My sweet mother, with my sister Karen

Well, I haven’t posted on here in a while and I figured it was probably time to explain partly why, by giving an update on my family. So much of my time and emotional energy recently has been spent helping and serving them. I spent an entire month in the later part of the summer with my family in Texas. I had planned to stay just three weeks, but things changed rapidly after I arrived. My mother has been fighting cancer for seven years and has started a downhill slide over the last few months. Her situation has been changing weekly. I cannot accurately describe the difference I saw in her this summer from just six months ago when I was there at Christmas. She was much smaller and weaker. While I was there this summer, we had to go to the ER with her with severe pain in her left arm. They found a new tumor there. She has had several new tumors popping up recently, almost all in bones. On her latest visit to her oncologist, he said that the latest round of treatment is not working and recommended stopping all treatment. That decision was made and now we are doing what is necessary for hospice to come in and make her as comfortable as possible from here on out. The doctor says that she most likely has a few months left. I am now back in Croatia to renew my residence permit. After that is accomplished, I plan to return to Texas to spend an extended time with my family this fall. Both Mom and Dad need a significant amount of help around the house now, and I want to be able to serve them in that way. I will most likely spend about three months there with them. I am not intending to leave Croatia for good. In fact, I am moving ahead with plans to purchase land, build a house, and make my home here. I just feel that I need to spend the next few months with my family. The best word I have been coming up with to describe how I feel through this time is…surreal. I admit that I also feel just a little bit lost. Please pray for our family during this time. We know God, by His Spirit, is seeing us through.

 

Held June 17-20, Champs Camp was a great success again this summer, thanks to all the children who participated, their parents, and our wonderful volunteers. We thank God also for His blessings in this event. This was the third annual Champs Camp in Zagreb. We had several Americans who came to lend their talents, as well as their native English. We also had many Croatian volunteers from several different churches, without whom this program would be impossible. The program was again sponsored by Biblijski institut, as a service to our community.

 

 

I often “moonlight” with a second Croatian church by attending their Friday evening worship/Bible study time. I am developing some friends there and it is a good source of fellowship for me personally. I have also found some additional opportunities for ministry with them. During this school year, I have been going with some of their members each Wednesday evening for an English workshop they conduct at a children’s home here in Zagreb. It gives the children an opportunity to practice their English with a native speaker, and it gives us an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus to them in a practical way.

It occurred to me this week that I haven’t posted here in quite a while. Ironically, you can chalk that fact up to having too much going on and not enough time to devote to writing here, rather than not having enough news to report. It’s actually been a rather busy season this spring. We are thick into planning our third annual Champs Camp in June, we sponsored and conducted two major public symposiums in April and May, and I have embarked on overseeing edits, updates, and the beginnings of a major overhaul and redesign of the Biblijski institut website. I will attempt to catch up on writing about all the happenings over the next few days.

I have recently had several opportunities to work with our teens. One Saturday in March I was invited by the church in Varaždin (about an hour’s drive north of Zagreb) to go teach a class for teens. Last week I led the teen discussion group at our annual spiritual renewal retreat on the coast. Last month we also celebrated Melkior’s birthday. Melkior is the 14 year old whom I am mentoring in our church in Zagreb. Pray for these teens, that they will come to know and desire Life in Jesus!

With Teens in Varaždin

Spring Retreat

Melkior’s Birthday

 

Several of our students (and two faculty members) this winter formed a “Futsal” team, representing Biblijski institut. Futsal is indoor soccer, played in a gymnasium. The team is led by student Filip Grujić and sponsored by staff and faculty member Ivan Karadža. They have been competing in a Zagreb inter-university league. Most of the other teams in the league represent much larger schools and have been playing together as teams much longer than our students. As a result, our team has experienced more losses than victories. However, through it all, they have displayed great sportsmanship, and have been a witness for Christ in the way they play together, support each other, and pray together before games. This has also been a great boost for the spirit of unity and fellowship among our students, faculty, and staff. To celebrate the end of the season, a match was organized between the student Futsal team and faculty (photo below). Yes, I even played! Afterwards everyone went out for pizza together. As we were sitting around the table I was thinking that we had together there a good portion of both the present and future leadership of the church in Zagreb, enjoying great fellowship and the unity of the Spirit. That gave me great joy and hope for the future of the Kingdom here. It also reinforced for me the importance of what we are doing here. We are all proud of these men for wanting to do something like this together, as well as for representing us and Christ’s kingdom well. Way to go guys!

Well, it seems I haven’t posted on here in a while. I spent three weeks in December in Texas. While it was great to be with my family for some time around Christmas, it was also a time full of visiting with supporters, mailing ministry reports, and so on. I arrived back in Zagreb on January 1, 2013, after spending new year’s eve somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. Then last week we had a record snowfall in Zagreb. We had about 2 1/2 feet of snow last Monday, and then more kept coming throughout the week. They said this was the most snowfall in one day in Zagreb since 1920. Needless to say, things were rather slow last week. We even cancelled some classes at the institute. It was more a week of trying to keep the snow at bay with shovels, staying warm and fed, and staying safe in transit when we did have to leave the house. Thankfully this week it is warming up and things are getting a bit more back to normal. Now it’s back to finishing up the semester. I will wrap up my teaching duties for this academic year next week. Then I have several projects for the institute and the church that I will either start or continue, one of them being starting the administrative preparations for our Champs Camp, which will again be held in June. But we are supposed to have a bit more snow again later this week. Below are photos from around my apartment last week:

Last Thursday evening I went to Varaždin, a small city in the northern part of Croatia. I was invited by a church there to come to their Thanksgiving celebration. They used this as an evangelistic event and they invited several people with whom they have been studying the Bible. I was one of two Americans they invited to share about the history and meaning of Thanksgiving. Then on Saturday, we had our Thanksgiving gathering of American expats at the home of Tom and Sandra Sibley, just outside Zagreb. There were about 30 or more of us there. Since Thanksgiving Thursday is just another regular working day in Croatia, we do this on Saturday. This gathering has been a tradition for the last few years and this year was very special. We had a great lunch all together, our teens led us in (English!) worship, and we sat around sharing with each other and encouraging one another.