God Can Be Trusted
Dinko Miocevich (Perth)
There was an emptiness in both our lives, we may have appeared to have had a lot but we lacked fulfilment, so we both began searching.... That was about 30 years ago and God has shown his great love and mercy ever since.," Dinko Miocevich, a consulting mechanical engineer in Perth, says as he looks back on when he first encountered the Lord.
For Dinko born in Perth, of Croatian parents who had migrated to Australia in the early 1920s, this was the beginning of his search with his wife, Mavis, for God.
In 1967 they were invited to an Easter service at the local Baptist Church in Wembley Downs. It was shortly afterwards that they found God's grace and sustaining power in the death of their second son.
"That's where it began for us. We were so mightily touched that we knew we had found the answer to the eternal emptiness that is in everyone. We had found a personal relationship with Jesus."
Dinko had no religious upbringing, as his Croatian father felt only bitterness towards the church for the way he considered it had treated him in his homeland. While nominal Catholics they did not attend church nor show any religious interest.
Mavis had attended a small Sunday School at Swan View. She didn't continue but always felt that was where the answers could be found. She had enjoyed it very much and according to Dinko "that was what encouraged me to go along with her when she was seeking as well. I'd spent about 30 years in the wilderness, then this remarkable change occurred. in our lives"
"We had been unable to have children at first and adopted two lovely girls. Then in 1968 we had a son. Our second son was born three months premature in late 1971. He only lived for three weeks. It was a real struggle, but it was during that time that we saw the love of the Lord through the Christian people around us. It was the people who did it. We had not had a great vision of God before that or of his quest for our lives, but it was the love of God's people coming alongside during that time.. .the personal sacrifices they made to help us.
"In a way it released us because we had another son, Michael, in 1975. It was the loss of our second son that made us really come to the Lord in a new way".
In the mid 1980s Dinko decided to go into business for himself. He was invited to a FGBMFI meeting in Perth by a friend to share his testimony. His friend encouraged him to join the Chapter and he has been a member ever since.
"Around about that time we were searching for something more in our Christian lives. We had served faithfully in the Baptist church, but hadn't got a complete release. Friends of ours had said that visiting evangelist, Reinhard Bonnke, was a great man of God and that we should hear him speak.
"He made an appeal for people to come forward to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We both rushed out and were virtually the first in line to be prayed for. It took awhile for this to have the full effect as we had been trying to achieve it in our own strength rather than simply releasing ourselves and letting God deliver us. We had felt incomplete and, while working for the Lord, felt that we lacked power in our lives. We certainly were born again but now we were brought into a new fulfilment".
For Dinko this meant taking on a leadership role both in the local Chapter of FGBMFI and, together with his wife, leading a home group. He began meeting once a week for prayer with other men.
"I guess I was pushed into a leadership role and helped establish the local Chapter (Stirling). This occurred by application and absorbing the word of God and receiving the gifts by faith...We originally thought that you could go somewhere and see somebody to give you these things. But we found that by going into God's word more and more, His word led us into a walk of faith."
"I had found when I was converted and came to know the Lord that we put a lot of things aside. We were able to walk away from a lot of things we were involved in. They were not major things like I hear sometimes, but they were enough to keep us out of God's kingdom... I guess we haven't got much to say that way except that I just praise God for what he has done in our lives..."
They now attend the Churchland Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Perth. Dinko's leadership gifts have led him to become a Regional Director of the FGBMFI and given them both the faith to step out and do things they previously would not have done.
Because of the way they conduct their business, God has blessed that too. As a consulting engineer for cranes and heavy lifting equipment, he is required to provide advice and second opinions on safety standards.
As Dinko says; "My business was established by God because of my desire to get away from a series of company takeovers. We had a little farm which we sold and were able to establish our own consulting practice from the proceeds. By word of mouth people came to us and that's the biggest miracle. God kept sending the right people through the door. He has built our business".
"One of the challenges is that we are sometimes pressured to give in on standards, but I always let people know where I am coming from.. .I won't operate that way. I know that some of our expert advice has saved lives. And I know that if I deal honestly with people, God will send others."
This even gets down to only charging for services actually rendered and pointing out to suppliers if they have missed billing us for items.
"I believe that if we honour Him in the small things, He will honour us in the big things. That's the way it has been in our business all the way along, just giving people the best advice and service, and they keep coming back. We scrapped advertising. It was a waste of money, and it got us all the wrong people. God only sends us the right people. He never opens the next door until we walk through the first one.. We have found that walking by faith is hard but God can be trusted."
Do You want to know God in your life?
"He has given us a beautiful family, four children, and me, a lovely wife, and we have three grandchildren. We have run a home group and ministered to people in a pastoral role which I would never have thought, in the natural, we could have done. It is clearly God's hand in our lives." - Dinko Miocevich
This testimony was published in the Australian Voice
magazine number 6
Copyright © FGBMFI
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