Dear friends,

First of all, we would like to thank all of you who’ve been supporting us in prayer for the situation in our country, especially those of you who’ve been compelled and overwhelmed with the strong sense of urgency. Thank you for all your encouragement and (spiritual) understanding of the current situation and also for your willingness to intercede for the peaceful solution and breakthrough. 

We are so grateful to God for allowing us to live in this crucial time for our nation and also for giving us His insight into the spiritual reality over Serbia that enable us to take a part into this marvelous battle for our nation! As most of you well know, last ten years had been terribly hard for Serbian people. We’ve been living under an autistic, dictator’s regime that has badly abused some vital civil rights and terrorized its own nation in many ways. As a result of this policy, we had three wars, sanctions, economic blockade and collapse, extremely high rate of poverty and unemployment, total isolation from the rest of the world, high rate of criminal and (never revealed) crimes, black market, lack of elementary life necessities, as well us many other tragic consequences. Looking from spiritual perspective, we could also add that one of the most horrible outcomes of this dictatorship is the strong fear that had kept our nation under its control, sense of isolation and despair, and many other social deviations and mental disturbance that are more then obvious in the behavior of our people today. 

As a Christians, we’ve been standing in the gap for this nation for almost a decade. We must admit that there had been time when we were tempted to give up and run away from this madness that seemed to be a never-ending story. Some of you know that we’ve been fighting with a strong sense of isolation and exhaustion, feeling that we are in a kind of prison without any hope of escape. In spite of all these temptations, we have had even stronger determination to stay here and wage a spiritual war against principalities and powers over this suffering (and stubborn!) nation. Sometimes we felt really week and defeated, like we are fighting against the giants, but we praise the Lord for His power and faithfulness, as He’s been restoring our strength all over again – just as He has promised to do! He’s been keeping our vision fresh and revealed us His heart for this nation. 
Although we’d been forced to keep a “low profile” kind of work due to restrictive religious law and public persecution of all non-Orthodox churches, we’ve been focused our effort during last months mostly on prayers and intercession and especially on prayer walks. So, our spiritual “protests” and “demonstrations” against principalities and powers over Belgrade and Serbia had been taken place long before this recent civil disobedience and public meetings!! During that time, the Lord has revealed us the key strongholds over our nations and we’d been praying around main institutions and centers of powers in Belgrade on regular bases. We have especially prayed against corruptions and “secret jobs” behind the closed doors that decides the destiny of the nation and for all manipulations to be revealed, as well as for the restoration of justice in this country. So, from this perspective, looking behind, we are so exited to see the first great breakthrough in this direction and we are all thrilled to see that our efforts were not in vain and that the things are finally going forward! The Lord has allowed us to play a role in a great battle for Serbia and we are so honored for this privilege! 
It is hard to describe the recent events that has been shaken our city and country during these days! As these last elections (24. Sept.) had been approaching, you could have felt a growing tension in the air, the kind of feeling before the crucial battle. Rather then a fair contest with strict rules, elections in Serbia are more like a savage battle for life and death – and without any rules! That’s why it was hard to assume the final outcome of these elections, even though all analyses and statistics based on research of public opinion proved that democratic nominee (Vojislav Kostunica) had a great advantage over Slobodan Milosevic and his left coalition. So, when the clear victory of united democratic coalition was announced, the real battle took place. The regime has refused to recognize the will of the people expressed on the elections. It is hard to describe the long suppressed anger and revolt of the nation that literally erupted on the meeting on 5.th October, held before the Assembly House in the very center of Belgrade. We couldn’t believe our eyes while we watched from the crowd (approximately 500.000 people) as the people (gathered from all around Serbia) literally rushed in the building, in spite of police protection and tear bombs thrown out into the mass. It was like a huge, irrepressible wave breaking down all barriers and entering the doors of Assembly, and then coming back with the same power – as the police forces from inside blockade the mob and cast them out of the building. Despite the panic caused by tear-gas and police intervention, people are determined to take over the Assembly House and fight for their legal right by all means. This was something to see and feel!! We’ve been there with people from our church, running with the crowd in stampede when tear-gas was thrown, praying for the safety of all, and sharing this great momentum together with all other. After they took over the Assembly House, people start to take over the police stations, one by one, as well as state televisions and other key institutions. There were no bloodshed (“only” two victims – we consider it as a miracle, having in mind the great mob and anger concentrate on the square and all that happened there!) and violence, just the power and determination of the crowed and lack of real response by police. Of course, it would be too much to say that the behavior of the crowd was always dissent and dignified – the things had come out of control in some instances, especially as we saw people coming out of the Assembly House (completely protected by the police and forbidden for ordinary people up to that day!) with the “trophies” such as stylish and luxurious chairs, tables and other pieces of furniture!
The key moment was when the police units that had blockade the streets started to gave up and mixed with the crowds, even sharing their marks, shields and helmets with citizens! People, who’d known only their brutality and blind obedience to the regime, couldn’t believe their eyes and they start to hag them, kiss them and shake their hands!! It was incredible and our eyes were full of tears and our hearts were about to burst out!! Later on, when all state TV stations were freed and publicly declared the victory of democratic powers and new president, and euphoria and celebration on the public squares and streets lasted all nights – with loud music, dancing and clapping! You could people asking themselves all around: “Are we dreaming?! Could this really be true!?” Believe us, we are still asking the same questions today! 
After all this euphoria is calming down a bit, we know that this great victory on the street is certainly a great breakthrough for our nation and you could feel a taste of freedom in the air as never before! We all feel as the heavy burden has been lifted up from this nation, but in the same time we also know that it is not over! This breakthrough is just one step forward and for us, as a Christians, it is just the beginning of real battle to take this nation for Christ! One big stronghold has been removed – a cult of a man, a leader that had brought curse of nation that had put their thrust into the man, instead of God. But, there are many other strongholds that are yet to be removed… So, for those of you who feel a burden for our nation and church and support us in prayer on regular bases – don’t give up praying!! We especially feel compelled to call you to pray with us against religious spirits that could easily be the next big trap for our nation, as we assume that Orthodox Church would probably try to gain some more power from this new democratic regime and also rights to monopolize this nation, as this Church has given open support to new president who claim to be strong Orthodox believer. We know that this newborn democracy is still far from being mature and consistent in all its segments – especially when it comes to religious rights! So, keep praying for Serbia! We are fully aware that now, more then ever, we cannot allow ourselves to be euphoric and relaxed, nor to celebrate the victory that are yet to be won! 

Also, once the president Milosevic has gone, our people would have to face the reality that he, as a person, was certainly not the main source of their dissatisfaction and frustration. Since the life in Serbia turned to be very miserable for great majority of ordinary people in last decade, most of them believe that their lives and circumstances would be transformed if Milosevic disappeared from the public scene and power. After this euphoric and sense of triumph calm down, they would have to admit that their personal problems and despairs are still there and that they are still unable to fight against them by their own. So, we believe it is the time to pray that our people see the reality from God’s perspective and accept their responsibility for their lives and destiny. It seems that our national pride is still much alive, still preventing us to kneel down before the Lord and cry out to Him for mercy. Instead of admitting that we are blindly and passively tolerated a tyranny of one man for more then a decade, ignoring our responsibilities as a nation and individuals and allowing his policy to push us from one war to another, from one evil to another, we are celebrating a glorious victory with such a dignity, pride and heroic feelings! As a Christians, we are rejoicing over these exiting and incredible changes that have taken place on this ground, but still worried about spiritual well-being of our nation, because we still cannot see the real signs of sobering and humbleness that should bring our nation to repentance…       
To give you some more specific directions for your further support in prayer, we would outline just a few topics:
? For the further development of the situation – for the special wisdom and carefulness of the people who makes decisions, and against subversive activities that could cause some more trouble and bloodshed and prevent the positive (democratic) trends and reforms in the society, etc. Let us stress one more time the very thing we are constantly reminding ourselves – we should not be deceived by what is going on at the surface, but rather trying to see things from the spiritual perspective and that is – we are still in the middle of the war!
? For us, as an Evangelical Christians, to find a favor in the eyes of this new government and place in the society that would allow us to play the role that God has called us to play in this time. 
? For new freedom to proclaim the Good News to our nation, etc.

There are many more topics to pray for, but we are sure that those of you who’ve been involved in this battle for Serbia would be led by the Spirit in further intercession for Serbia, as the things are changing here very fast, almost from minute to minute. Many things are still unclear and unpredictable and this “new dawn” of democracy is still very fragile.  

Finally, we would like to mention some practical, strategic steps we are planning for time ahead. Having in mind global situation in our country in this moment, we assume that this winter would be very hard, as the help from the European Union and Western countries would probably not come as fast as our new leaders expect and promise… So, for those of you who are in the position to organize some kind of humanitarian help on wider scale (such as clothes, medicines, food) for our people, we strongly encourage you to try to do so. We also assume that many things would be change very fast here and we have no doubt that it would be much easier to import this kind of aid now, as the new government would probably revoke the laws that had prevented this kind of humanitarian aid and its delivery with many prohibitions and restrictions (custom rules, administrative requests, etc.). So, if you have any idea and possibilities to take a part in this project and provide some amount of humanitarian aid for coming winter, please contact us as soon as possible. 

Finally, dear friends, we are looking forward to seeing you soon among us – and this time it is not merely a phrase, but reality – as we expect that our official relationships with the world would be restored very soon and that our country would be open again for all of you who have desire to come here and see us face to face!!! This would finally be possible and we anticipate this moment with great joy and excitement!!! “The iron curtain” around Serbia has been crashing down and this is certainly bringing us closer to God’s purposes for our country!

We love you and love to hear from you!

P.S. We are also enclosing some “live” pictures from 5.th Oct. in Belgrade!

Radovan & Jelena Bogdanovic