Last week I was excited to have a visit from one of the elders (Keith) and the associate minister (David) of my sponsoring church, the Pond Springs Church in Austin, Texas. They spent a few days in Zagreb, along with Keith’s friend Chris. The four of us had a great time. The guys attended a Bible Institute staff meeting with me; toured the facilities of the Institute and downtown Zagreb; had coffee with the Croatian minister of our church and his wife; met co-workers of mine; had coffee with our church elders; saw my house building site; and shopped for building supplies (David plans to come help me later in the year with some finishing details inside the house). Then we all drove together from Zagreb to Arad, Romania, where we spent a long weekend visiting leaders of churches who are supported jointly by Legacy Church, where Chris works in Florida, and Pond Springs Church. While in Arad, we visited with church leaders; visited families from the churches; attended youth and children’s ministry events; visited the site where they have camp in the summer; and we preached three different times in different places on Sunday. I dropped off the guys at the Budapest airport very early this morning for their flight home, and then drove through the snow back to Zagreb. It was a packed week, but it was great to have them visit me here in Croatia, and also a blessing to meet the fantastic people in and around Arad and see what God is doing through them in this western corner of Romania.

Yesterday we had a children’s ministry event at our building. This is the beginning of a monthly follow-up with children who have been attending our Champs Camp in the summer. We have a new partner in these monthly events. The organization we are partnering with is called Društvo Prijatelja Biblije (Association of Friends of the Bible). We have worked with them before, and they have a program called Pokretni Camp (Camp on Wheels). With this program, they bring the team and the program to conduct a VBS-type event, and the participating church gets the children there and provides some volunteers. We are hoping this will be a fairly easy way to do these outreaches every month, and keep closer relationships with these children and their families throughout the year. It was a great beginning and we look forward to next month.

I started Christmas Day with a drive into neighboring Slovenia. I spent the day with friends, Vanja and Sergej Kleindienst. Vanja is a graduate of the Bible Institute in Zagreb. They live with their three children in Razbor, a fairytale kind of place. It is a village right on the top of a mountain. There is only one street in the village, right down the middle of the ridgetop, with all of the houses hugging the mountaintop, with fantastic 360 degree views all around. We spent the morning milking their goats, and with another round of cookie baking with their children. Then there was picking lettuce fresh from their winter garden for a great early afternoon Christmas Day lunch of salad, pork roast (from one of their pigs), potatoes, and carrots. I then headed back to Zagreb for the Christmas day fellowship at our church, where the tradition is to sing carols and light candles, while speaking of Jesus and telling of God’s blessings to us throughout the year. It was a bright and warm time together, and a great way to end a fine Christmas celebration.

Today started with worship at our church in Zagreb, with me preaching. I preached on, “Home for Christmas: Awaiting the Second Advent.” After church was Christmas Eve lunch with friends from church, who are also neighbors of mine, Boris and Ana Medved. Joining us for lunch were new friends visiting from Australia, Victor and Emma. Then this afternoon was the first round of Christmas cookie baking with the Karadža (friends from church and co-workers at the Bible Institute) family’s kids. When in the USA for Christmas, I usually bake cookies with my nieces and nephews, so the Karadža kids were good substitutes this year. We had a good time together.

I thought I would share a series of three posts about my Christmas in Croatia this year. Tonight it started with a Christmas concert at the Baptist Church on Radićeva street, in the historic center of downtown Zagreb. Then after the concert, a walk around the center, along with half of the country it seemed. It was a great beginning to a weekend of worship and celebration of Jesus.

Last Saturday we had a fun event at our church building. We invited families who have participated in Champs Camp to come for a “Family Christmas Club.” Several of us prepared some live music; our kids read the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke; and the families made decorations to take home. It was a fun afternoon, sharing about what this season means to us, because of Jesus. Pray that message sinks deep into these hearts. Enjoy a video from the event, Silent Night in Croatian.

After Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s GIVING TUESDAY!

How will you give today? Would you consider helping support my mission in Croatia? Or maybe you would like to help me complete my house construction fund. I am getting close to my goal. Only $6,000 left to raise. You can help put me over the top today.

You can give online here.

Or, send a physical check to my sponsoring church at:

Pond Springs Church
Steve Taliaferro Mission Fund
c/o Jan Swinney
621 S Baker Cr
Leander, TX 78641

Thank you!

The last few weeks have been quite busy among the evangelical community in Zagreb. There have been several events, in churches and in public forums, surrounding the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Europe. Everything culminated in an event that was held in the Croatian National Theater in October 31. All protestant churches were represented, including our congregation, and the Bible Institute. There was special music, and among the presentations were speeches by the president of the Croatian Protestant Evangelical Council, and the mayor of the city of Zagreb.

Welcome to my new ministry website! Setting up this site was my project this weekend. It was also a big learning experience for me. This website will take the place of my old Blogger blog, “Croatia Connection.” In fact, I have already re-directed the Blogger blog to this website. I have a little more work to do in cleaning up some of the archived blog posts from the old blog, but it is all transferred over to this new site and is all functional. This website is intended as a main means of communication with supporters of me and my work in Croatia, as well as other interested people. I hope you will enjoy coming back here often and reading about my life, and the work God is doing through me in Croatia.

As usual, this last summer was full of camps, with which I was involved; as leader, co-leader, and youth leader.

In June, we marked the seventh year of our Champs Camp, a day camp for elementary school aged children. This camp is held at both our church/institute building, and at the large park at Jarun Lake. This summer we served around 100 children and their families over two weeks of the camp. We also had a great group of volunteers from the Southside Church of Christ in Lexington, Kentucky. This ministry continues to bring us families who are interested in knowing more about Jesus. Pray for this ongoing outreach to our community.

In July, we marked the third year of the youth Bible camp that is annually organized by churches in Zagreb and Varaždin. I am thankful for my co-leader for this camp, Mateja Stolnik. Mateja works with the church in Varaždin and also just finished her education at the Bible Institute.

Then in August, was the annual family Bible camp, conducted on the island of Ugljan by Churches of Christ in Croatia. Jordan Hubbard, my friend, and pulpit minister for the Crestview Church of Christ, in Waco, Texas, was our guest speaker for the camp. Jordan also brought his daughter, Jenae, along on his trip. We again had families represented at the camp who have come to know us through participation in the other camps.