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.

This is across from the train station, about a 10 minute walk from my house.

San Antonio cafe and American Donut stand

This last Sunday I was asked to give the lesson at the church youth meeting.  This is a monthly gathering of youth from a few churches in Croatia that is held at a different church each month.  This time we were at Zaprešić.  I taught a lesson about how we are born into a grand story that God is telling and that we all have a role to play in that story.  I tied this in with how all the grand stories we love all share the same basic storyline:  Things were good, then evil enters the picture, a hero has to fight a battle and sometimes has to die, and then things are set right again.  What does this sound like?  It is simply a reflection of the grander, truer story (the Gospel) we are all a part of as God’s creation.  It is wired into who we are and so it can’t help coming out in the stories we love to tell.  I used scripture references together with several film clips from popular movies to illustrate the lesson.  Afterward, we all went bowling together at a local shopping mall.  It was a good day and it was great to get to know these teens better and pour into their lives.

Our Youth Meeting

My Bowling Group

Last Sunday I visited one of our Bible Institute students, Vanja Kleindienst, and her family in the small mountain village where they live in Razbor, Slovenia.  Vanja and her husband Sergej minister to a small church that meets in their house.  Their village recently lost their resident parish priest.  In his absence, Vanja and Sergej have become the de facto spiritual leaders in this small community.  We have a group of Americans coming from Round Rock, Texas to do a camp this summer in the nearby town of Sevnica.  Vanja and Sergej will be our hosts for this camp and then will conduct follow-up ministries with the children and their families after the team leaves.  It was a great day with Vanja and Sergej and I look forward to the time in the summer with them.

Vanja, Sergej, and their children

The only street in the village of Razbor

Vanja by one of her gardens