo? Bilo je i dobro i teško i  tužno i srećno. Prolazili smo kroz mnogo situacija u kojima smo samo mogli moliti Boga da nam da snage da izdržimo, dok smo u isto vreme zahvaljivali Bogu što nas je doveo na mesto kakvo je St Jude bolnica.  Sara je tamo imala odličnu negu, uslove za život, mogućnost da i dalje uživa u onim stvarima koje čine detetov život. Zahvalni smo braću i sestrama tamo koji su se trudili, posećivali i brinuli oko nas i učinili da se tamo što više osećamo kao kod kuće.

Zbog sporednih efekata zračenja Sara je nekada bila jako slaba i iscrpljena, slabo je jela, gubila na težini, ali ono što nije uopšte izgubila je njen vedar duh i hrabrost da se sa svime nosi. Za ovih nekoliko meseci postala je tako zrelija osoba. Čak i gubitak kose joj je, čini mi se, lakše pao njoj nego nama. Pored svega trudili smo se da vodimo živote što je moguće normalno. Redovno smo išli u crkvu, upoznali mnoge divne ljude, Sara je uživala na časovima u nedeljnoj školi, išli bi u zoo vrt, kupovinu, gledali crtaće i svaki dan skajpovali sa našima kod kuće.

Kući ostajemo 4 nedelje, tj. do 3. februara, kada se vraćamo ponovo u St.Jude gde će Sara početi sa hemoterapijama, koje bi trebale trajati narednih 5 meseci. Sara spada u kategoriju visokorizičnih pacijenata zbog čega je primala visoke doze radijacija, a tako će biti i sa hemoterapijama.

Naša borba sa rakom je tek na početku. Verujemo Bogu da je On može već danas okončati, ali tom istom Bogu verujemo koji zna sve naše dane i naše sutra i znamo da nekada patnje koje nama izgledaju tako bolne, donose neku svrhu koja je mnogo veća i izvrsnija. Kako je Bog gledao na bol i patnju svog sopstvenog sina? Da li ga je mogao spasiti krsta i smrti? Ko može da sluša vapaj deteta i ne odgovori, gleda smrt svog deteta, a može da je spreči, a ipak to ne učini? To je bio Bog, jer je znao da će upravo ona doneti blagoslove čovečanstvu kroz milenijume.

Svaki dan se molimo da nam Bog daje snage da mu verujemo i ako smo nekada savladani osećanjem bespomoćnosti i željom za instant rešenjem. Mi ćemo činiti  sve što je u našoj moći da Sara ima najbolju negu, ali znamo da je sve u Božijoj vlasti i Njegovim rukama.

Danas je Sarin 9. rođendan. Radujemo se što nam je dao Saru da je imamo svih ovih godina i što je i dalje sa nama. Sara je mami kupila za Božić narukvicu na kojoj su urezane reči: „Svaki dan je poklon od Boga.“ Ovo je istina i za nju i za mene i za sve nas. Ako imamo još koji dan ispred nas da živimo, to je dar od Boga, a ako nemamo, opet, sve je od Njega.

Želeli bi da nam se Jaroslava sa Lenom i Janom, krajem februara ili početkom marta, pridruže. Puno stvari treba rešiti oko viza, putovanja, smeštaja tamo,… Molite se da ovo bude izvodljivo i da možemo biti svi zajedno tokom ovog dužeg i verovatno težeg perioda za Saru.

U HUB-u stvari idu odlično. Prošli semestar je završen i 5 studenata je završilo svoje jednogodišnje školovanje. Ostali nastavljaju već za nekoliko dana i njima se priključuju još nekolicina novih studenata. Juče je u HUB-u završen jedan omladinski kamp, gde smo mogli da budemo njihovi domaćini. Kakva privilegija da služimo drugima! Hvala mnogo što se i dalje molite i podržavate službu HUB-a i Biblijske škole.

Hvala što se verno molite za nas kao porodicu i što nas pitate za vesti. Hvala za sve vas koji ste slali mejlove, pisma, poklone, čestitke, itd. Toliko brige i pažnje, čak i od onih ljudi koje nikada nismo ni upoznali.  Uglavnom nismo uspeli da odgovorimo i lično zahvalimo na tome, ali iz celog srca vam sada zahvaljujemo.

Neka svima nama Gospod pomogne da nam u Novoj godini On bude bliži i draži više nego ikad.


Slađan i Jaroslava, sa Sarom, Janom i Lenom


