Natasha Vuckovic loves children.
She works at a day care, then invests evenings and weekends in the lives of even more children and their parents in her community and her church, Protestant Christian Fellowship in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Serving in children’s ministry quickly showed her the need for parents’ ministry. She prayed, asking God for a biblical tool for parents.
Natasha discovered her calling to children’s work as a teenager, just two years after she came to faith in Christ.
Coming from a “typical, non-Christian, Yugoslavian home,” Natasha and her older brother, Bera, gave their hearts to Jesus within a month of each other, unbeknownst to each other.
Today, Bera is one of the pastors of Protestant Christian Fellowship. He received his pastoral training at a Bible college in Serbia. Natasha serves in the church’s children’s ministry, having gained valuable insights from Child Evangelism Fellowship in Serbia.
Another, very hands-on resource came to Bera, Natasha and their church in the early 2000s.
Through friends in Serbia and Bulgaria, Entrust learned about Pastor Bera and Protestant Christian Fellowship, a fledgling church with a vibrant ministry.
Entrust staff asked, “How might we be of assistance? What kinds of needs do you have?”
In response to expressed needs, Entrust began interactive equipping modules for church members about small group facilitation, inductive Bible study, shepherding and mentoring younger believers.
Because of her fluency in English, Natasha translated most of the in-person events and later, the workbooks. She loved and absorbed everything.
Then came the day someone happened to mention an Entrust module she hadn’t heard about: Nurturing Our Children. She was amazed.
“After years of praying, there was this answer that came through the parenting course. It was really like a revelation to me, this practical material that I could use.”
A group of parents from the church worked through the entire module. It took a lot of time and effort, but, for Natasha, as a children’s ministry leader and a mom of teenagers, very worthwhile.
She discovered the concept that children have stages of moral and faith development. She learned biblical principles about how and why to discipline children, and gained the idea that parents can and should develop parenting objectives for themselves.
Everything God has provided through Entrust to further her church’s work, she says, “is really like a balm to our heart.”
SERBIA
What do we know about this landlocked south-central European country?
It provided the world with tennis great Novak Djokovic, electricity genius Nikola Tesla and several notable NBA and WNBA players.
It’s roughly the size of Alabama, home to 7 million people, 131,000 of whom are Roma, 10,000 of whom are ethnic Russians.
Less than one percent of its people are evangelical.
Entrust’s work in Serbia was launched by Bulgarian and American colleagues who traveled regularly, by invitation, to various towns to provide training seminars for pastors and other church leaders.
Two staff couples now live in the country, offering requested equipping and encouraging ministries for Christian leaders – Serb, Roma and Russian.
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