Local churches South-west region

E.C. Bair

Bitola

Services

Worship
Sunday at 10:00 a.m.
Children's corner
Sunday 10:30 am

Address

Dimitar Mite Bogoevski No. 2
Bitola
A family from the E.C. Bair congregation

About this church

The Evangelical Church "Bair" - Bitola is a Christian community that began in the late 90s with the preaching of the gospel in the Roma settlement of Bair. Today, the church is a home for believers who actively gather for worship, Bible study and other activities. The founder of the church is Pastor Tefik Musoski, but in June 2025, due to the departure of Tefik and his family, the responsibility for the church was taken over by Ayhan Arslanovski, who is the current elder in it. Worship services and all other church activities are held in a self-built facility, which is a blessing from the partner churches.

About the pastor

Ayhan Arslanovski was born on May 1, 1983 in Bitola. He grew up in a family with a Muslim background, with a father, mother and one brother. Married to Kibarija Arslanovska, in 2007. with whom God gave them two sons and one daughter: Arhan, David and Aseneta. As for faith in Christ, his wife first believed, and after some time Ayhan also believed. Immediately afterwards, both of them were baptized and decided to regularly attend services in the Evangelical Church. As a believer, he often accompanied Tefik Musoski (the previous pastor of the church in Bair, Bitola), in evangelistic events and the spread of the gospel and thus became one of the pillars of this local church. At that time, Ayhan had only completed secondary, secular education, as a car mechanic. Later, Ayhan, together with his wife, went to the Christian school "HUB-Belgrade", where they completed one semester. In the meantime, in the former Yugoslavia, the Roma Bible School, which has a mobile character, began to operate and Ayhan enrolled in it, where he completed 18 months, theory and practice.

Due to his active involvement in the life of the church, through practical service, preaching, evangelism, and more, on April 7, 2024, Ayhan was ordained as an elder in EC Bair-Bitola, and on June 22, 25, with the retirement of Pastor Tefik from the position of pastor, Ayhan was handed over the pastoral care of this local church.

Our history

The gospel was first preached here in the late 1990s, when the evangelical church from Prilep, led by its pastor at the time together with the young people — among them Tefik Musoski — began the work. It was done mostly through preaching on radio programmes, but also through visits to the Roma neighbourhood of Bair, largely Muslim in religious background, where the gospel was preached. It bore fruit, and later a small group formed of people interested in studying the Bible. The joint Bible-study gatherings were held in various homes. Later, at the request of the believers who by then had come to faith and been baptised, premises were rented where all the church activities took place. The location had to be changed several times, until partners from the Swedish church and other partner churches abroad offered to help with buying land and building the church premises we now use for all our activities.