My name is Win Van Tam. For years, my life was characterised by emptiness and struggle. I worked in Malaysia, far from my hometown, seeking meaning in worldly pleasures that made me feel more lost than ever.
It is such a blessing to serve God together with teams from different churches and nations. We had the opportunity to do this in October when we helped organise the National Transformation Movement Conference in Romania.
In the midst of preparing for this summer's European Conference, Jan and I decided to gather some inspiration for the coming year's mission by looking through some of the old VHS ‘video of the month’ tapes.
There are always mixed feelings when visiting the country. I spent a few days in Kyiv last week; everything was calm except for a few occasional air raid sirens. The day after I left, the city was attacked by rockets.
On October 7th, it was one year since 1,200 were killed and 250 taken hostage in the worst terror attack against Jews since the Holocaust and the bloodiest day in Israel’s modern history.
Together, we make a difference for the children of India.
IndianChildren has been working in India since 1998, and over the years we have seen many children’s lives changed for the better. But not only their lives—also their families have been touched by God’s power to lift people out of poverty and vulnerability.
I had just finished my second year at the Bible school in Uppsala, and my future plans were focused on university. Life was simply at its best. But why didn’t it feel that way? Why was there something inside me that was gnawing away?
Interview with Aleksandar Vuletikj, Pastor in North Macedonia
Aleksandar Vuletić, also known as “Sasha,” has a fascinating and touching life story. Raised in a multicultural family in Macedonia, he moved to Germany as a young man.
"Thank you, Ville, this is exactly what our church needs!" said a local pastor to me. I had just finished my meeting in the city of Alba Iulia in Romania when the pastor approached me. I preached a simple message about faith, but it felt so powerful. The people received it well, and when I invited them forward for prayer, half of the church came up!
We have the privilege this year of sending four missionaries to the Balkans. We will also be sending several teams to work alongside local churches and evangelize throughout the entire Balkan region.
In the fall of 2020, Jan moved from the Czech Republic to Uppsala to study at the Word of Life Bible School. Coming to cold Sweden was not a given from the start. But after one of his friends came back after a year at LOBC, visibly transformed, a curiosity began to grow.
As we cross the large marble-lined square with the huge statue of Alexander the Great looking down on us, I hear Eline call out, “Samuel, I think the Holy Spirit wants us to go to that man there!”
This past month we have hosted several teams here in North Macedonia. While we had a team serving in North Macedonia, me and a bunch of guys from the second year of LOBC were on a three week trip in Kosovo.
We have just finished our annual Word of Life Europe Summit in Albania and I feel enormous gratitude. These days have indeed been a great blessing for many.
We have now been on another amazing mission trip to Romania. I love to see Jesus touching people in different ways every time we choose to go. This time I was there with my old mission team Impact team.
Happy, a bit tired in the morning, but excited, we bumped through the green rice fields in the noisy autorickshaw on our way to the remote Indian village where a full day of teaching awaited us.
In mid-April, we received second grade Bible school students here in Skopje. We divided the students into two teams where one team went with Jan (missionary in North Macedonia, editor's note) to Kosovo and one team stayed with me in Skopje.
”We have not seen anything like this in Romania before!”
The train rolled slowly across the border from Hungary to Romania, with passport control on both sides of the border. The landscape was interspersed between large fields, and cities coming at regular intervals. Oradea is not far from the Hungarian border and is one of the 10 largest cities in Romania. The city is known for its fine Art Nouveau buildings and for its local shoe manufacturers.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Livets Ord’s church in Baku, Azerbaijan, together with René Lobos, and we witnessed God perform wonderful miracles.
A two-week intensive tour throughout Ukraine has just concluded. Together with a team, we visited churches within the Word of Life network across the entire country.
Since September, my teammate Kim and I have been stationed in North Macedonia. We have witnessed God moving in a powerful way and look forward with expectation to what God will do this spring. One of the new doors God has opened for us is the neighboring country of Kosovo. Kosovo is primarily a Muslim country, but it still has a few smaller churches scattered throughout.
It was truly a heartfelt reunion with many dear friends we recently had in Bulgaria. Many memories surfaced from our pioneering trips there back in the early ’90s when the country was still communist.
In the letter to the Galatians, we find an interesting insight from Paul. He tells us that after his encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus, he went to Arabia (Galatians 1:17) and stayed there for a long time.
Last autumn, I received a revelation that challenged me, and I hope it will challenge you too. Let me tell you about it. I have had the privilege of working with Livets Ord’s Bible schools in India, and during this academic year, I have taught a second-year class focused on creating growth in the church.
Is there anything better than seeing children smile and sing with joy? And especially when they are children from the slums of Kolkata, those who don't go to school, but have to stay at home and work collecting garbage? These children have very little to rejoice about, as they live a hard life in severe poverty.
The word of God has no shackles, not even in Ukraine.
The war has now been going on for almost two years and unfortunately looks set to continue for a long time to come. Amidst all the difficulties, the Word of God is being preached and many are coming to faith.
