{"id":11886,"date":"2022-09-26T10:32:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T10:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=11886"},"modified":"2022-09-26T10:32:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T10:32:41","slug":"serbian-teens-worship-at-former-communist-military-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/serbian-teens-worship-at-former-communist-military-base\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbian Teens Worship at Former Communist Military Base"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>25 September 2022 | Bagremara, Serbia [Lehel Nagy-Bata with tedNEWS]<\/p>\n<p>The summer of 2022 has come to an end, but not without the South-East European Union Conference (SEEUC) annual teen getaway! From Friday 26 to Sunday 28 of August, 30 teens gathered at Bagremara, a former communist military base in Serbia, to grow closer to God and develop friendships.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_86920\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"  data-origwidth=\"800\" data-origheight=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Mir2NE2lWtk?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/ted.adventist.org&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&rel=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Bagremara 22 Worshiping God in Ex Communist Militarily Base\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI had a chance to see and experience communism during my younger days, and I need to say that worshipping in an ex-communist base was something really special,\u201d said Dejan Stojkovi\u0107, Trans-European Division (TED) Youth director. \u201cIt was quite a surprise to find out that the garage where we worshipped was a place where tanks used to be parked,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The annual event at Bagremara started as a Youth Day back in 2014, organised by the Ba\u010dka Palanka church. Youth Day proved so popular that pastors Sre\u0107ko and Silvija Krsti\u0107 saw the need to expand, to provide support for teens who could not afford to attend long summer camps and events. \u00a0As the local church building could not accommodate so many young people, the Red Cross campsite of Bagremara [which means \u201cacacia forest\u201d] was chosen as the venue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can still find traces of tanks and other heavy machinery around the place. Once decommissioned, the Red Cross took over the site. \u00a0And, after remodelling the barracks, it became suitable for large groups and summer camps,\u201d said Lehel Nagy-Bata, North Conference Youth director.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11892\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-2.jpg 630w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-2-500x280.jpg 500w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-2-350x197.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur main speaker this year was Dejan Stojkovi\u0107,&#8221; Nagy-Bata added. His messages focused on \u201cbeing ready, in our everyday lives, for Jesus\u2019 return, for the Second Coming, and how in the meantime, we can use what God placed in our hands to serve others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had three days of having fun with old friends, making new ones, and worshipping in the now familiar garage. It was truly a blessing to be part of this meeting,&#8221; Nagy-Bata concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former tank garage is filled with songs of worship<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1592,1568,1570,7],"tags":[1160,958,1218,1146,1219,287,78,332],"class_list":["post-11886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bosnia-herzegovina-montenegro-north-macedonia-serbia","category-children-teens-young-adults","category-discipleship-spiritual-growth","category-news","tag-adventist-youth","tag-adventist-youth-ministries","tag-communist","tag-dejan-stojkovic","tag-lehel-nagy-bata","tag-news","tag-serbia","tag-teens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11886"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11896,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11886\/revisions\/11896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}