Europe

Restoring Hope to the Marginalized

by Biljana Dolic, TWR Women of Hope national coordinator in Serbia

Serbia is an outwardly beautiful country, but one with a turbulent history filled with recent wars, national and religious intolerance, and difficulty for its people. One of the groups most affected are Serbia’s women.

Because women are not offered the same rights as men and often do not have access to education, many of them feel marginalized and invisible. Abuse, neglect and exploitation of women is common here. This is why the TWR Women of Hope ministry comes to this uneasy land as a medicine that is healing broken hearts and emotions, restoring hope, and bringing harmony to relationships.

Each day, a short message, prayer or Bible verse reaches almost 10,000 women in Serbia and 7,000 women in Croatia through our Facebook and Instagram pages and YouTube channel. Women have the opportunity to hear how valuable and loved they are by the one who created them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. It is beautiful to see the transformation women experience when they meet Jesus and his wonderful love restores their identity, dignity and hope.

Our team here in Serbia works very closely with the Women of Hope team next door in Croatia. They record the Women of Hope programs in Croatian, and we do so in Serbian. These programs are unique in this region. Until now there has not been a program intended specifically for women that provided them with practical instructions for life as well as a biblical perspective on various problems and situations.

God has also opened the door for us to begin translating and producing programs for a new series of women’s programming called Precious & Beloved. As our team helps develop and grow the ministry in Croatia, we are excited for that team’s desire to also begin broadcasting Precious & Beloved in their country next year.

Prayer is also another important part of our ministry in Serbia. Each month we translate and print the TWR Women of Hope prayer calendar. Large groups of women in Serbia gather regularly to pray for women around the world using this calendar.

There are many other ways we minister to Serbian women. We help those in need by bringing them food, clothing and other necessities for life. Our desire is to offer free copies of the Bible to everyone, and we have made it possible for thousands of women to get their first copies of the Holy Scriptures. We also work among women of Roma ethnicity. The content in our Women of Hope programs brings hope and healing to these girls and women, regardless of age.