Background
It is important to mention here that most of our North American Apostolic Christian Churches (Nazarean) have roots in Europe, and specifically Eastern Europe (EE). During and after the WWII, Eastern Europe suffered much, and members of our Nazarene churches in many countries of this region were persecuted by authoritarian regimes that limited freedom of religion. This resulted in declining church membership, poverty, and loss of will and resources to evangelize. In some countries our members were jailed as conscientious objectors and their families suffered much while waiting for the return of their fathers, husbands, brothers, nephews, back to normal life.
In light of the above, efforts were undertaken in the Windsor ACC church in the 1950’s to help the needy brethren in those countries. Out of that effort, Yugoslavia Relief Committee was formed there. During that time period, the Committee members were accountable to the Windsor elders. In 2010, the committee changed its name to European Projects Committee (EPC) since Yugoslavia ceased to exist as a country as well as to avoid conflict between its own activities and objectives and those of Eastern Europe Relief Committee from West Akron, USA. At approximately same time, EPC became part of the ACCMBC, accountable to the Trustees of ACCMBC, and obligated to operate according to all ACCMBC governing documents and procedures.
EPC is either currently helping or was assisting in recent past the following projects in Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Ukraine:
- Housing Project/Fund – Provides financial help to our mostly young members so that they can obtain affordable housing
- Self-Help Project/Fund – Provides financial assistance for starting a small business to combat unemployment which is a common issue for all EE countries
- Scholarships & Bursaries – To help the young obtain education and get employment
- Publishing Project – The Romanian Zion’s Harp Hymnals are printed and being distributed to our EE brethren and a shipment was delivered from North America in February 2012
- Medical Aid Program – Provides medications, diapers for the elderly, bandages, wound dressing and other medical supplies as well as covers treatments or hospital costs
- Building Improvement – Assisted with the Belgrade Children Eye Hospital building improvements
To visit the blog by the ministry, please click this link.
To visit the 2013 report for the European Projects, please click this link.
Current Needs
- Prayer Support – Please sign up for the newsletter (see above) to find out the current prayer needs.
- Financial Support – Children have to pay for their tuition soplease consider sponsoring a child to pay for their education.
How To Help
To discuss opportunities for this cause, please contact Zoran Lisulov or the chairman.
To donate to this cause, please visit the Donations page.
