A Digital Newsletter from Living Stream Ministry
What was formerly Yugoslavia, consisting of six socialist republics—Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, broke apart in 1991. Formerly, this region shared the same official language—Serbo-Croatian. The breakup of Yugoslavia was accompanied by a bloody civil war from 1991 to 1995, and today these are six independent countries. What was formerly called the Serbo-Croatian language is now called Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and nearly eighteen years ago Living Stream Ministry began to translate our publications into BCS. The Lord has really operated richly through this translation work for His move in these countries.
The Lord’s move in these Balkan countries began in 2001 with a seeking young brother who contacted the saints in Stuttgart, Germany, where he was saved. In 2002 he met the brothers in Switzerland, who told him of the Full-time Training in London. After he married in 2005, he and his wife went to London and attended the FTTL from 2005 to 2007.
During their time in the training this young couple picked up the burden to translate the ministry into BCS. They first translated the seven Rhema-distributed books for free distribution. The brothers overseeing FTTL allowed them to translate these books during the training. These first seven books were finished in 2007. Since that time over one hundred ministry titles have been translated into BCS. A year and a half ago two more sisters joined them in this translation work.
The distribution of the seven free books began solely online because, at that time, there were no brothers or sisters in the church life in these countries. The distribution officially began in 2011, and the free-distribution books found their way to seekers in four cities of Croatia: Split, Hvar, Zagreb, and Pula; and in Novi Sad, Serbia. Eventually, the young couple began to travel and contact these seeking ones. From 2014 until today local churches have been raised up by the Lord in these five cities.
These seeking saints have been greatly helped by the more than one hundred new ministry books published from 2007 to 2023. At this time, approximately seven hundred Life-study messages have been translated into BCS, which are of great help to sustain and supply the saints with the healthy teaching of God’s economy. The saints in this area have also been helped over a span of about ten years by attending conferences and trainings throughout Europe, especially the one-week trainings in London. In addition, the many visits by saints from all over the globe have greatly supplied and sustained the saints in these countries.
Presently, there are around eighty saints meeting in these five local churches, plus children. We have a good number of teenagers as well as saints in their early twenties. We are praying that some of them will attend the FTTL in the future. Though the number of the saints in this area is not large, in Europe this is quite typical, and as a ministering brother has said, “The churches in Europe will be small in number, but invincible.”
The mass distribution of free LSM books has reached thousands of seekers in this area, yet most still need to be contacted. However, due to a lack of manpower, many of them are simply left with the books of the ministry, which they really enjoy. Today, there are only four full-time serving ones in these countries, and they are using their full time for translation. It is our hope in the Lord that He will thrust out more workers to labor among these seeking ones.
Seven months ago, in the fellowship with LSM, these four serving ones began working on the translation of the New Testament Recovery Version into BCS. We firmly believe that in the years to come, the New Testament Recovery Version with footnotes will lead to the raising up of more lampstands in these six countries. We consider the Recovery Version to be the best study Bible ever produced throughout the span of church history and look forward to having it in BCS.
We have learned two very important things concerning the Lord’s move in these countries: First, eighty percent of the Lord’s move depends on the publication work. Though we have the Bible in our language, without the ministry of the age, the saints would not know God’s heart and what He wants to gain on this earth. So, without this ministry the church has no real content. Second, Satan really hates the publication work and this bride-preparing ministry. So, he especially likes to attack those working in the publication work.
We did not fall in love with the ministry books themselves but with the content that they reveal: the wonderful Person, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the one new man with Himself as the Head and the church as His Body. This ministry is always keeping us on this central lane of the divine revelation.
We ask the brothers and sisters in all the local churches to pray for us. We are more than thankful for all their support.