I realized over the last weekend that I have not posted on here since October, after being in the USA with my family for three months at the end of 2013, around the time of my mother’s death. I guess I have been that distracted with the events of the last few months. I will admit that perhaps I have just also simply not felt like it. In addition to the hard events of the last part of 2013, it is also easy in the winter time here in Croatia to feel like I want to get into a kind of “hibernation mode.” It is a time of mostly gray skies and either rain or snow most of the time. This is what I arrived to when I came back at the end of December. Not that there was not work to do when I returned. I was actually thankful for the sudden busy-ness of preparing for our Jesus Conference that happened at the end of January (more about that in another post). It kind of kept me distracted from missing my mother, who passed away at the end of October. I would like to dedicate this year of work and service, to Jesus as usual to be sure, but also to my mother’s memory, legacy, and example of faith and service to me and many others. I love and miss you Mom and wait to see you again.

Kay Allen Taliaferro

Beautiful Logarska Dolina (Logar Valley)

On the way

I arrived back in Texas on Tuesday of this week. I have come to spend several weeks with my family during what is most likely the last few weeks or months of my mother’s life. It is both a sweet and sad time. I want to relate a story that happened to me a few weeks ago. A new Croatian friend, Zoran, took me on a hiking trip in the Kamnik Alps of Slovenia. I told him before we left that I love hiking but that I don’t like technical climbing. I don’t do well with both high and very open and exposed places. It freaks me out. He said everything would be fine. All started out well, but I knew I was in trouble when at one point he pulled out this helmet and told me to put it on. Suddenly the trail turned into about a 12-18 inch wide shelf on the side of a rock face, with several hundred feet straight down on the left side. There was a steel cable attached to the rock to hang onto. At some points it was scrambling straight forward up and over the rock, with steel spikes in the rock to both hold onto and put your feet on. Needless to say, I was quiet scared for this last 30-40 minutes of the hike. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done.

Our campsite, with the rock face we traversed on the left

We did make it to our campsite on the ridge top, and it was beautiful. As we made our camp for the night and had dinner, Zoran looked at the map and said that the easiest way back down was going to be the way we came up. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, having to back down, and therefore, having to look down. I prayed a good part of the night for God to help me and take away my fear. We awoke the next morning to rain. I was going to have to go back down that rock face, but now in the rain, and over slick rocks. But we started out…and it was actually easier! It was still not comfortable for me, but this time I did not feel the terrible fear I did going up. God answered my prayer in an amazing way. Through this experience I felt the Lord speaking to me, “See how I have been with you and have helped you through this hard experience? Likewise, I will be with you and your family and will help you through the coming hard times, having to let go of your mother.” It was truly a great gift to me.

Mladen and his wife Dragica

Another recent event that has contributed to my feeling of this being a very surreal time was the death of our friend and brother, Mladen Jovanović. Mladen passed away suddenly at his home on Friday evening, September 6. His funeral was on Wednesday, September 11. Really all of last week was spent on the funeral and the accompanying preparations, comforting and helping Mladen’s family in various ways, and helping to host various American guests who came for the funeral. Among many other roles, Mladen was the pulpit minister for our congregation here in Zagreb, a teacher at Biblijski institut, a founder and former head of the Council of Churches of Christ in Croatia, and a founder and general secretary of the Protestant Evangelical Council of Croatia. Mladen loved Jesus and was a true ambassador for the Kingdom of God; in Croatia, central Europe, and around the world. Many have described him as a spiritual statesman. We celebrate his homegoing, but his departure leaves empty places in both our congregation and the institute. Please be in prayer for his family and for us in his loss. May our work going forward be a continuation of his legacy for the Kingdom.

Links to some good articles about Mladen:

http://balkanvoices.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/in-remembrance-an-interview-with-mladen-jovanovic/

http://emilyhegi.tumblr.com/post/60550847152/the-new-man-remembering-mladen-jovanovic

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.