Ministry will continue in Kosovo, despite flashpoint tensions.

By March 24, 2004

Kosovo (MNN)–Kosovo is bathed in red again, as the smouldering ruins of burnt-out homes and churches stand as a poignant reminder of the unfinished business in southeast Europe.

European Union foreign ministers are urging the diffusion of tensions, while UN peacekeepers enforce an uneasy peace in Kosovo’s capital.

The violence which erupted on Wednesday was the worst since the wave of Albanian revenge attacks which followed NATO’s bombing campaign in 1999 to end Serbian forces’ repression of the Albanians.

Some 3,600 Serbs were driven out in last week’s clashes which saw ethnic Albanian mobs torching homes and churches in Serb villages.

It’s a tinderbox situation between the Serbs and Albanians, so says World Bible Translation Center’s Roger Massey. “It doesn’t take much to get it to boil over and I don’t expect in my lifetime to see it end–kind of like what’s going on between the Palestinians and the Jews in Israel. It’s the same nature of struggle.”

The Translation Center made copies of its Serbian New Testament available to churches and ministries in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia.

As for continued distribution, Massey says, “We find that people still move about from place to place and the people that are involved in spreading the word tend to dig in an wait it out. There’ll be a pause–it’s only a pause–and then life goes on and the kingdom life keeps building.”

Since their release, the Serbian New Testaments were distributed in four different cities in central Serbia, Kraljevo, Kragujevac, Pozarevac and Sviljanac.

Church leaders say the distribution of the Easy-to-Read Serbian New Testaments and has enabled teams to put the Word of God into the hands of many people. The revision of the Croation New Testament is expected to be released by early summer.

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