Pray for Serbia

Week of Aug. 11-17, 2014

The following clip is from an older news article, however it still takes us to prayer for the Serbian government.

SERBIA’S political landscape is not the same any more. On March 16th Aleksandar Vucic (pictured), the leader of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), won an overwhelming electoral victory, shattered the opposition.

This means the new prime minister, Aleksandar Vucic, will need to work to fulfill his promises to fight corruption, get the economy straight and join the EU by 2020. Regarding Kosovo, Vucic recently said that the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will continue and that talks are always the best option. He does have a questionable past and more information can be found in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandar_Vu%C4%8Di%C4%87.

Prayer Points:
1)    Let us pray for the Serbian government. Their recent history has been that of corruption including assassinations. We just simply ask for justice for the people.
2)    Please pray for Vucic and his new government as they transition into power. He ran his campaign on promises to fight corruption; may he be held accountable to those promises.
3)    Mr. Vucic is known to be an acute businessman, let’s pray that the grace from God would flow through him and give him wisdom to help the stagnated Serbian economy.
4)    It is always important when praying for government official to pray for their advisers. Let us pray that Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will be surrounded by men and women of wisdom.

In the News: Serbia and Bosnia hit by new round of deadly flooding
Thursday, August 7th, 2014 By Tom Revell

Severe flooding in Serbia and Bosnia has killed at least one person, just three months after record-breaking floods killed more than 50 people and displaced thousands.
Heavy rain has caused widespread flooding as rivers burst their banks across the Balkans, with Croatia also affected.

4)    These present floods are not comparable to the floods in May of this year, which was of epic proportions, but we should be reminded to pray for all the victims. Let us ask the Lord for special grace as they rebuild their homes and lives.
5)    The recent flooding has devastated so many lives and has been such a tragic and traumatic event which forever changed the life and wellbeing of many thousands of individuals. Many are battling post traumatic stress disorders, depression, suicide. Pray for a blanket of peace and sound minds to prevail.
6)    In Obrenovac, near the capital of Belgrade, where the May floods did their greatest destruction, a ministry was established to help the victims. This is a pioneering work of the Christian Fellowship - Church in Novi Sad, Serbia.  Far as we know this is the first evangelical work of any kind established in this city. We visited the ministry just a few days after they moved in to their building in Obrenovac and we were very impressed with the work they are doing. Lord, we ask your blessings on this work as they minister to the physical and emotional needs of the people. 
7)    This ministry plans to eventually form an evangelical church for the city. Lord, we ask that in Obrenovac there would arise a church of humble people that know the depth of Your grace of recovery.
Please leave a Comment or Reaction so we will know you Prayed.

Pray for Bulgaria

Week of June 23-29, 2014

In the News: Bulgaria floods: At least 12 killed in Varna and Dobrich

At least 12 people have died and several are missing after torrential rain and heavy floods hit eastern Bulgaria, officials say.

Floodwaters in the Black Sea port city of Varna surged up to 1m (3.2ft).

Many residents had to be rescued as cars were swept away. Hundreds have been left without electricity or food.
"The tragedy is enormous. I am here on a street in the suburb of Asparuhovo. The street is not here, the houses are not here, there are cars on top of each other," Varna mayor Ivan Portnih was quoted by the Reuters new agency as saying. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27935436

Prayer Points:
1. More floods in the Balkan Peninsula. Let us pray for the victims of these floods in northeast Bulgaria. May they be comforted during this time of hardship.
2. EI Balkans was in Serbia last week distributing much needed aid. We partnered with local church ministries that are reaching out to the flood victims there. Let us pray that similarly in Bulgaria, churches will be motivated to reach out with help for these flood victims.
3. Tragedies that disrupt our normal life experiences, force us to take another direction. This has happened to the flood victims in the Balkans. Let us pray for humility (accepting human weakness), peace (reversing anger), hope and strength. Being a lover of history and an intercessor, I like to seek out the root causes of grounds won and grounds lost. So I was reading up on how the Christian Bulgarian kingdom fell to the Muslim Ottoman Turks. The conclusion was that the Bulgarian nobles were in disunity and could not maintain a united front against the Turks.
The situation in the Balkans on the eve of the Ottoman invasion (Wikipedia)From the 13th century, the two main Balkan powers Byzantium and Bulgaria fell victims to a process of decentralization, as local feudal lords grew stronger and more independent from the emperors in Constantinople and Tarnovo. This weakened the military and economic power of the central rulers. The process deteriorated central authority to an even larger extent in the 14th century, when numerous nobles came to be only nominally subordinated to the government. [They were not able unify their armies against the invading Turks] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian%E2%80%93Ottoman_wars

4. Satan is clever. Sowing seeds of disunity helps him divide and conquer. Let us pray that the churches will unite in Bulgaria so they can stand against the enemy.
5. May the curse of disunity that was not able to stand against the Ottoman armies be broken in this generation.
6. I do not know what the spiritual condition of Bulgaria was in the 14th century but there was political disunity. May the churches stand strong in their relationship with God’s purposes as they stand against Satan’s present attacks.
7. It was not until the early 20th century that the Muslim influence over the Bulgarian nation was fully broken. Then communist atheism replaced it. Bulgaria needs a Spiritual revival. Let us pray for revival in Bulgaria to secure it as a sheep nation for the return of the Lord.
8. Let us pray for events that gather Christians of different faiths. May the single purpose of these events be to lift up Jesus, knowing that when He is lifted up and the churches are standing as one united front, the enemy will have to flee. Just want to give a shout-out for Ballet Magnificat and how they performed for Jesus in the main square in Zagreb, Croatia. Take a look this 3 minute video just released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt1g5EwFJvk&list=UU7XcSP0N1IM_rT32JfDTjyg

We visited Obrenovac, Serbia where some of the worst flooding occurred. We worked alongside Daniel and Vera Kuranji and the ministry they work with, http://www.transformeuropenow.org/serbia/daniel-and-vera-kuranji

Other events that we close to my heart that need prayer:  European Initiative in conducting an evangelism outreach on the streets of Zagreb, Croatia and visiting Roma (Gypsy) villages this week and weekend. www.europeaninitiative.com  Operations European Capitals is conducting a meeting of intercessors in Podgorica, Montenegro June 23-24 and then in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina June 26-28. June is an important date in that it is the 100year anniversary of the start of World War I, the war that re-mapped and forever changed Europe. The war started because a Serb nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. http://oceprayer.com
Please leave a Comment or Reaction so we will know you Prayed. 

Pray for Serbia

Week of May 19-25, 2014

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST FOR SERBIA!
(Protestant Evangelical Alliance of Serbia asks for your prayers. Pray for the people of Serbia, Bosnia, and all who were affected by the floods.)

Dear friends,

We would like to ask you for your urgent and fervent prayers for Serbia. We have had heavy rainfalls for 3 days now, with the amount of rain equaling 3 month quantities (the samesituation is in Bosnia and Herzegovina). It caused local rivers overflowing (rising even to 4 meters in just 1 day) in majority of Serbian towns and cities, leaving thousands of citizens' homes and land flooded, their livestock and domestic animals drowned:-(. People were completely unprepared for this and in shock. So far, there are 5 casualties, but the numbers are not complete unfortunately. A massive storm churned river waters and triggered landslides across the country, leaving roads and railways underwater. Some motorways and roads are blocked, bridges torn down, and some towns in Serbia are still cut off from the civilization. This is the worst flooding ever in the history of Serbia.The Serbian government declared a state of emergency and natural disaster yesterday..

As we are writing this, we know for sure that 7.520 people were evacuated until this morning,135,000 homes are without electricity, 19 towns are flooded. The critical is the town of Obrenovac (suburb of Belgrade) which is being evacuated in total as it is 90% flooded. It has around 18 000 people in addition to be evacuated.

Another critical municipality is Sabac, in western Serbia (around 120 thousand people). It is close to the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the great danger is that the river Sava overflows during the night and tomorrow and endangers a huge population. At this point, over 3000 volunteers are traveling towards Sabac from all over Serbia to help the exhausted police forces, the army, the firemen fill the sand bags and try to stop the river overflowing.

Very difficult situation is in other towns like Lazarevac, Valjevo, Paraćin, Smederevska Palanka, Svilajnac, Petrovac na Mlavi. Majority of these towns don't have water or electricity or both. For a small and financially struggling country like Serbia, this sort of thing has a Katrina-like impact:
We would be thankful to you to pray for the following:

1.That God prevents rivers from more overflowing and the rainfall stops (especially it is critical for the town of Sabac and Obrenovac tonight), but also others.
2. That all the people are safely evacuated, with no more casualties.
3. That enough funds are raised in near future to make up for the losses people faced and these are huge (some are left without everything as their houses are lost in landslides and land, as their only source of income, is flooded).
4. For enough food, clothes, blankets and other needed items for thousands who are placed in schools, hospitals, hotels and other premises until the crisis is over.
5. For enough technical equipment to help pump the water from the flooded houses all over Serbia (EU, Russia, Israel already sent some help).
6. That God protects us from infections (in water and in food) due to animal decomposition which is currently underway.
7. All the crops in the flooded areas are completely devastated, which will hugely impact fragile Serbian economy. Pray for God's miracle and grace in this area and for complete restoration.
8. The flooding of bigger rivers is to be expected, so pray for the protection of rivers Sava and Danube.
9. It will take months for people to be able to start living normally, pray for God's mercy and protection and wisdom of the government officials in how to help and what to do. The damage is probably millions of euros.
Following are some links showing a dramatic situation:

This one is with Serbian comments from the Serbian national broadcaster Prva TV: http://www.prva.rs/web-tv/info/exploziv/12005/exploziv---16052014/34911/potop.html
This one is from the foreign media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlY8UbF99tI

Feel free to share this email with your churches, home groups, forward to your friends and cover us in prayers. Thank you so much for your support. It is priceless.

God bless you

Pray for Serbia 5-19-14

In the News: 2 Drown in Serbia as Floods Hit Across Balkans
BELGRADE, Serbia May 15, 2014 (AP)

Two people drowned in Serbia and the country declared a national emergency Thursday as rain-swollen rivers across the Balkans flooded roads and bridges, shut down schools and cut off power. Hundreds of people had to be evacuated.

In Serbia and neighboring Bosnia, meteorologists said the rainfall was the most since measuring started 120 years ago. Belgrade authorities say the average rainfall of a two-month period hit the city in just 40 hours.
"What we are facing is the biggest water catastrophe in Serbia's history," Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said as his government appealed for help from the European Union, Russia and neighboring countries.
Surging water coursed through towns and villages, overflowing across streets and into homes, sweeping bridges off their moorings. Sodden hills crumbled into landslides. Dozens of buses and cars were stranded on flooded roads and two main north-south railway lines in Serbia were impassable. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/woman-drowns-serbia-floods-23726450

I received the following email from Greg and Jelena Sivulka, faithful prayer partners in Serbia:

The past few days, we have had a cyclone over this country that has brought more rain than there has ever been since they started recording rainfall levels 120 years ago!  Some cities and towns have been completely flooded.  There have been electrical shortages and there's a possibility that the main power plant may have to shut down most of its operations due to the flooding.  Just about an hour ago we just received word from a reliable source that the tap water has become contaminated.  I went to the store and joined the crowds of people buying bottled water.  What a catastrophe! 

Fortunately, in our city, Novi Sad, no areas have had to be evacuated yet, although several houses have been flooded.  A state of emergency has been declared in the country and thousands of community service workers and volunteers have been working round the clock to reinforce riverbanks with sandbags.  The rain just continues to fall, but they say it should be calming down sometime this weekend.

Please keep us in prayer!

P.S.  Here's an article with photos that will give you a better idea of what's going on:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27439139

Prayer Points:
1.    Let us pray for those suffering from this flooding in Serbia and Bosnia.
2.    Pray for the families of those that lost their lives due to the flooding.
3.    Pray for those that have had property damage, being overwhelmed by water.
4.    In the long run, pray that the Churches would take a lead in rescuing, caring for and over the months ahead, restoring families back to a normal existence.
5.    Truly it is a time upon the earth when we are seeing unnatural things happening in nature. Lord, help the Serbian people to look beyond the present tragedies and have hope for the future.
6.    This flooding tragedy will compound the already financial problems in Serbia. Let us pray for hope to supernaturally spring forth and a real “roll up our sleeves and go to work” attitude.

Ecclesiastes 3:10-12 (NLT)  I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.  Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

Please leave a Comment or Reaction so we will know you Prayed