Dear brothers and sisters,
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. It has been a while since we have written anything, but we are excited to share with you what God is doing in Serbia. Please let us know your prayer requests in the comments or by responding to the email. We would be glad to read them and pray for you!
Regular Ministry updates
Stefan was invited to preach in two other churches that don’t have pastors. The first one is a small church in a small village about an hour away from us. The other church is reguraly visited by our Pastor and we got the opportunity to serve there as well. We continue to help with the worship and multimedia in our church and in the Spiritual Library. This sometimes takes most of our time since we are creating different graphics, book covers and videos. We are truly thankful that we can be useful in these areas. Besides serving with worship and multimedia, Stefan serves through preaching with two other brothers in Thursday church meetings. We are preaching through the book of Second Samuel and it is really good time for all of us to learn how the book points to Jesus being a better king than David. Yes, David was a man according to God’s heart, but Jesus is the perfect king who restores Theocracy to God’s people. Please pray for preachers of God’s word and people who are listening.
Podcast TEOLOGiJA coming to a new season.
The podcast is still running. We finished the first season. It is sometimes really challenging to find time between other ministries to also record podcasts, but we can see how God is using this ministry to reach people. We are currently preparing a new season of podcast hoping to start in January. Please pray for everyone involved in this project. We have been able to register the podcast on other platforms like Spotify, deezer, and Apple Podcast so that we can reach even more people, but with all of that, there is a high responsibility and we would like to stay faithful.
Thank you so much for all your support and prayers through this first season. We hope that the second season will be even more fruitful.
New Ministry Opportunities
One of the biggest things that happened these past couple of months is that one September evening, our Pastor called us and invited Stefan to go to a nation wide bookfair that is happening once a year in our capital, Belgrade. We were invited to help Gideons share new testaments and share the Gospel with people. when we arrived to the bookfair, we were able to share the Gospel with 40-50 people, mainly young people and give them a new testament. Through all of that, one Christian publishing ministry invited us, Spiritual Library, to share a stand with them at another bookfair in the South of Serbia, which happened in the last week of November. We collected all of the books we thought people would be interested in and went to the bookfair. At that bookfair, we had a lot of young people hear the Gospel, take Bibles, and other books we had displayed.
Financially it was not good for us, because from all of the offering, we were barely able to cover our expenses. But, from the Spiritual side, we were very thankful and encouraged to be invited to another bookfair that will happen in the Spring (March 2025) in Novi Sad (Second largest city) and have our own stand with the books for the whole week. Therefore, we ask you to pray for that. We do not have currently enough finances to cover renting space there, electricity, food and other things necessary to be there. We calculated that for us to rent a spot at the fair and cover everything, we would need 1500$. This is a lot of money for us since Spiritual Library does not have constant financial support and most of the things that are being done, are supported by people directly involved in the ministry. But we believe that God will provide according to His will. The deadline for us to raise that money is January 15th.
We would like to ask you to consider giving to this cause. We encourage you to primarily give your time in prayer but also to give financially if possible, and help Spiritual Library reach the people of Serbia.
Serving Through Graphic Design
One of the biggest ministry opportunities for us is through Graphic Design and web design. We do not talk about it much, but we would like to share with you our joy when we can work in this area. Stefan is also involved in the capacity of a Graphic Designer for the Baptist union in Serbia. He is responsible for compiling and designing a church theological & News letter magazine that comes out bilingual twice or three times a year. It is always a lot of work, but we are thankful that we can be part of it.
Besides that, Stefan is very often involved in Book cover design for Christian books. It is a blessing to be part of providing Spiritual literature to Serbian people.
Mari is mainly working with web design. She makes websites and she learned how to do that so that she can help churches and ministries have accessible websites. Currently, she is finishing work on Spiritual Library’s website but she helped develop several websites for Churches, Theological schools, and ministries.
This kind of work takes a lot of time but we are happy and thankful to serve in this way as well.
Family Updates
Sofia had her first birthday in May, and having family and friends together to celebrate her life was a blessing. My parents could come from Portugal to be with us as well, and we could go together to my sister`s graduation from the Bible Institute in Hungary.
Stefan got invited to continue his studies and do a master’s degree. He has a couple of options for studies, but to do a master’s, we would need to go into full-time ministry due to time and family. It`s a big decision, especially with children, so you can pray with us for that and that we can always be in the center of God`s will. We know God is in control, and He will provide for us at the right time.
Stefan’s health is currently a bit unstable. The doctor prescribed some stronger antibiotics in hopes that they will stabilize his disease. At the moment it is better, but there are still some tests to be run so that we can see better how is the disease going.
prayer requests
We are grateful for your prayers and for partnering with us in our ministry. Here are our prayer requests:
Thankful:
- Sofia is growing healthy and a good example to other children her age.
- That little Relia is cancer free and can be finally home.
- For our local church and faithful preaching of the word.
- For the podcast that is having an impact on people watching.
- For our ministry opportunities in Serbia.
Requests:
- For our local church, to grow in holiness and in number of people being saved.
- Reaching people of Serbia with the Gospel of Christ through Podcast.
- To raise money for the Novi Sad book fare. We need to raise 1500$ by January 15th.
- If is God’s will for our lives, that we can be in full-time ministry.
- Stefan’s disease can continue to be under control.
- Our dear friend lost her Son due to a work accident. Please pray that the Lord comforts her and heals her broken heart.
Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter. We are very thankful for all of you amazing people who encourage us and pray for us!
Please let us know how we can pray for you!
God bless,
Stefan and Mariana Vika.