I have been connected with the Kušlanova Church of Christ in Zagreb for a long time. The church in which I grew up in Texas was involved in mission work connected with our congregation here in Zagreb for many years, and I began coming to visit and to help with camps back in 1996, before moving here in 2010. At the beginning of this year, our minister took a sabbatical for the first three months of the year. During that time, I filled in by coordinating worship services; doing most of the preaching; and meeting regularly with our elders, in addition to my work with our youth ministries with Nešto Više. Then upon returning from sabbatical, our minister announced his resignation, and that he was leaving the congregation. Needless to say, the last several months have been a time of challenge and transition for our church. After a period of prayer and discernment, I accepted a role as co-minister, along with Ivan Karadža. Ivan is handling church administration and coordinating our children’s Sunday School. I am coordinating Sunday worship services and the preaching calendar. We are both preaching (me above) and pastoring people. The two of us, along with our two elders, are now serving as the leadership core of the church. A very timely encouragement to us at the end of the summer was the return of Goran and Maja Medved’s family to our congregation (photo below), after being away from us for several years. Goran is a professor at the Zagreb Bible Institute, Bible translator, and also a good preacher. He is offering his talents to the church in this way as well. I am involved in discipling relationships with Goran and Maja’s sons, Adam and Noa, as well as the grandson of one of our elders.

I am currently involved in discipling three young men. We usually talk about life, and read a chapter of the Bible together, and discuss it. Two of the boys are shown in the photo at right below, reading their Bibles on their own this summer. Adam (14, in the photo with me at left below) and I finished the book of John this summer, and now we are working through the book of Acts. We continued our meetings through the summer, on Adam’s request and initiative. Adam was baptized a year and a half ago and is developing a deep love for Jesus and a desire to live his life for God. Adam’s family this fall returned to our church, after being away from us for several years. Adam’s parents told me that one of the reasons for this is that their boys have me as a teacher and they want them growing up in a church body where I am. Noa (12) is Adam’s brother. We are also reading through the book of John. Please pray that through our time together, he will experience Jesus and want to follow Him. Ivan (13), like Adam, is part of most everything we do in our youth ministries. I also work with Ivan in the same way as Adam and Noa. Please pray that Ivan will come to see the great love of God for him, and choose to follow Jesus with his life. I hope Marko (14) will also start meeting with me soon.
 

This fall we are having good size groups for our youth meetings, between 15-20 teens each time. More are coming regularly this school year than last year, and a few new ones as well, both Croatians and Ukrainians. As usual, we had Bible lessons and discussion groups, games, food, fellowship, and worship. At the end of the meetings this fall, Igor is talking with them about why worship is important (photo above). I am teaching below.

Since summer of 2023, Iva Matijević, a Croatian, has been working alongside us with the Ukrainians we are assisting here. Iva has been invaluable in this role, as she is fluent in Croatian, English, and Ukrainian.  As such, she has been able to help the Ukrainians in ways the rest of us could not. In the process, she has been a recipient herself of the teaching offered by our ministry, as well as of my preaching in the church. She has also been studying the Bible with my co-worker, Sandra Sibley. In Iva we see a tender and open heart to God, and a genuine desire to serve. She has studied with Sandra this year and she decided to be baptized this fall. I was privileged to assist her in taking this step. Please pray for Iva as she begins her walk with Jesus; as our faith community walks alongside her; and as she continues to seek out ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus to others.

School started again in Croatia on September 4. With the start of school also comes the start of our regular youth meetings for the school year, after the summer break when everyone flees to the coast. We kicked things off with a great gathering at my house the Saturday after school started. The photo above shows us praying over the 18 teens who came that evening. We are so excited that after summer activities and camps, we have more teens in these gatherings than ever. Last Friday evening we had close to 20 teens. Praise the Lord! We had a great lesson about how we know what love is (Jesus showed us this); how we know that somebody really loves us; and how others know we really love them. We had great discussion groups, worship together, food (of course), and in the end a time of fellowship. Pray for this group to be consistent in coming throughout the year, to bring their friends, and ultimately to be drawn to Jesus through these times together.

In the middle of July we came back from our youth camp. We are so grateful that this was one of the best youth camps we have done so far. Much thanks to the five adults and 19 teens from the Southside Church of Christ, in Lexington, Kentucky, who came to participate in the camp with us and our teens. We also had several Ukrainian teenagers with us. Our theme for this year was, Something More. Our focus was in the book of Ephesians, especially Ephesians 3, where we are told that our God can do more than we can ask or imagine. We were talking about how we should not settle for less, when God has more for us. Every night we had a different speaker. Steve, Jeremy, and Mateja in their lessons were focusing on different elements of our theme for the week: More with Jesus; More with Self; and More with Others. Each morning we had an experiential activity that tied in with that evening’s lesson. On the More with Others day, the morning experience was for each person to “color by numbers” once piece of a large puzzle. Then that evening the completed puzzle was revealed. All the teens were really impacted by this. Igor and a few of the teens had a nice band and they blessed us with worship music every morning and every evening. Our last day of camp we went to the island of Krk to spend a few hours on the beach together.

I am currently mentoring and discipling four young men. We meet regularly for discussion about life, and for Bible study. This is something amazing that God has been doing in a year when we have not been able to do many of our group ministry activities.

For the fifth year, we held our Youth Camp last week. It was four great days of learning about Jesus, playing together, enjoying fellowship, and worshiping together. We had 30 teenagers, our best attended Youth Camp so far. Seven great adult staff also helped make the camp happen. It was also a success in that the teens in general shared more in their discussion groups than ever before, on a deep spiritual level. They also really got engaged in our times of worship. We knew worship was connecting with them whenever we would hear them spontaneously singing the worship songs they were learning, and at times outside our regular worship times. Our theme for the camp was (thanks to our friends with Josiah Venture), “Lost and Found.” We look forward to many more such camps and activities, to help young people find their way to Jesus.

It was great to have my Aunt Ann and Uncle Joe in Croatia for a visit this month. They spent several days with me, meeting some of the people who are important to me here, and seeing a few of the sites. Joe even helped me burn brush on my property, in preparation for laying the foundation of my house next month.

Earlier this month was our 9th annual Champs Camp. Once again, over 100 neighborhood children in two areas of Zagreb enjoyed singing, Bible lessons, crafts, games, and lots of fun. Because of rainy weather, we used a large indoor/outdoor covered space that is part of a night club. I said that it may have been the first ever Christian day camp for children held in a bar. We also had special activities before and after camp with our Croatian and American teens all together. Much thanks to the participation of adults and teens from the Crestview Church of Christ, in Waco, Texas. We also had a reporter from the Christian Chronicle come to do a story about Champs Camp, and Kingdom work in Croatia. Read his article here.