Love Shown in Bosnia

By Jerry Patrick

I'm sitting in a room on the second floor of an apartment building in the center of downtown Tuzla. The room is just large enough to hold 35 to 40 believers who make up the Tuzla Baptist Church. They have suffered so much in the past eight years during and following the war of ethnic cleansing. The loss of jobs and the prospect for any income is almost non-existent. Yet their faith is strong; they keep attending, even under persecution from neighbors and former friends. Their hymns of praise can be heard in the town square. People listen and wonder what gives them such courage.

Pastor Dusko has given up much materially, but has gained much spiritually. Muslim leaders offered him his former job and a salary of more than five times the standard of living if he would give up his pastoral duties. His answer is no. He can no longer do the work he used to now that he knows Jesus Christ as his Savior.

A look at this room shows that it, too, has suffered. Once white walls and ceiling are now covered with ugly brown stains from water damage. But does this diminish the people's faith in God? No, it appears insignificant as believers tell of opportunities to tell of Christ to this community of 98,000 people.

New uprisings are evident in the ongoing ethnic disputes between the Bosniaks and Croats. ABWE continues to supply humanitarian aid and encouragement to the faithful believers in the Tuzla Baptist Church. We pray the door of opportunity will open wide making it possible to move about freely and work with pastors in central Bosnia .

As I walk beside my Bosnian brothers and sisters in Christ, what can I offer them? heir faith and hope is so strong in Jesus Christ, and I am continually amazed by the love they have for their unsaved neighbors. They know and live 1 Corinthians 13:13, "the greatest of these is love."