Though Serbs are still difficult to reach with the gospel, minority Gypsies are responding like never before. In south of Serbia, between Kosovo and Bulgaria, spiritual darkness and social hardships combine to make people unresponsive to the gospel. Life is tough, and the rigid Orthodox Church is aggressively anti-evangelical. But in this past year, Christians working in this region say God’s Spirit has been moving among the poorest of the poor: the south Serbian Gypsies.

In Leskovac, Serbia’s one and only Gypsy pastor, Selim Alijevic, has not been able to seat his congregation for months, although there are now two services each Sunday. Many new converts in neighboring villages cannot make it to church for the lack of transportation. "The Serbs around here are still not open to the Holy Spirit, but the Gypsies are," Alijevic told Charisma. "The first time they come to a service they spontaneously give their lives to Jesus!" Mio Stankovic, senior pastor of the Pentecostal Church in Leskovac, says the Gypsies fill the chapel to capacity in every service. "We cannot fit more than 300 people into the sanctuary, even though people stand packed like sardines in a can," he said. "So the Gypsy fellowship in our church presently counts some 500-600 adults, but more would come if we could only accommodate them".

In addition, the separate Sunday school in Leskovac gathers more than 200 Gypsy children weekly. In surrounding cities and villages, 20 house churches with 150-200 Gypsy converts were planted in 1998. That kind of church growth is staggering for Serbia, as well as for most countries in Europe. The Serbia branch of the Pentecostal Church in Leskovac counts about 80 people – which makes it the second largest Serbian evangelical church south of Belgrade, the capital. The largest Serbian church has some 100 members.

Stankovic is particularly thrilled by the way Gypsy children embrace the Holy Spirit. "They are so eager," he said. "Just the other day the kids were the first to burst out in loud praise and prayer, and many were slain in the Spirit. I felt sorry for them, the floor was so wet and dirty. Even the chapel walls are moist – with perspiration!" Jokingly, Stankovic added that he had been "baptized" four times now: In water, in the Holy Spirit, with eggs thrown at him by the communists when he tried to plant his first church, and with perspiration in the Gypsy church. Alijevic related that there are Gypsy congregations also in Vranje and Lebane in the south, and in Subotica and Ruma in the north – but that they are pastored by Serbs.

"We need more Gypsy church leaders," Alijevic pleads. "In Prokuplje, just north of Leskovac, the house church has grown to 30 people already, and we would need to plant a church there soon." Alijevic, who became a Christian 18 years ago and later went to Bible School in England, is training 20 Gypsy leaders in Leskovac now. His church just began offering special Gypsy leadership seminar. But resources are scarce. "The revival among my people is God’s answer to prayer," the 30-year-old pastor said. "God encouraged me with a vision of Jericho, and told me to start prayer walking. For the last four years we have been praying and fasting weekly."

Twenty years ago, Korean pastor David Younggi Cho inspired faith in Stankovic that he could build a 900-memeber church. "But we did not know that the Lord would answer that prayer by calling Gypsies," he said. In the early 1980s a couple of Gypsies were miraculously healed. "Generally the Gypsies have more faith for miracles than the Serbs," Stankovic said. "I wish the Serbs would have half their faith for healing!"

Gypsies, also known as Rom, make up 10 percent of the population of Leskovac. Because they are held in contempt by the Serbs, the explosive growth of Gypsy fellowship has added fuel to the harassment that all Pentecostals suffer in today’s Serbia – mostly at the hands of the Orthodox Church. In 1998 Stankovic was branded "the most dangerous man in town" by the local television station in Leskovac. But the courageous pastor is more worried about a new law on religion that could restrict evangelical activities in Serbia. "I appeal to the international church to pray and protest," he said. "The new law will make our standing worse."

Tomas Dixon

CHARISMA, MARCH 1999.