SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #38 ---- 10/5/98
Posted by: root <root@...>
Standing Shoulder to Shoulder With Fellow Soldiers
As we Fight the Good Fight
TITLE: "Come! Follow Me! It'll Cost You!"
Dear Fellow Believer:
I greet you in the Lord today from the land of Croatia. This is our
sixth trip to this part of the former Yugoslavia. I wish you could be
here. Jo Ann and I have never met more wonderful people than those we
have met here.
There are no guarantees as to either grammar or punctuation in this
letter! I am in the middle of a hectic office filled with scurrying
people and am typing on a European keyboard punctuated with Croatian
symbols.
WAR IS LIKE FOLLOWING JESUS:
We spent two days last week with the Life Center staff in Crikvenica on
the Adriatic coast south of Rijeka. There was a group of refugees there
from around Osijek,one of the most heavily damaged areas of Croatia
during the war several years ago. As I looked into their eyes during
breakfast last Wednesday, I could still see the fighting, the horror, the
grief, the pain.
Even though Jo Ann and I had no involvement in their sessions (in fact we
didn't even know a group would be here), we made every effort to lift
their spirits and let them know they are loved. "Dobro jutro! Kako
ste? Slavo Bogu! Jo te volim e vo te voli!" "Good morning! How are
you? Praise God! I love you and God loves you!"
After meeting up Wednesday with Jeff Floyd and Jack Shoaf at the Life
Center, we then went to see the Hope Center up in the mountains at Fuzine
and then to Karlovac Thursday afternoon, spent some time in fellowship
with believers there, and then were met Friday morning by pastor Franjo
Spicak who took us to Sirac in eastern Croatia.
IT INCORPORATES ATTACK:
It is a chilling experience to visit the original church building in
Karlovac. During the war it was caught in the cross fire between
opposing forces. I still remember the pastor describing the day he
walked around a corner in his neighborhood and saw more than 50 tanks in
the field facing the hill behind the church building with guns trained on
the Yugoslav Army. When the fighting opened up, he could only crouch
down behind the flimsy wall of a garage for protection.
Bullet holes still scar the church building down the street. Dozens of
nearby homes were totally destroyed, most of them yet to be rebuilt. The
ground floor consisted of storage, classrooms, office, and lodging
facilities. The first floor (we in America would call it the second) had
a small auditorium and some meeting rooms. The top floor was the
apartment for the pastor and family.
I still remember the first trip to this area last November when Jo Ann
and I awoke our first morning there to look out the window and see the
collapsed shell of a home just across the street from where we were
staying. It was a total shock to my system, because I had not seen it in
the darkness of the night before when we arrived.
Ladsislav Ruziska is the pastor in Karlovac. He looks like a cross
between a Marine and a professional football (American style) running
back. His wife, Melanija, and their ten year old daughter bravely
remained in the area during the heat of the war. Their declaration ----
"God called us to minister to ALL people, not fight a war." During those
days they provided housing, food, clothing, and other spiritual,
emotional, and humanitarian assistance as they could.
Last November as we sat in their home for meal, Melanija, who speaks
fluent English, told us of some of their experiences. She's a lovely but
fiesty lady I'd want on my side in a fight. She reminds me of a girl who
grew up in a houseful of brothers, though I don't think that was actually
the case.
She told us of two occasions in particular. One night just as she was
getting ready to take a bath the fighting started up again. She was so
indignant that she decided no army or political agenda was going to
deprive her of a relaxing soak in a hot bubble bath, so she went into the
bathroom, shut the door, and relaxed. I'm not sure we'd have done that.
On another occasion she was just preparing dinner when the fighting
resumed. She could look out her kitchen window and see the enemy troops
on the hillside perhaps 400 yards away. When the shells began to fall,
Ladislav grabbed the little girl and yelled to Melanija to come
downstairs where they would be safe. Her response was one of indignant
anger ---- "They have no right to interrupt my dinner! I'm going to stay
right here and prepare my meal! If I'm going to die, at least I won't
die hungry!"
I wish you could know this wonderful family ---- and the church, as well
---- Hilda (our favorite interpreter, who's father founded the church)
Stevo and Javonka, the teen agers, the artist, and others.
Frankly, the church in Karlovac is what every church should be like. It
has been written up in national denominational periodicals. It is made
up of Croats, Bosnians, Serbs, and others. There they love each other
unconditionally. They see beyond the ethnicity and politics to recognize
and embrace their identity in Christ as brothers and sister.
I could spend hours talking about the people we have met who have changed
our lives and have given us an ever more clear picture of what the Gospel
is truly all about.
The Karlovac church has a "new" church building now in the heart of the
city ---- a three-story office building being converted to church use. I
had the opportunity of preaching there last November, one of four
churches in which I preached on one Sunday. I talked about another of
them last week.
IT IS COSTLY:
Melanija is a pastor's daughter and a pastor's wife. Her father pastors
in Pakrac near where we are ministering now. We saw him again just
yesterday. During the war, Pakrac was one of the three most heavily
damaged cities in all of Croatia. The opposing armies launched attacks
and counter attacks back and forth for control of the city.
We again drove up and down the streets and saw the old police station and
the hospital ---- totally destroyed and beyond repair. We saw the homes
---- owned by Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats before the war, now nothing but
empty shells and piles of rubble.
One week the Serbs would be in control. During the nights they would
plant explosives and destroy homes owned by Croats. Then, the Croatian
army would mount an offensive, and during the week they controlled it,
they would go in during the night and destroy homes owned by Serbs with
bombs and mines.
The next week the Serbs would initiate an attack and do the same thing to
homes owned by Croats. Back and forth it went, week after week month
after month ---- former friends and neighbors destroying each other ----
and themselves in the process. Sounds somewhat like what we often do
within our churches.
Even now that the war is over, very little rebuilding is taking place
(again like churches sometimes).
First, most people do not have the money to rebuild. Second, there are
still unexploded mortar rounds and land mines that nobody has yet tried
to remove. (In our case, though, we do have what it takes to rebuild
---- except for humility and repentance.) As we drove down that street
last November over 90% of the buildings were uninhabitable.
In the middle of the devastation we stopped at one house ---- the home of
Melanija's father, the pastor of the church in Pakrac. He's an "old" man
who looks like he's in his mid 70's. However, he's younger than I am.
Frail, stooped, limping, he yet greets us with a huge and warm smile ----
"Dobro vece!" ---- "Good evening!".
This pastor, his wife, and another daughter lived through months of that
condition, faithfully ministering to people and pastoring the church.
One day as he and the daughter were out and about, they were accosted by
enemy troops. He was severely beaten and then stabbed seven times, left
for dead ---- AFTER he had watched as the soldiers raped his teen aged
daughter multiple times.
Though the scars on his body remain, and the evidence of the attack he
still carries, his wounds did heal. Sadly, the emotional wounds have not
healed with his daughter, and she has vented her anger toward God,
walking away from her Christian life.
Yet, he continued to love the people ---- even those who attacked him
---- and, following his recover, continued to minister to all alike ----
Croat, Bosnian, Muslim, Serb. When I talked with him last November he
told me he was tired and wanted to retire, but he could not, because
there was no pastor to replace him, and his people needed a shepherd.
Besides ---- he had a building to remodel. They had just recently
purchased an old single story commercial building which he wanted to turn
into a church.
He continues to love them all, and to serve them.
IT IS DAILY:
When we spoke there in November, we met in a small room about 14 feet
wide and 24 feet long, packed with nearly 100 people. After the services
he showed us the work he was doing ---- an impossible project in concrete
and stone being carried out by nothing but hand tools. The improvements
this past week are unbelievable.
IT KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES:
As with us on this trip, following Jesus takes you many places. There
are no boundaries to being a disciple, except as He places you in a
specific place for a specific time for a specific task.
No matter where we are, discipleship is costly, it is daily, and, though
permanent, it is transient.
We leave in a few days to travel to Sarajevo from where I hope to write
you again next week.
The physical and emotional damage there are far worse than even here.
For some three years these wonderful people endured the constant
bombardment of heavy artillery raining shells down on them from their
emplacements in the surrounding mountains.
We have never been in Bosnia before. As we traveled earlier on this
trip, people would respond with, "You're going to Saranevo!?" when we
would mention our itinerary. (Makes me wonder if we're very smart.)
But ---- the mountains still speak ---- and weep ---- even in Sarajevo.
And the people still weep and mourn ---- and plot.
How about you?
Do you?
It may well be the guns are still firing away at you and your ministry
from the enemy strong holds. Or, perhaps they are silent at the moment.
But ---- how are you handling the situation right now?
Are you wounded? Weeping? Angry? Plotting?
Or maybe giving up? Or perhaps packing your bags?
Come on, friend! Following Jesus is worth the cost!
IN CONCLUSION:
Because there are perhaps four or five other people waiting to use the
computer, I am cutting my letter short today.
However, let me ask you to take time this week to read again the passages
where Jesus speaks concerning discipleship. I'm afraid it has become
such a common "doctrine" to most of us in the western world, and we have
had such an easy go of it for the most part, that we have settled for a
watered down version of discipleship and have taken for granted our
responsibility to it.
Then, add to that the fact that we are settling for a type of
discipleship that focuses more on the blessings of it than the
responsibilities of it, and it is no wonder our pews are filled with
people who have no real sense of serving God and serving others. What
else do self serving people do?
What else to self serving ministers teach?
I don't mean to be unkind or harsh, but if we are not careful, my dear
friend, we can easily become guilty of serving "self" ---- doing God's
work strictly for own benefits, conveniences, comforts, and agendas.
Oh, my heart cries out again for all of us to do what the disciples did
when they first met Jesus.
Do you remember some of their first words?
"Where are you going?"
Most of us are asking the wrong question: "Where are we going?"
Frankly, what difference does THAT make? In God's order of things, ----
Absolutely NOTHING!
Remember His answer?
"Come, and see (for yourselves)."
What have you been asking Jesus lately?
It's alright to ask Him again ---- "Lord? Where are you going? Where on
earth are You going with this situation? Where are You taking me in
this?"
There is no sin in wondering ---- especially as it pertains to
circumstances and conditions in which you may find yourself.
The sin is not in wondering ---- or even in asking the wrong question.
The real sin is in either not hearing His response, or in disagreeing
with it or even rejecting it.
So, when He answers you like He did those early disciples (and it will
probably be the same answer) you need to be prepared to respond.
An answer from God always requires a response from us ---- and a correct
one, at that. Otherwise, His response was meaningless, and therefore,
unnecessary.
And, that brings us to a troubling thought ---- we didn't need to even
ask the question.
If we aren't going to listen or respond, why bother asking?
So, friend, if you're a follower of Jesus, and you've needed to ask,
"Lord, where are You going?", . . .
Be ready to listen.
And respond! . . .
When He tells you, . . .
"Come and see!"
Let's you and me tag along!
And ---- SEE!
W-O-W !!!!
In Christ's Bond,
Bob Tolliver
Copyright, October, 1998. All rights reserved.
Life Unlimited Ministries
[email protected]
Fax: 417-275-4855
Life Center International [email protected]
V. Nazora 55 Fax: 385-51-241-300
51260 Crikvenica
Croatia http://www.welovegod.org/outreach/life_center