SerbiaNow Tackles Unemployment
Unemployment—and its accompanying sense of hopelessness—is one of the most pressing concerns facing the 200 members of the Protestant Evangelical Church of Novi Sad. Most of Serbia suffers from 20 percent unemployment. When the province of Kosovo is factored in, the nation’s rate jumps to 30 percent.
Although the church faces countless other needs, Pastor Aleksandar Mitrovic
has one desire: to get church members working so they can feed their
families, pay their bills, and support the church’s ministries.
That’s where Brotherhood Works comes in. The SerbiaNow team decided to help several church members support themselves through business ownership.
As part of the project, Mitrovic identified five men within the church who possess an entrepreneurial spirit. Mitrovic hopes the initiative will not only aid these faithful men, but the community as well.
“We’re not just employing five guys,” Mitrovic says. “We’re talking about an apostolic ministry. We’re going to change our society through this.”
Once the businesses get off the ground, they could provide jobs for other church members, and opportunities for workplace evangelism, plus help the church become more self-sufficient. In the end, it might strengthen the local economy.
In 2006, the SerbiaNow initiative raised enough capital to help the five men start or expand their small businesses. It also:
- Developed a business mentoring relationship with the entrepreneurs.
- Helped the entrepreneurs create solid business plans.
- Sent a short-term mission team to Serbia to coach and encourage the entrepreneurs.
Currently, SerbiaNow is working to:
- Raise support for the pastor, assistant pastor, and secretary of the Protestant Evangelical Church of Novi Sad for two years.
- Mentor the five entrepreneurs as they strive to build their businesses.
- Assist with seven church plants in and around Novi Sad.
- Replace a ramshackle church building in Kocura, a farming village near Novi Sad.
- Support a two-year Bible institute in Novi Sad dedicated to training new pastors.
Other mission teams have offered to help the Novi Sad church in the past, Mitrovic says, but little materialized. When the SerbiaNow team kept its promise of providing start-up funds for the entrepreneurs, Mitrovic said he knew that God had sent someone with an ear to hear.
“That was a moment for us that we knew,” Mitrovic says, “we had passed through our moment of silence.”
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