Kidz Klub continues to go well. We held the first one of 2012 last weekend. In spite of some difficulty with our advertising this time, we still had a fairly decent turnout. We are averaging about 40 kids in attendance each month. This one actually turned out to be one of our best. In addition to all the fun, games, and songs, we had a lesson about how God values us. Some of the parents who were there even applauded at one point. We are planning three more Kidz Klubs this school year, one each month through May, leading up to our Champs Camp again in June. Pray along with us for the continuing development of this ministry, and that fruit for the kingdom will one day be harvested. Sometimes I get impatient with my work, but then I remember that we are planting seeds and building relationships that will eventually bear fruit if we are faithful and consistent. I also know that this kind of work is more like a marathon than a sprint. Many thanks to Heritage Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas, who provided funding from their Harvest Sunday last fall, which we used to have Kidz Klub t-shirts printed, and to purchase a portable sound system.

 

 

A few weeks ago the Croatian Religious Liberty Association held its “Religious Freedom Day 2012.” Ivan and I from Biblijski institut represented the institute with a display at this event. We also gave away copies of our theological journal, Kairos. In attendance were representatives from the office of the President of Croatia, as well as from the office of the mayor of Zagreb. At this event, several church and political leaders were honored with awards for promoting religious freedom in Croatia.

Me, Mislav, and Ivan (a.k.a. the church/institute three musketeers) on Monday in front of the church/institute building here in Zagreb, after digging the building out from so much snow last weekend.

I arrived back in Zagreb three weeks ago today, after a great time with my family over Christmas and New Year’s. It was also good to be with my Croatian co-workers, Mislav Ilić and Mladen and Dragica Jovanović, as we jointly visited and spoke with some supporters and churches in Texas. I had one of the worst cases of jet lag ever after arriving back in Zagreb. My body wanted to sleep from 5AM to Noon for about a week after getting back. It really took me about two weeks to feel completely back to normal. I am alright now. February at Biblijski institut is the month of exams after the fall semester, and a break from classes before the spring semester, so things are fairly slow with work for the institute right now. Although, I am in the planning phases for a few student recruiting trips around the region that will happen this spring. I am also doing the preliminary organizational work for our children and youth camps this summer. We are also planning our next Kidz Klub for later in February. This winter in Zagreb, until now, has been fairly mild, but it arrived with a vengeance late last week. In fact, most of Europe has been experiencing a very strong cold snap over the last two weeks. Sarajevo, in Bosnia, about a 5-6 hour drive to the south of us, had over a meter of snow over last weekend! Enjoy some photos I took on the way in to the office this morning:

Looking out my front door

Looking down on my terrace and yard

In front of the institute/church building

Institute/church building courtyard

Here’s the television news article about our open house. It’s all in Croatian, but you will get a good view of our library here.

“We wish to popularize reading of the Bible.”

Last Friday we hosted an open house for our library at Biblijski institut. The purpose of the day was to raise awareness in the city about our library and its resources.  The day started with official presentations at our reading room on Gajeva street. The group then moved to the facility on Amruševa street, where the bulk of the library’s collection is located. A few government officials and librarians from other university libraries in Zagreb were present for this event. In the afternoon we hosted round table discussions on various Bible and biblical literature topics. The day was covered well by the media in Zagreb. We had an interview by a television crew from Croatian National Television, and there was also a feature article in one of Zagreb’s newspapers, “Vjesnik.” The image above is a scan of this article. The woman in the photo is our librarian, Matina Ćaran, inside the main library location. The headline reads, “We wish to popularize reading of the Bible.”

Reading room ready for open house.

Notice yours truly at the far right.

Biblijski institut director, Tom Sibley, addressing the group

Our librarian, Matina Ćaran, speaking.

Visitors looking at one of the Bible displays.

  Today we had our second Kidz Klub of the school year. Kidz Klub is a monthly outreach we do with neighborhood children. This is done both as a follow-up to our Champs Camp for kids last summer, and as a prelude to Champs Camp next summer. This way we have an on-going children’s ministry happening all year long. Today, in addition to games and a “praise party,” we talked about not grumbling and complaining, and how Jesus gives us joy and peace and wants us to be joyful and grateful people. We had a good crowd of kids and parents and I think everyone enjoyed it.