YUGOSLAVIA

Volume 5 - 1989
Yugoslavia is a unique communist country, consisting of:

• 6 republics
• 5 nations
• 4 languages
• 3 religions (Catholic, Orthodox and Islamic)
• 2 alphabets
• but only — 1 political party!

When we entered Yugoslavia in 1989, the country was gripped by 1000% inflation. One meal cost 1 Dinari “The prices double or treble every time we visit a shop,” a Yugoslavian leader exclaimed. “These communists, they experiment with us and now there is record unemployment and our country is in an economic mess. That is what ‘scientific socialism’ has done for us. The people are disillusioned. There is inconsistency everywhere. The laws are changed overnight. They are not honest. The communists keep changing the rules. They sieze investments. They change contracts. The situation is so sensitive. You can go to prison just for saying something. And what is ‘wrong’ changes daily.”
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Amidst the confusion and change in Yugoslavia we found that the Marxist government there has made a major industry out of tourism, to gain precious hard currency (or real - Western - money). And Yugoslavian citizens have been exported throughout Europe as migrant labourers, to earn foreign exchange. This has brought about unprecedented freedoms for the Christian churches, and the Catholic churches are packed. The Protestant church where we ministered, however, declared that many of their members had drifted away since the severe persecution slacked off.

The present freedoms in Yugoslavia have also brought about a deluge of pornographic literature, publically displayed in the streets, and a dramatic rise in immorality, crime and materialism.

Yugoslavia offers a clear warning against half-hearted religion. It provides the challenge of unprecedented evangelistic opportunities and it definitely proves how bankrupt and unworkable socialism really is. Communism is discredited. It is up to the Church to offer the lost people of Yugoslavia the Biblical alternative.