Mission Russia International

From Bosnia – The Power Of Prayer

Good day from Bosnia!

The Lord has been dealing very much with me regarding the Truth and religion, serving Him with clean hands, clean lips and a clean heart.

I am experiencing much opposition from the Pentecostal church with whom I am connected.  They have had some bad experiences with missionaries who came to Sarajevo. People whom they trusted, who promised the world and then behaved badly and then disappointed them so much. This resulted in all doors being closed and coldness towards new missionaries.  This rejection was not directed at me personally, but I did experience it very much and had a hard time to keep on loving and forgiving them, remembering that their names too, are written in the Hand palms of our Master.  Most short term missionaries (3 months at a time) come here with pockets full of money, spoiling the church. It was my opinion, that every missionary who comes to Sarajevo had to pay the way, to be accepted. This was one door, through which I could not and would not enter.

Sarajevo has at least, at any time, a minimum of 10 to 15 short term missionaries. I know of at least 6 long term missionaries that have been in Bosnia for at least 10 years. These missionaries also adopted the same attitude as the church.  When I shared my calling and vision with the pastor and deacons, I was met with aggressive opposition and negativity.  Even the long term American missionaries told me that I was crazy. They told me that every missionary who tried to plant a church in Bosnia was unsuccessful. That every church they planted died after they have left the country.

The pastor said that he promised to sign documents for one year and that he would sign them for one year only. The church felt that they could not trust any missionary, because of their experience, in the past . I guess that I was looking for a Christian family and support in the calling that God has placed on my life, but was disappointed when I realized that the doors  were shut tight. I did not experience the love of Jesus in the church, only law and religion. On Sundays there would be at the most 30 people attending the church, which included all the missionaries. There has been no growth in this church for the last 10 years.

All of this negativity, however, did get to me, and as I was waiting to receive Pastor Pamela Norris and her team of “nightingale prayer warriors”, I had a lot of mixed feelings. As the team from Russia arrived, I watched them closely for any falseness, acting or religion and after the first day, I realized that this team was pure and really loved God and were serious in their mission of prayer in and for Bosnia. During the next couple of days, God showed me, that though I was certain of my calling, Srebrenica was something in the distant future, almost not a reality. I was bluffing myself that I needed to stay in Sarajevo until I have mastered the language and culture of the Bosnian people.  God also showed me that the church was afraid to do any evangelism or step out of the boat, due to a fear of failing, which resulted in a spirit of oppression and therefore no growth (They are also afraid of serious persecution from the Muslim majority in the city)

God has called me to plant churches in Bosnia, the first one in Srebrenica, in which, one of the world’s worst genocides happened during the war. I started to realize that they were scared to trust me and attach the church name on documentation for my long term residence permit. I could not blame them as they have had so many bad experiences with a lot of the missionaries that come here.

As a team we went Prayer walking in one of the towns, Ilidja, and we just experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit, the love between the team members and earnest praying and serious fellowship, just lifted this spirit of oppression from my heart. We encountered some gypsy children who did some serious begging, with their parents looking on from a distance. One little boy of about 8 years old, was very persistent and we just made a circle around him and started to pray over him and prophecy over him. I was lead to buy him and his brothers, all of them smaller than him, candy and I will not forget his shining eyes as he shared the candy with his brothers. We went to a place called Vrlo Bosnia, which I visited in the summer, with my language teacher. This is a place where the natural springs just bubble out of the earth and result in a river and little dams, on which ducks and swans live. During this time, because of the extreme cold weather, there were almost no people and we prayed and prophecied and proclaimed the Word of God until the joy of the Lord just took hold of us.

The next day we rented a VW bus and high jacked a taxi driver to do the driving for us and we went to Srebrenica. It took us about 4 hours to reach this city, due to the ice on the road. Everyone of us experienced the pain and depression of the people in this city. Only 10% of the houses in this city were occupied.  We visited the memorial site of more than 8 000 graves of the people who died in three days, during the genocide in the war. I cried so much that my body, throat and lungs ached. We experienced Srebrenica as a city of pain and hopelessness.  On one of the monuments was a prayer written in Bosnian and  English. This prayer was prayed by the muslim mothers and says the following: “ In the Name of God, the most merciful, the most compassionate. We pray to Almighty God, May grievance become hope! May revenge become justice! May mother’s tears become prayers that Srebrenica never happens again to no one and nowhere!”

We were only able to spend a couple of hours in Srebrenica and had to return to Sarajevo due to the cold weather and the nearing nightfall. We continued to pray in the bus on our way home, arriving in Sarajevo absolutely exhausted.

The next day we had a powerful prayer meeting and left for the city of Mostar. We had the opportunity to go into a Mosque and go up in the tower of this mosque. It is a very steep and long climb. When we reached the top of this tower, we could almost view the whole city and what I can only describe as spontaneous compulsion, we started praying and some of the girls, started to sing in tongues. After about half an hour of intensive prayer, I experienced a desperate need to be quiet before the Lord and I climbed down, leaving the team while they were praying with their minds, singing in tongues, prophecied and spoke proclamations over the city and its people. I  found a small chair in one of the windows. I took it down and sat down with my head against the wall, closing my eyes and I just drank in the presence of the Lord.

The next moment there was the echoing of what sounded like  nightingales or angels singing in the mosque, so loud and beautiful and it took a few seconds before I realized that the singing was coming from the team in the tower. I was absolutely blessed by this experience and sat and listened to it for about 10 minutes, the sound becoming louder as the team was descending from the tower into the mosque. We walked through the streets and every now and then one of the team members would spontaneously begin to pray and proclaiming the Word of God, which would start everyone praying again.

The next day the whole team went skiing on the mountain.  It was a first experience for the whole team and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Pastor Pamela and I being twice as old as the rest of the team, did not stand back in this adventure at all. After the skiing we went to the oldest part in Sarajevo where we found in a radius of a hundred feet, Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish churches. We went up the mountain, and from one of the highest viewing sites we proceeded to pray over the city. That evening we invited the church secretary to my home where we prepared dinner and had a wonderful evening of praise, worship, prayer, prophesying and proclaiming the Word of God.

The youth team of 5 girls, all members of the church of Pastors Ed and Pamela Norris, left for Russia and Pamela moved in with me in my flat. Pastor Pamela suggested that we go back to Srebrenica for at least two days. I was concerned that I would not be able to get the necessary information about the busses to Srebrenica and the purchasing of tickets, in my broken Bosnian language  and the financial costs was also a factor. I so desperately wanted to return to Srebrenica, but did not think that it would be possible. Pastor Pamela, however, insisted that we should try and the next morning we went to the bus station. I was so amazed that I succeeded in doing the enquiries and purchasing the tickets, which was not half as expensive as we anticipated. It was only then that I realized that after receiving language classes twice a week for about 5 months, I was supernaturally able to converse in sentences in the Bosnian language,  and the people I was speaking to actually understood me and I them. This was one of the so many breakthroughs to follow.

We got on the bus the next morning and traveled for 3 1/2 hours to Srebrenica, not knowing if we would find accommodation to stay overnight. We were so excited. We prayed a lot and asked God to give us favor and to open our spiritual eyes, ears and hearts. All of a sudden the idea of actually moving to Srebrenica, was not in the distant future anymore and became such a reality. We decided to also use this trip to sort out all the necessary logistics, like finding a flat, finding out about internet, language classes and we started to pray on what my first tasks would be, once I have moved to Srebrenica. The bus driver dropped us about a kilometer after the bus station, making it so much easier for us to walk with our baggage. Then we found a great looking and clean hotel with reasonable fees.

We were not even in our room, when we were invited by the Hotel owner’s wife Senija and daughter Eminja into their suite. They knew of an apartment which I could rent and promised to go and show it to us the next day. Then we discovered that Senija is a Science and Chemistry teacher at the High School. When she found out that I wanted to come and live in Srebrenica, she offered to arrange a language teacher to teach me the language. In Bosnia the word missionary is not to be used, but the description of humanitarian worker and volunteer is appreciated. I told her that I especially love working with the young people and she immediately offered to open a door for me at the High School. They also informed us that internet is freely available.

We were hardly settled in our Hotel room, when Pamela discovered that her camera was missing. We immediately proceeded  to try and find the Bus station and after a while we found it. At the Bus station we were directed to yet another place where we would find the bus to search for this camera. We were praying for favor in finding this camera. We found the bus and Pamela search it to no avail, while praying she sat down on the seat she sat on during the trip and all of a sudden, on the most unlikely place, she found this very black and almost paper thin camera. I thanked the driver and told him that we were very grateful for finding this camera, as it was very expensive. He said; “Lady, your camera is not expensive, but life is expensive”, and we just realized that only someone that lived through this terrible war, could really understand, just how expensive life was. We prayer walked for the rest of the day, greeting everybody we passed on the road. Every one, without exception, greeted us back, smiling with us, talking to us, being so loving and friendly.

The next day we ordered a taxi and asked him to drive through the whole of Srebrenica and to show us everything. What we discovered was that he was of the Orthodox faith, while his wife was a muslim. He showed the houses out to us, in the one house, muslims and in the next house orthodox people. All of a sudden I realized that I was not called to Srebrenica for the muslims only, but for all the people. I began to realize that, according to the law, no religion may be taught to any person under the age of 18, I would have to start a coffee bar for the youth, and a sport club, and sharing the gospel by my lifestyle and actions instead of with words until they turn 18, by which time they would have already learned to trust and love me.. As almost every woman has had an abortion in one or another stage of their life, I would have to start a post abortion facility for the women and young people. That I would have to make an appointment with the mayor of Srebrenica and discuss the needs of the people and let the Holy Spirit lead and guide me.

We went to the memorial monument again, and visited a souvenir shop, and when I told the lady in the shop that I was going to come and live in Srebrenica, she grabbed hold of me and kissed me, she invited me to come to her home and visit with her, when I will be returning in March with the group of intercessors from South Africa.

What I realized was, with our first visit, we only experienced the doom and gloom side of Srebrenica, but we prayed so much in the city with our first visit as well as our second visit that the Holy Spirit changed mindsets totally and have indeed prepared the soil and hearts of ourselves and that of  the people. Where we only saw the bombed out and tattered buildings and depressed people during our first visit, we all of a sudden saw all the restored and beautiful buildings and absolutely beautiful nature as Srebrenica are built upon hills and in valleys between the mountains. We received so much love and favor from all the people that  we stood in awe of the power of Prayer and the Mercy and Grace of God. The kairos time of God is excellent and I could move to Srebrenica as from the 1st of August. The contracts I have signed in Sarajevo for my apartment and internet will expire on the 31st of July. I will return from South Africa on the 10th of July, which will leave me with enough time to arrange for my permanent permit and other logistics before I move to Srebrenica and start to activate the call of God. The plant of a church in Srebrenica is now such a reality and burning fire and desire in my heart, that I cannot wait for the 1st of August 2009 at which time, God willing, I will move into this call.

There is still so much that I have not told in this report, but I would have to write a book to tell everything which we experienced. I will, however, have to write a couple of reports – which I will do – to share the rest with you. The one big thing I can assure you is that prayer is very, very powerful and God listens to His servant’s prayers, especially when it is heartfelt and genuine, and He acts on it.

In Christ

Maryna Vos
Bosnia