From Socialism to Salvation: A Pastor's Story

We want to make Jesus popular again, so we attracted people on a special way and they are coming for prayer meetings.

Sometimes more on prayer meetings than on the Sunday service. I teach Bible and then we talk about that everybody can say something

what they see from God and then we all pray. And in front of our eyes we see people are changing.

Last month young men was baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the City Light Church Podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that He has for us.

If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

So today is a bit of a different service. We have Pastor Yavitsa and his wife Savka here. They are missionaries that we support.

And so how many of you were here just like a month ago when Marcy Erickson from the Grace Center in Bihardari, Ethiopia was with us.

We didn't plan it this way, just turned out this way. But City Light was a mission's-minded church since the very beginning because a church that's not winning the lost is lost itself.

And so we're about people. We're about souls. We believe that social justice without the gospel is an injustice.

That you can't just give somebody some warm food, but the gospel must be included also. Otherwise you just have a well fed person that's on their way to hell. Amen.

So the gospel has to go forth. And we did the best we could the first few years because we were a young new church plant ourselves.

And then got really serious in 2009, adopting different ministries as the Lord led us and committing to sponsor them on a monthly basis.

And one thing that I pledged to do, which was be faithful with our sponsorship, I've heard complaints throughout the years from other international missionaries saying, yeah, we have some sponsorship, but sometimes they skip a month or sometimes it's two weeks late.

And I don't ever want to have that over our head that somebody can't go forward in paying rent or eating because we just don't get our act together.

And so we committed and I can I say this and I don't I don't do this in a proud way, but really I'm grateful for you that since 2009, no matter what's been happening here, no matter if they were frightening us with COVID and churches were shut down and people weren't coming since 2009.

And we have never, ever skipped out on our support ever once or been a day late, ever once, ever with any whether it was Guatemala, Guatemala where we've been supporting since 2009, since 2009, we've helped build over 40 buildings, church buildings, churches in Guatemala and by here during Ethiopia, we were involved in Liberia for a good number of years.

And in 2015, I met Pastor Yovica and his wife, Safka, and got introduced to their work for years before that I had heard about it, I'd heard the legend of this man, really I'd heard about this man with an apostolic call on his life in put good, in the capital of Montenegro and then we met in 2015 and we committed to supporting them.

Just so happens, he's in America right now and I wanted you to be able to hear from him and so once you put your hands together, see he comes on up, so good to have him.

And the reason we do this is twofold, one obviously so that you know what you're a part of, what you're a part of on a monthly basis and I want you to be able to hear his heart and learn about how the Lord is using him and how you're helping him be used of the Lord.

That's one reason, number two and we saw this in the first service is I want there to be an impartation, this isn't just like a report where you get to see where your money's going.

Amen, you're going to catch something I believe that's on this man, he has something of God that's going to come through and you can catch that Paul when he wrote the Romans, he said,

I long to come to you that I could impart unto you some spiritual gift that would be a transference, that would be an impartation by association.

So you might have come in here this morning and you have a great need and you're thinking God picked the wrong Sunday to come because it's mission Sunday and I'm about to hear some international report about a country I never heard of.

Open up your heart and watch how God ministers to you and delivers to you. Amen.

So Pastor Yovitz is from the Balkans, that's the region that I come from, that I was born in, it's kind of difficult to understand because it was once one country known as Yugoslavia, does that ring a bell to anyone?

Like we have the 1984 Olympics there in the city of my birth and then it got really messy, there was a very bloody civil war where that country got divided into several other countries.

Slovenia, Macedonia left right away, then we had Serbia, we have Montenegro, we have Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia.

And so if that's all complicated to you, you don't quite get what happened in that region of the world, join the club, I'm from there.

I've studied it intensively and I still don't quite get it, I mean it's a very, very messy, messy thing.

And this region is just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy.

So if you think of how Italy is and it's boot-shaped, the boot is running away from us, it's kicking, it's running.

And so before I begin asking you some questions, do you want to just greet the people past you?

Of course, thank you so much. Good morning, city light.

Good morning.

How are you doing?

Good.

Long time no see.

2018 was the last time my wife and I were here, ministering to you.

And last year I got terribly sick and while I was lying in my bed, I thought I will never have an opportunity to stand before those people and tell them how much I appreciate all you are doing for us down there in Montenegro and Serbia.

So we are here today, I was longing, as Pastor Bojan said, I was longing to see you and I was longing to be able to tell you, thank you.

Thank you for every prayer and support, thank you for your generosity. We pray for you almost every day.

So believe it or not, we do that. Remember you in our prayers and we are so grateful to our God for you.

You are famous to God because of your generosity and because of your love in practice. Thank you so much.

Amen.

So America, whether you know it or not, is a very gospel rich nation.

You can hear the gospel. If you are curious, you will come across the gospel.

Back when I was a teenager, it was all over the radio, it was on television, now it's all over the internet, it's on social media, and there's practically a church on every corner.

It may not be a flourishing, lively church, but there's a church. I want to say on every corner, maybe not Queens, but definitely Brooklyn.

Brooklyn is the only borough where you can find three churches on one block. And of course, if you go to other parts of America, we are rich with the gospel.

I don't want to use the word saturated because we can always use more and we want to grow, but the gospel has resounded and is resounding throughout America.

The Balkans are not so. I use the term Balkans that just means that general areas that are not to list those eight countries every time.

It's not so. There is very, very little of the gospel. In fact, where Pastor Yovitsa served for 24 years, the country of Montenegro, the population of the country is 630,000 people, and there's around 125 known Bible-believing Christians in the entire country.

So that's the same statistics as the 1040 window, closed off countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, Oman. So how did you in a region like that where there isn't much of the gospel being preached? How did you come to faith in Jesus and receive salvation?

So, but I had my grandma. My grandma couldn't read or couldn't write, but she was able to share the stories. And she taught me how to pray.

And as a little kid, I would pray every night with her. And from time to time, she would take me to Orthodox Church and I was wandering around looking into icons and I was asking questions.

Grandma, who is this? Who is that? What was going on there? And she would tell me as much as she knew. She never had a Bible. She never read it. She never heard about Bible.

And she would give me some answers and I started loving Jesus. I fell in love with Him and it was just like a movie for me. I wanted to identify with the main actor of the movie.

And at the end, I saw him on the cross and I asked my grandma, Grandma, what happened to him? You told me that he was doing only good to men. And she said, you know, he had two good friends and friends betrayed him and he died.

He died. And she said, yes, unfortunately.

By the way, this is exactly how I first heard about Jesus. It wasn't for my parents. I was in third grade and my Nana.

Nana. She wasn't actually blood relation, but she was my Nana anyway. She came. Nana.

She came. She was related to my mother. She came and she told me about Jesus, but the way he was presented was this really, really good figure who then got killed the end.

And the gospel is never communicated how you can receive salvation through faith in Him and through His resurrection. There wasn't much emphasis on the resurrection, just that they murdered Him. What a shame.

So you're describing how she where you in church, she's showing you the tapestries and the paintings and you're seeing the main character of the movie. And of course, it intrigues you. You know, when you see Jesus something leaps up inside of you, your spirit can recognize truth, but you need somebody to open it up for you.

Exactly. But she couldn't. She just said they killed Him.

You see, after looks people see Jesus as a baby, baby cannot help you. I think the baby needs help. Or he's on the cross. He cannot help you from the cross. He needs help.

So everything stops at the end on the cross. So my faith died that day on the cross. So I live it away and I started living my life differently. I became alcoholic with the age of 13.

So I couldn't live my life without bottle of brandy every day. So it lasted maybe 10 years. I was 23. I lived with a friend of mine. We were in the heavy metal with lots of alcohol, lots of music, lots of drugs and everything.

And I was even beating my mom and father in that time, grabbing money from them. They earned very hard. I couldn't live without alcohol. I hated myself tomorrow, but I did what I did.

And I was lying in my bed and friend of mine was lying in his bed reading some comic books. When the first time in my life I was able to hear the voice and voice called on to me and said, take me.

I was looking my friend. He didn't say anything, not a word. Nobody else in the room. So I continued to read my comic book when again the voice came. I said, take me.

I stood up. I saw the book on the shelf. I saw the book is looking at me and book is calling on to me. And I came to the shelf. And before I took it, I knew that it is a Bible. I never touched it actually. Orthodox people believe that...

We had a Bible too. Never touched it. It's more like a relic in the house. It's a relic. It's holy. You don't touch it. You're a sinner. If you're sinful, better don't touch it. Something bad can happen to you.

And look at me. I met your shelf. And I was supposed to touch it. And before I touch it, I said to myself, are you crazy? Something will happen to you. You're going to change if you take it. And I took it.

And I started to read it from the beginning, you know, Genesis. And the friend of mine, he was reading his comic book and he couldn't see me. He couldn't know what's going on inside of my life.

And he said, don't read it from the beginning. You will not understand anything. Read New Testament. Where is New Testament? You will find it. So I found it.

Matthew's Gospel. Bible first time in my life, in my hands. I don't know what it all about, you know. And I'm in Matthew's Gospel, genealogy.

In any other case, I would just close it. Boring, boring, boring. But I was so hungry. And I swallowed it. When I came to the point of this was about birth of Jesus, my eyes were open.

The main actor from my childhood got alive in front of my eyes again. And I started reading it. Verse after verse. Verse after verse. And then again, I came to the point of cross. And I put it together. This is not for me.

You cannot forgive me. I saw Jesus on the cross telling those who crucified him, father, forgive them. For they don't know what they are doing. And I put it together. You cannot forgive me. I'm bad man. I'm bad person. I even lift my hands against my father and mother. You cannot forgive that.

But I didn't have a peace. God started working in my life. And I was reading all over again till I found one verse that saved me that day. And that verse told me I didn't come to invite righteous. But sinners. And I was so aware that I am sinner.

I knew that I am sinner. And by that verse, I saw that God qualified even me for salvation. And I was saved that day. And first thing I did, I went to my father and mother to apologize. They showed me door out.

They thought this is just another thing to take money from them. They showed me door out. And I almost quit when I heard the voice, the same voice again. I was in the bus and the voice said go and speak with Chaga.

Chaga was friend of mine. People sniffing to glue together, drinking together. He was a punker. I was a heavy metal. But we were friends. The same things.

Can you believe this stuff spread from St. Mark's place in the East Village all the way to Serbia?

And I found a guy in the rock place, loud heavy metal music, hard rock, everybody drunk. It was a smoke that you could cut with a knife.

And I found a place and I sit there, I took two beers and I was waiting for Chaga. Chaga came and he said speak to daddy. He said daddy listen to me.

If you love, love to me, I'm going to beat you up right now. I was very serious and he never saw me serious. He thought I'm in love. I was never in love.

So he was going to attend the hospital church for two years and nobody knew. He was in secret, like an economist.

But I saw him. He stopped fighting on the streets. What's wrong with you? And then he said speak to daddy. I said okay, Papa. I believe in Jesus every day more and more. He was like this.

What? And I repeated. I believe in Jesus every day more and more. And then he said his story. 10 days before that day, he was praying like this. Lord, if you give me somebody like me, I will stay in the church.

You know church people, they grew up in the church, dressed nice. He came with the, you know, hairstyle, the bunker, you know.

Funny dress. They didn't like him and he didn't like them. Actually in those days nobody was saved from the streets. He was the first one.

And you know 10 days before I came, he said the Lord gave me somebody like me. And 10 days later I am knocking on his door and I said I believe in Jesus.

He said you must go to the church. I said no church crucified Christ. That much I knew.

He came. He came. And I felt I came home after a long, long trip through the desert. The church.

If you love God, you should love the church. Isn't that amazing? If you're out there and you think that your sin is greater than the blood of Jesus, you got a really exaggerated perspective on your own faults and failures.

Because nobody is too far gone for him to reach nobody. This is amazing. So alcoholic age since the age of 13, sniffing glue, fought with your own parents raised your hand to them, seemed to eternally lost the Lord grabs you.

You supernaturally get saved. Last night I was asking Pastor Joe, how was it written in Serbian that scripture that Paul refers to where he says I was apprehended by God.

What is the translation of the Serbian Bible? And he said I was grabbed. I was grabbed. I was apprehended. I was apprehended as well. I was grabbed. How many of you can say I was grabbed by Jesus? I was going one way and he just, he grabbed me.

Thank God for the mercy of the Lord. Amen. So you're going through all this. Then you get radically saved. You start attending that church in Serbia. Yes. And you start growing. You're feeding on the word. How does God communicate his calling to you?

I was pastoring a little church in Serbia, formed out of refugees from Bosnia. They ran to save their lives from war, civil war, terribly bloody war. And after one year I was teaching them Bible. I was teaching them how to pray.

Many other things, but after one year they started returning back home. And I knew I will need to go somewhere else. So I was on my knees, shedding tears. I was crying. You know when something is over, it was a nice period of time.

And you need to say goodbye to lovely people that you spend time with. You need to continue with your life and with your ministry. And I was on my knees in that room. I was crying and praying. And the Lord showed up in a strong way.

And he told me, I'm going to take you to another country. This will be country of milk and honey for you. You shall not eat the bread of poverty anymore.

My goodness, and I saw Lord is taking me to America. Lord, thank you. Well, well, well, wait a little bit. He said Montenegro. He said, what?

Montenegro, I would rather go to Bosnia than to Montenegro. But then he persuaded me actually. And I started traveling once a week to Montenegro.

It was right after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. 27 NATO countries bombed my country. And I would take a train and 12 hours later I would be Montenegro. I would wait all day long for the church meeting. I would preach and take another train, go back home.

24 hours in the train every week. Our first son was born. I was in home. I was in Montenegro. She said, you will not be here in the church. And he said, I come on. I will be there for you.

But then I came to Montenegro and got a telephone call. She is in the hospital delivering baby. This was hard this day for me. But all of these things grabbed my heart for Montenegro. And when I came back home, I said, Savka, we need to go to Montenegro. We need to move there. There are hungry people waiting for us. And I am giving them injection to survive the next meeting. We need to be there for them. So we moved to Montenegro.

And adventure started. 24 years. How many churches, gospel believing, Bible preaching churches, were there in Montenegro when you started?

Our church was the very first church ever planted in Montenegro. It was 1996. Imagine that. End of 20th century. And before our church, there was no other churches, no believers.

This is Europe, by the way. And we are talking about Bible believing churches, not the Orthodox church, which is what I came out of that in Montenegro in Serbia. A lot of them aren't even open every Sunday. They are open five, six times a year during the high holy days.

That is what socialism and communism did to our country.

Then second church came third church. And now we have seven churches, like seven churches from Revelation.

Let's hope the lamp stays in your lampstand. We trust the Lord. Amen.

What do you think it is that makes it difficult for people from the Balkans to receive the gospel? And it is very different.

You might think it's difficult here, but multiply that by like a hundred. And that's what it's like in the Balkans. What is happening there in the spirit realm? What is happening in people's hearts that just historically is not what we're trusting is going to happen in the future?

That's why you're there. And we're believing God to give us a breakthrough. But what is going on with these people? That's happening with those people.

There are two main problems in the countries like Montenegro and Serbia. Nobody wants to be an Indian. Everybody wants to be a chief.

The pride is the biggest problem, one of the biggest problem. Another one is a fear of men.

Sorry, past year, if it doesn't know, we're not allowed to say Indian anymore. So would you give them a kidding?

You won't have me anymore.

I'm just a Balkan guy.

No, but this is important. What are you saying? Too many Indians, too little chiefs? They have such a pride in the Balkans that to even put a bit of this way with all of my family, hundreds of cousins, none of them have ever asked, hey, what ever happened to you?

Why did you go into the past trip? What is this church thing that you're doing? There was pride to even ask. And the doorway to Jesus is the doorway of humility. You have to come and low.

It's funny, in the Orthodox church, when you go into their holy chambers, it's like a four and a half foot tall door. Literally, they do it in the natural, but they don't do it in the spirit.

You then have to physically crumple your body up, and sometimes, you know, when we were in Ostrog, the famous monastery, there was a room where I had to crawl into the room, and that's so that you would come in low.

But you can physically come in low, and your heart still be full of pride. And so this is very important that people want to be in charge, they don't want to be taught, everybody wants to be rabbi, no one wants to be a student.

What else? Pride is one problem, but there is a biggest problem. It is what for people say about me, if they see me in the church.

That's a big one. And that's why Montenegro's don't testify to their families. That was the biggest problem for me. I was trying to get them to testify what the Lord did in their lives, but they never did it.

Actually, somebody is calling them, they say, we are with the friends, they don't say we are in the church. Yeah, I understand that problem. I had a similar problem when I was saved. All the family members rejected me.

And that was a day for my water baptism, and I invited my mom to be present in that service. And after this baptism service on our way back home, I asked her, mom, how did you like it?

And then she said something that broke my heart. She said, I prefer to see you drunk and on drugs than in that sect. Since that time.

Sect, that's the word we use for cult, because we believe over there, anything that's not the Orthodox church, it's illegitimate, it's a cult.

It doesn't matter if your life's been transformed, it doesn't matter if you're now, you're living free and holy, but you're not Orthodox, you're in a cult.

Since that time, when somebody from family died, they don't invite me and my family for the funeral. Somebody getting married, they don't invite me or my family. They don't know my wife, they don't know my children, I don't know their children.

And I understand how hard it is, this is a sacrifice. And if you are not really touched and grubbed by Jesus, you will not understand that.

That's why they don't testify to their friends and relatives, they are afraid of rejection. So fear of rejection is the biggest problem actually.

My parents, as I've shared before, they forbid me to go to that church in Brooklyn, I was 16 years old, year was 1992, they forbid me to go to that church. And other words were said, my father was absolutely furious that I would even entertain the thought of going to a church that was in Orthodox.

And by the way, it's not like we were Christian people, we were Orthodox in tradition only, we were Orthodox by heritage. I went to church between, I can't even remember, but it was no more than five times, between three and five times in my entire life.

And that just means I sat through a very dry liturgy and I can play dominoes better than you can and all that stuff.

No word of God preached, no gospel presentation. And I was terrified of my father, terrified of my mother too, but more of my father.

And I shared these concerns with the people that were bringing me to Jesus, because it was a process for me that lasted several months.

And I said, what about this? My father is going to go crazy, he's going to disown me, and that's the first time I heard that verse. And they quoted Jesus saying that you have to be willing to forsake mother, forsake brother, forsake father.

And that nobody has forsaken all this that won in this lifetime, reap 100 fold, what they've lost.

And I camp around that right now, because even though it's more pronounced in the Balkans, there is that element here. In New York City also, there is that element of you want to fit in, you don't want to be rejected, you don't want to be ostracized, you don't want to be labeled or called names.

But it doesn't really cost you anything it pays. And Jesus paid the ultimate price and we have to be a people that are sold out for the Lord and that simply just don't care what other people think. Can you say amen? Amen.

Let me tell you about the reward for our faith. I went to England after that to study some English, and after couple of months I got a telephone call, somebody called me and said, your mom is calling you.

And from the other side, my mom was in tears telling me, son, forgive me, I was baptized in the same church.

Your mother, that's awesome.

All right, so just to sum up so far, alcoholic at 13 sniffing glue get saved.

I guess I can't, I repeat that because I never knew anyone who did that. I heard that that was a thing.

But to me, you know what? Now I know what ex. I've never understood the appeal. Thank God. Lord radically saves you. You then get called to Montenegro.

And how did the Lord provide for you? Can you talk about the number one area, the number one miracle he did in the area provision for you in that church in Montenegro?

Number one miracle was buying of the church building. 8 to 10 people in the church.

We were gathering in the small basement in the downtown. Why in the basement? Because they didn't want to rent something better for the sect. It was shameful.

And this basement was good enough for the sect. So whenever we had the rain, we had the water till our knees. Our guitars, bibles, books, everything was flooded.

So we shed lots of tears there. But the vision was born in such a situation. I was even living in that basement for a while. Just like your pastor did.

If I may add. He slept with the maises as I heard. And I told him it's much better to sleep with the maises than with the fishes. If you know what I mean.

So we decided not any more in the basement. So we're going to start collecting money to buy a church building. 8 of us, 10 of us.

So we started collecting money and we gave everything what we had. In that time I understood this is on God's heart that we are in the need. We don't write letters immediately to ask for help.

We do our first seats. We do our offerings first. So in a while we were able to collect 5,000 German marks. That was a currency in that time.

Somebody from Switzerland heard what we are doing gave us another 5,000. And with the 10,000 in my pocket I was all around the capital looking for a place for my family and for the church.

And I found a little house in the garage. And I had it in my mind. This is a place for my family and this will be the first church building in Montenegro.

And I came to the landlord and I asked him how much is it. And he said, well, this is 60,000 for you. 60,000.

Okay. If I give you 10,000 today, how long are you going to wait for the rest? And he said, hmm, three months. But whenever you receive something you bring it to me.

So I signed the paper and if you don't pay all in the three months you lose everything. And I took 10,000 and I gave them. This is 10,000. In three months they will see each other.

I came out and then I started speaking to myself, you must be crazy. What you just did man. You will need to lead the country. You will never succeed.

You will be a loser. Everybody will call you a loser. You will not be in ministry anymore. Shut up.

Time was running and then I started to write some letters talking to the churches, the pastors. And I was able to collect 35,000. 25 days more. I'm in luck of 25,000.

20 days nothing. 15 days. I got a telephone call. Pastor from brother in church called me and said there is a charity man from charity organization from England. He would like to meet you. Another one.

So you have met a bunch before. Yes. And they meet with you and they, what happens? The interview. People were interviewing me, promising me things. And then okay. And that's a familiar story with overseas missions. Yeah. A lot of promises made very few kept.

To be honest with you, I didn't expect anything to happen. I knew that God is in control, but you see 15 days more. And only my wife and God knew how many nights I didn't sleep. I prayed hard.

And we met finally and he heard from Pastor of brother in church what we are doing. And he said can I see the place? I took him there and behind the fence he asked me what you're going to do with this small house and the garage. He didn't see the church.

I saw. And I said one day I'm going to break the walls of garage and break the walls of this small house and I will put it together in the beautiful church. And he said how much money you need for that? And I said 25,000. He took a phone and after one minute he came back and said you have 25,000.

Come on. I said I can't walk. He said you have 25,000. I don't. He said you will have. And there is a story behind that. Before he came to Montenegro, one Pentecostal pastor I never met him. That's good. He came to him and said we heard that there are no Christians in Montenegro. But if you find some spirit-filled people, we would like to bless them with 25,000.

My goodness, I could be so wrong if I said more or less. You see, we needed some furniture, some equipment, chairs, whatever. Or I could be, you know, 15,000, 10,000, whatever. I said exactly how much we needed. He went back home and in one week he sent the money and I came to the landlord. Here it is.

That is awesome. Listen, when God, amen. When God is pro your vision, there will be provision. Amen.

I remember when we came here to plant city light church, there was a couple that met with me and I mean we had no money. I mean we had no money. What's so ever? And they took me out to dinner and gave me a check for 10,000.

Back then in 2002, not just because of inflation, but because of where I was. That check for 10,000 dollars was like a check for a quarter of a million. I remember just staring at it. It bought us our first church computer. It helped pay for the rent at the hotel ballroom where we were meeting.

And they hung around for three months and then left. You would think someone like that would be committed for years. But the Lord had them do that. They were vessel for them to use because when he's pro and for your vision, there will be miracle provision. Amen.

So you've pastored faithfully in Montenegro and that's how we first met for 24 years. And then recently, if you remember city light pastor, you have started a new work in Serbia. How many of you remember that? We did even a mini campaign and over several months we sent $15,000 for the new church plant in Serbia to pay for chairs, space, instruments, projectors, whatever whatever was needed.

How did the Lord call you from Montenegro now back to Serbia to start another work? Yeah. That was funny time. Finally, I realized that I'm done with Montenegro. I finished my job. How did I know that? Lord showed me the man I was investing my life in.

Last six years, he just appeared from the rehab center. He got saved there. He was drug addict. He came to the center. He got saved and he decided to stay 14 years to help others.

After 14 years, he heard Lord saying to him, go to Montenegro and help Yovica. He never met me. He heard of me like him. He said, go to Yovica and help him. And you know, he never been part of the church. The center is not the church. You know, in center, they watch each other and they read Bible because somebody is watching them.

The prayer is the center. Even a rehab clinic. People were praying because somebody is seeing them that they are praying. Many of them, when they leave the center, they go back to drugs.

This guy was different. He had that kind of humility that Lord qualified. It's enough to learn something. He was able to be discipled. You know what we did? He had many, many coffees together. I was doing the ministry. He was watching me.

Then we were talking about why I was doing this way or that way. He was asking the questions. The second step was I was doing the ministry. He was helping me.

I learned the way how to raise the ministers. This is what I am doing right now in Novi Sad in Serbia. The Lord showed me the man. I grabbed him and I am investing in his life.

When I lay my hands on him and he became a pastor of that church, he will do the same. He is going to do the ministry and somebody is going to watch him and they are going to have a coffee and a long conversation.

After that I went to bed one day as a healthy man, strong man. I woke up as a very, very sick man and I thought I am done with my life. The Lord used that time while I was lying in my bed and I was asking him questions.

Then he spoke to me and said, no, you are done with Montenegro. I am taking you back to your hometown. I want you to plant the church. Actually the name of my town in English is New Plant.

The Lord had to deal with me in that way. I was lying in my bed and he was speaking to me through the life of Moses. He had three parts of his life.

The first part is in Egypt. The second part is in the desert and the last part is saving people from the Egypt. He said, that was the most productive part of his life and then he turned to me and said, this part of your life will be the most productive life of yours when you come back to your hometown and home country.

I am going to use you and even I am sick and tired of laying the foundations. I was laying foundation for 24 years in Montenegro and when I knew that I am going to do the same in Novi Sad, I was tired and then he said, no, no, no, wait a little bit. I will give you some new tools you will even build something.

That was, you know, very good for me. So awesome.

I have just seen Pastor Yovitsa come alive. First of all, let me say, he is always alive. In fact, Pastor James was just drove him from the hotel he was just commenting that he has an infectious joy.

An infectious love for the Lord and that is true. Which was always miraculous to me because I have other pastoral friends, pastoral colleagues. We can spend time together, refresh each other. Imagine you are in a city where it is just depressed.

It is just, it is not America. It is the creature comforts, the luxuries aren't there and then on top of that you are only a leader and you don't have ministerial colleagues. It is a recipe for depression. Yet you are always alive. You are always full of joy. But then you do this new work in Serbia and I see you spring even more to life.

Because you are in the sweet spot. You are in God's will for your life. And share with the people what is happening in this new church plant in Serbia. So now we are supporting Montenegro and Serbia because he is still over the church in Montenegro and he is still making sure that is going well. But you have even used the word there is bubbling of revival happening in Serbia. What is the Lord doing in the Serbian church?

It is amazing. I was waiting for that 24 years to see radically saved people and the Lord is doing that right now in front of our eyes. Before we started the church last December, third of December, I took an all month of November to pray.

And what I wanted to do is to get people praying again. And you know somebody said if you want to know how popular is your pastor, the answer is come Sunday morning service and you will see.

If you want to know how popular is your evangelist, come afternoon service. But if you want to know how popular is Jesus, come for the prayer meeting, few people.

You agree? We want to make Jesus popular again. So we attracted people on a special way and they are coming for prayer meetings, sometimes more on prayer meetings than on the Sunday service.

I teach Bible and then we talk about that everybody can say something what they see from God and then we all pray. And in front of our eyes we see people are changing.

Last month young men was baptized with the Holy Spirit. I didn't hear that somebody was baptized in the Holy Spirit for years. People don't ask for that.

People ask for material blessings and for other things, they don't ask to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And we got a young man, his full of fire, he brought his mom, he brought his friend to the church.

And the best thing ever happened to us two weeks ago, our son Alexander, his younger, who was addicted to phone. If you know what I mean, he couldn't live without telephone. Telephone was his best friend.

This is pastry of his own son, Alexander. And I asked him to share this part. I said is that because he shared with me when I picked him up from the airport. And I said it might help some parents here to hear this. I know it's an intimate thing, he didn't even hesitate, he said sure I'll share.

But share how addicted he was.

He changed the day for a night. He didn't sleep at night. He was staring at his phone.

He was staring at his phone. And I asked him, son, what are you looking in that phone? Nothing special. But he was always on the phone.

Everyone's looking at nothing special, right?

Yeah. Nobody's like, you know what I love what's entered into our vernacular is people, so I'm going to research that out.

You know, when you said I'm going to research that out, they used to me and you go to the library and take out books. And I'm going to research that.

I mean, I'm going to give it three flips of the scroll and use Google. And everybody's looking at nothing special yet. It's eating away at people's lives.

And those years, 17 to 22, those are prime years where the decisions you make are going to influence your life for decades to come.

And I'm witnessing this right before my eyes, the Satan is robbing America's youth of those years and their lives are just whittling away.

This device that can be such a blessing is robbing people of motivation, robbing people of their hope, their joy.

And they're just whittling away, slowly dying while they're staring at the screen for hours a day.

It led him to miserable life. You saw him every time we come into his room, he's in a bed. He didn't move. He didn't have a friend.

He doesn't go out. He's just with his best friend with a phone in the South Kandai River praying hard. He's our son. We want the best for him. We want him to have a friend to spend time out.

Let me just also say, when I lived with you in 2015, this is an intelligent, personable, joyous, creative young man.

The kind of young man that when he walks into a room, your heart is lifted. So I couldn't believe when you told me that he was now smitten and addicted to the telephone.

He's part of our worship team. He learned to play guitar and bass by himself. And he's very, very intelligent. But he doesn't have a friend. So he turned the phone.

And that kind of life. And we prayed hard. We wanted him to change. We tell him, son, why don't you fight the job or do something like that. Do this, do that.

But he couldn't until Savka was preparing a sermon for ladies meeting. And he got a text from John V about paralyzed men.

Four of his friends broke the roof and took him in front of Jesus' legs. And then she got a revelation.

My son is a paralyzed man from that story. And when she got that revelation, she knew what to do. And in all Jesus showed her what she's supposed to do to bring him in the front of Jesus' legs. She did it.

And rapidly, he started changing. Two weeks ago, he was alone in the room. And he got sick and tired of his style of living. He spoke to the Lord for the first time. Like this. And he said, Lord, I'm sick and tired of this way of living.

Would you please make me alive? What a prayer. Give me life. Make me alive. And then his life started changing rapidly. But because of his first step of faith, what he did, he made up his room.

That was first sign of his life. He made up his room. And he started talking to us. First, he took his mom for a walk. And he started crying, where he was sharing about his life. And then his new relationship with Jesus. He started crying. He didn't cry for many years.

And Jesus came to our lives. He softened our heart. We become human beings again. He turned to God and God made him alive. In front of our eyes, our son, I pray for every parent here.

Let me share this story. I believe that the end is near. When our first son was born, after our first crash, when we almost died, I opened myself for the spirit of fear.

And when I saw him in the coffin, the devil was tormenting me for months. And whenever I wanted to share it with the people, he told me, you're a pastor. They're young believers. What do they think about you?

And I believed that. And I was tormented time after time. And then, after so many months, I decided I cannot live like that anymore. So I decided on the prayer meeting to share with the young believers. And I did it.

When I said the last word, young believer, jump up and said, Pastor, thank you so much for sharing it with us. I had the same problem. And this is how the Lord saved me.

And then he shared the story from the Egypt, the past over time. And he mentioned two houses, two fathers and two firstborn sons. And then he said, in the first house, father was rejoicing because his son is protected. And he will be alive.

In the second house, father was in fear. He said, Lord, what if spirit of death comes and take my firstborn? And then this young brother asked me a question. And he said, Pastor, what do you think what house was safe? And I'm a pastor of the church.

And I said probably the house where father was rejoicing. What do you think? Do you think the same? And you are wrong like I was. He said, Pastor, I thought the same, like you. But the truth is that both houses were safe because of the blood.

Amen.

Amen. This is for you and for your sons and daughters.

Hallelujah. We want to pray for Pastor Yavitsa and for Savka. How many of you were grateful for the work that they're doing in Serbia and in Montenegro. And this blessed you.

Stretch your hands towards them. Father, the name of Jesus, we thank you that their efforts are multiplied, that you send in the reinforcements, that people's hearts, that they minister to, that they're softened, that they hear and receive and respond to the gospel.

And may miracles flow through them. Father, may you increase the provision also. Lord, may you multiply them and multiply them. And we thank you, Lord, that the Balkans will fall for the gospel in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much.

Amen.