The outskirts of the city were scarred by bombings and broken buildings. The sidewalks were cracked and filled with weeds. The roads were in dire need of being repaved. Mostly colored gray, it seemed to fit the nonchalant attitude of the Serbian people living in Novi Sad.

As I walked through the streets of this broken and spiritually cold city, a fire was burning in my soul.

Serbia, formally Yugoslavia, is located in Eastern Europe just east of the Mediterranean Sea. Serbia is home to just over 7 million people –- less than Los Angeles County, with nearly 85 percent declaring their religion to be Serbian Orthodox.

So why should we go to Serbia, a place that is considered a “second-world country?”

The people.

Despite the fact that most of the country would call themselves Orthodox, many missionaries there argue that religion is just something to do because of tradition and origin.

When I went to Serbia in the summer of 2008, I was blessed with the opportunity to work incognito at an English and Sports camp, being placed directly with high school students who are in desperate need of a real Hope.

By age 14, most kids have already tried drugs, and because alcohol is available to anyone (I once saw a four year old child buy a beer for his dad), most don’t see anything wrong with drinking. Sex, in direct relation to alcohol, is also another popular outlet for fun.

It’s truly a “be merry for tomorrow we die” attitude — one that has nothing to live for today, but so desperately is searching for something to trust in tomorrow.

During my trip, I met many students who were seeking truth through any facet they could find. Many were able to find Jesus through the other student missionaries who took the trip with me. Through things such as purity rings and our actions, the students started to realize we were different.

There is nothing more tear-evoking than to realize that people you come to have such compassion for, who literally live with no hope, no passion, and no joy, will live in eternity in hell.

Who are we to take the greatest gift and sacrifice of all time, and throw it in our back pocket to hide because we are too uncomfortable to actually listen to Christ’s commands in Matthew 28?

Eastern Europe in general needs our help, whether it is Slovenia, Czech, Serbia or the slew of countries that have been under religious tyranny for generations -– they are thirsty. We have the water to quench that thirst.

As C.S. Lewis says, you “don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”
I’m tired of seeing our knowledge whither away, tired of seeing our pocketbooks grow warm and our hearts grow cold.

These people, the billions who have yet to come to Christ, the ones with no hope, passion or joy, do not need us. They need Christ.