'Come over to Macedonia and help us'

Will you support me?


In Acts 16, the apostle Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading with him to ‘come over to Macedonia and help us’. Answering this call led to one of Paul’s most successful missionary journeys and to the planting of Christianity in the famous area to the north of Greece.

I too have received a call from a Macedonian man! I have received an invitation from my good friends Kosta and Nada Milkov to travel to the Balkans from April 27th – May 9th 2011 in support of evangelical ministry and witness in that country. The number of Evangelical Christians in Macedonia is very small in spite the fact that they have been present for the last century. The generic name for all churches of Evangelical belief is ‘Protestants’. In the vernacular though, the terms ‘Sect’ or the alternative ‘New Faiths’ is much more common.

I met Kosta and Nada while Kosta and I were both studying for our doctorates at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford University from 2005-08. We were neighbours and also shared a study room. Returning to Macedonia in 2009, Kosta has founded Metanoia, which is the Balkan Institute for Faith and Culture. As he describes it: ‘It will be founded on its integrity and commitment to the Gospel and Christian witness as envisioned in the context of genuine encounter with the contemporary Balkan culture.’ Formerly, Kosta was the pioneer of Egzodus, the IFES-linked student movement in Macedonia, and maintains strong links with that group. Already Kosta has had a number of exciting opportunities to present the gospel of Christ in his work.

On my trip I have been invited to preach at a number of evangelical churches, to be involved in lecturing at the university, a public forum, a TV appearance and speaking to the students from Egzodus. I am praying that my trip will be of great encouragement to the local evangelical Christians – and that I may learn a great deal from their witness under trial. I am excited about the possibilities of future contact between Australian and Macedonian evangelical Christians – especially seeing as there are something like 83,000 Macedonian-born Australians, many of whom live in Sydney.

So as not to be a burden to my hosts, I need to raise funds for my air travel to Skopje and home again. Will you support me? The easiest way to do this is to go the page at:

http://www.everydayhero.com.au/michael_jensen

and follow the instructions.