Yesterday another one of the teens was baptized with whom I have worked over the last few years. I cannot take credit for this, as she was raised in a Christian home and in the church for most of her life. However, I would like to think that I have had some spiritual input into her life. Several of the other teens with whom I have worked in recent years are also currently contemplating this step in their lives and their walks with Jesus. This, together with the two who decided to follow Jesus and were baptized at camp last month, makes this an exciting and wonderful time. Please join me in praying for these young hearts and souls.

August 8-15 saw us on the island of Ugljan, for camp at Činta. This marked the 45th consecutive summer the Churches of Christ in Croatia have gathered on the coast together for Bible camp. We also had several visitors from other churches in Zagreb, and from Slovenia. I led the teen discussion group, along with Trevor and Kayla Keele, an American couple serving for two years with the church in Varaždin. A definite highlight is that four of our teens expressed a desire to commit their lives to Jesus, two of them being baptized in the Adriatic Sea at the campsite. Praise God with us for these young souls, and for their protection from the evil one and their growth in faith.

 On June 16-19, for the fourth year in a row, we hosted Champs Camp at Lake Jarun in Zagreb. This was our biggest camp ever, with 93 children attending. We also had our largest group of Croatian teen helpers, many of whom were campers in previous years and who are now helping us put on the camp. In addition, we had a group of American volunteers working with us from Calvary Commission in Lindale, Texas. For four days the children enjoyed Bible lessons, games, skits, snacks, crafts, and lots of fun. Like last year, we also had three days of activities after camp to pour something extra into the lives of our teen helpers. We are encouraged by how many of the kids faces, names, and parents we now know, because they have attended each year. We also had probably our largest group of parents who came to the camp closing. Then they wanted to stay around for a good bit of time afterwards, visiting with us and each other. God even blessed us with a window in some recently quite stormy weather in Zagreb. Please pray for this continuing outreach to our community.

I finally started the process yesterday to purchase land in Croatia. I signed the preliminary contracts and made the down payment. Now I must wait 2-3 months while my application to the government for permission to buy land as a foreigner goes through. Please pray with me that all of this goes through smoothly, with no problems with the government or the contracts. This business also comes at probably my busiest time of year in my work. Pray for the grace and mercy to accomplish everything before me right now. Pray also that the future home on this site will be a place where people are drawn to Jesus. Here’s the property in the photos below. The actual lot is directly in front of me in the first photo, and under the sunbeams in the second photo. I am thankful to God for this opportunity. Much thanks also to everyone who helped make this possible.

 

 

Sometimes my work is not so externally visible. I do a lot of “behind the scenes” organizing and planning, and then execution of different projects. Because of this I think sometimes my posts on this blog may not reflect a lot of “work” that is being done by me day to day. Just so there is no mistake, I thought I would give you a glimpse of some of the projects that are currently on my desktop (literally, digitally, or figuratively), and that are all part of my current work and life here in Croatia:

• Preparations for Champs Camp in June.
• Advance planning for the next Jesus Conference in March 2015.
• Writing the next newsletter issue for Biblijski institut.
• Participating in evaluating and visioning with our church.
• Updating this blog.
• Coordinating our extension course program in Split.
• Working with the institute faculty in setting vision and goals for the next several years.
• Planning English language workshops at the children’s home.
• Working on starting the purchase process for my land.
• Researching Croatian health insurance options.

I am sure there is something I am leaving out but, well, you get the idea.

Last Saturday our church leadership team, of which I am a part, along with our elders, started on a process of evaluating where we are as a congregation; as well as discerning our purpose, vision, and mission for the future. We expect this process to  play out over the next several weeks. We felt this an important time in the life of our congregation to go through such an exercise, in the aftermath of the death last fall of our long-time minister and brother, Mladen Jovanović. Pray along with us that we will catch God’s vision for us as a church. There are exciting days ahead for our congregation and for the Kingdom in Croatia!

The week before last found us on the coast, in Crikvenica, for the annual spring retreat of the Churches of Christ in Croatia. We had churches from all over the country represented, as well as guests from Slovenia and Austria. We also had a contingent from a Church of God congregation in eastern Croatia. Our guest speaker was Bill Wilson, who served for many years as a minister for a church in Cologne, Germany. I led the teenage discussion group. It was nice to be out of the city, have some rest, hear some teaching in English, and enjoy some great fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ.

Last Monday Mislav and I from Zagreb drove to Zlatoličje, Slovenia, where we met co-workers from a sister church in Varaždin, Croatia. We were all guests there for lunch in the home of Andrej and Nina Lovše. Andrej and Nina are graduates of Biblijski institut and are seeing success in their church plant that is made up entirely of contacts from their ministry with youth in Slovenia. We had a great lunch and fellowship together and spent the afternoon talking about youth ministry realities in central Europe, and learning from their success. May God help us replicate that success in Croatia!