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Undaunted by visa hassles, the British missions agency Oak Hall arrived at Backi Petrovac with relief goods and 80 visitors last November. The organization visited the Balkans 32 times during the 1990s.

Relief aid for Serbia lags far behind aid donated to Kosovo. A Swedish Baptist relief official claims that 286 humanitarian agencies operate in Kosovo, but only about 10 in Serbia. "Church relief is guided by Western media," he says, "not by the Holy Spirit.

"Yet the likelihood of Serbs uncoupling themselves from the West is remote. Though the U.S. embassy in Belgrade is shuttered and battered, the four Belgrade outlets of McDonald's are thriving.

The recent bombings have not shortened the lines of young adults, desperate to leave Serbia behind them, who surround the Canadian embassy.

The republic's destruction and reconstruction will be funded by the West, residents believe, for no one else is capable of doing so.

"We may be Europe's tail," Lutheran Bishop Jan Valent concedes, "but we still belong to Europe."

Copyright © 2000 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Past Christianity Today articles about Serbia include:

Doing Church Amidst Bombs and Bullets | Balkan evangelicals feel strain of ethnic cleansing (May 24, 1999)

Bridging Kosovo's Deep Divisions | A tiny evangelical minority has a vision for how to overcome the explosive mix of religion and nationalism. (Feb. 8, 1999)

Orthodox Condemn Milosevic (Oct. 4, 1999)

Church Planting Faces Uphill Battle (Sept. 1, 1997)

Serbian Baptists Hope for Return to Croatia (Nov. 11, 1996)

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March 6 2000, Vol. 44, No. 3