What a great success Champs Camp was!  Thank you God for the favor you showed us in this event.  In the first part of July we had a large group from Round Rock, Texas come to share Champs Camp with the children of Croatia and Slovenia.  They do this camp each summer at their church in Texas.  After months of planning and a huge advertising effort (most of my work the last few months), we had 70 children for the camp in Zagreb!  We had said that we would consider it an overwhelming success if we had 50.  In Slovenia, we had 15 children.  This was also considered a success by the local believers, as this was done in a very small town of less than 10,000 people, with no protestant church of any kind in that town. For four days in each location the children had a great time learning about Jesus.  We have had nothing but glowing responses from parents so far, and many are asking about future similar events.  We are excited about the future possibilities with these new friends.  Enjoy some photos from camp:

 

 

 

 

 

Advertising for Champs Camp

 I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since I have posted something here.  It’s mainly due to preparations for Champs Camp, which have kind of taken over everything else with me right now.  Champs Camp will happen here in Zagreb on July 4-7 and in Sevnica, Slovenia on July 11-14.  A group of 19 people from Round Rock, Texas are coming here to share this day camp program with our children.  I am responsible for all of the logistics and coordination of the group and this effort.  We are now in the middle of a massive advertising campaign to get children from neighborhoods in the city to come to the camp.  The photo above is of some of us handing out brochures yesterday in one neighborhood.  Please pray with us that this effort plants seeds for future growth in the Kingdom here.

April 20-24 was our church’s 16th annual spiritual renewal retreat on the coast in Crikvenica, Croatia.  We spent four days hearing lessons on the cross and resurrection, in small group discussions, and generally enjoying fellowship with one another.  I led the teens each morning in their small group.  It was a great time with these fabulous young people and really strengthened my bond with them.  I am thankful to God for this and pray He uses this to enable me to better impact their lives for the Kingdom.  While at the retreat, we baptized one of our Bible Institute students.  We also had time for some of us to take a boat trip over to the nearby island of Krk.  In all, these four days were a beautiful time in more ways than one.

With the teens on the beach at Crikvenica

Leading our small group discussion

Baptism in the Adriatic Sea

On the boat to Krk, with Crikvenica in the background

Last weekend I went to Graz, Austria (about 2 hours drive from Zagreb) to work with one of our Institute board members, Thomas Lang, on our distance learning program.  Thomas was born and raised in Graz and he and his wife work with a church there.  He and I have been researching six different technologies/methods for delivering classes remotely, for possible implementation in the next school year.  While I was in Graz, we worked to complete our comparison chart of the six technologies to present to our director and the board at large.  We got some good work done, and also had time for Thomas to show me around old town Graz, which was just fabulous.  I stayed for the weekend in the apartment above the recording studio where the Croatian radio Bible messages were recorded during communist times in the old Yugoslavia.  I remember hearing for years growing up about the Christian radio programs being recorded in that closet of a studio in Austria and then being broadcast into communist Yugoslavia.  It was a bit of a surreal feeling actually being in that little room.

With the Graz Church of Christ

With Thomas in front of the church building

Being Jesus to one another

A couple of weeks ago we had a youth meeting in Jagnić Dol, just outside Zagreb, at the home of Tom and Sandra Sibley, our Bible Institute director and his wife.  Sandra and I cooked Mexican food for lunch.  We played some games and went through an exercise of speaking words of affirmation to each other.  I thought this important as people here can be quite critical and harsh with one another.  I told the students that we need to learn to speak words of life and encouragement to one another.  The world and the enemy of our souls give us enough of the opposite as it is.  We also spent some time talking about our children’s camp in July and our teens’ involvement in that.  It was a good day.

I realize I haven’t posted in a few weeks, so I’ve got to catch up a bit now.  I have been quite busy recently.  I am working with one of our board members on putting together a proposal for our Bible Institute director of the various technologies for distance learning that we might implement.  I have also been working on an external communications plan for the Institute.  This impacts on everything from recruiting to development.  My language class has been getting more difficult as well.  In addition, I am working on all the logistics for a group of 19 people coming from Texas to do children’s camps with us in July.  I typically leave the house at 8:00AM and get home just before 8:00PM.  Some evenings I work at home after that.  I am also working with our youth at church.

Just briefly, but I was on.  A news crew from Croatian Television came to the annual conference of the Council of the Churches of Christ in Croatia (about which I wrote earlier).  They filmed a session of the conference and interviewed several of the participants.  Besides me being a Croatian TV star for a few seconds, it was great exposure for our small band of churches here, where evangelical Christians make up less than .005 percent of the population.  Enjoy watching the video above (although in Croatian) which was on the news here.

Looking out at the Adriatic Sea from the yard of the Christian Life Center

Last weekend I attended the annual conference of the council of Churches of Christ in Croatia .  About twelve congregations were represented.  The conference was held in the town of Crikvenica, on the Adriatic Sea coast.  The facility we used is the Christian Life Center.  This is a hotel just across the street from the water that was bought and renovated several years ago by a group of German Christians and is now used by different groups for retreats and such.  Is is a nice facility in a beautiful setting.  I was the representative for the Zagreb Bible Institute at the conference.  We spent two great days full of sharing about the life and work of each congregation, as well as praying for each other.  Probably what I liked the most was the great fellowship around the tables at meal times, and getting to know people from the various churches.

Conference in session

Speaking about the Bible Institute

As part of the delegation from the Kušlanova Kristova Crkva

I read this last week and it really spoke to me.  I hope it does to you as well.

“We have to get rid of this notion – ‘Am I of any use?’ and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time.” – Oswald Chambers

I highly recommend Oswald Chambers’ daily devotional, “My Utmost for His Highest.”  It is amazing how many times the daily reading speaks to something I am going through personally at the time.

Blessings to you.