Hello, my name is Luka. I have been in England for the past three months. The country that I come from is North Macedonia (central Balkans, north of the Greek border). I came to do the Intentional Discipleship programme for a year and to serve New Life Church during that time.

Since arriving in England, I have stayed with Sharon and Frank Clark. Their house is amazing, especially the room where I’m staying. They take care of me very well. They give me lifts to church on a Sunday and also on weekdays if I need to go somewhere. Frank and Sharon also got me a bicycle, so I can travel around MK. They feed me very well with homemade dinners, which are amazing by the way, and also with food in the house that I can cook for myself. I’m trying to show the same level of care for them by keeping the house clean when they are not around. One thing I have learned about English food is that crumpets must be toasted and not eaten raw!

The Intentional Discipleship School is really great. It started with a week of in-person training in Cambridge, which was a great experience for me, spending time with other young people on the course. I learned so much from it and I’m very thankful. We now meet online every Monday for Bible teaching. Each week we get a Bible reading plan. So far, we’ve studied the book of Mark and the whole of Genesis. The leaders and the students are awesome. There are 52 students this year, placed with different churches across the UK, with some in Serbia and Spain.

Now some words about New Life Church. It’s is a pretty big church, if you ask me, and I have only good to say about it. The Young Adults are an awesome group of people. They’re always happy to hang out with me when they are free. They are friendly, funny, full of experiences to share, interesting, and a smart group of people. I really enjoy spending time with them. Worship on Sunday is NEXT LEVEL! It is truly something that is a blessing to experience each week. I have really enjoyed the preaching so far, and it has been great for me to help with the youth group. It is good to see how God is working in their lives and through the youth leaders.

During the week I have been at Unity Park Community Club on a Tuesday. It is good to see how many homeless people are helped by it, and for me to help them. On Mondays and Wednesdays I work with the Communications Team. It has been interesting to see how people work together and how everything is connected through the cooperation between departments. I have been working on graphic designs and editing our Sunday morning service videos. It is a nice environment to work in. The equipment is really nice, the apps are great and the help from the staff is awesome. Finding my place in the church has taken a bit of time. It’s a big church with loads of people, big teams working on different things, elders giving instructions and so on. Trying to find my place was a bit difficult at first, so I decided to offer my time to serve in a few different teams. It’s been great to be able to help. It has been very busy, but I’m growing in my skills, character and also spiritually. 

I am thankful to God for this opportunity to be where I am, with the people that I am with, and for their positive influence on me. It has really been a gift and I can’t believe that three months have already passed. I’m excited to see what else God has in store for me.

 Luka Vuletic