White Christmas

This is the front of our apartment building. Our entrance is the lower stairwell in the center of the picture.

We enjoyed a quiet, peaceful white Christmas this year. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well.

Church Christmas Party

This year we debated about where and how and when we ought to have a church Christmas party. We knew it would be a great opportunity to invite friends who normally wouldn't come to a "church event". Our issue was, if 20 adults plus kids all come and they all invite their friends, where are we gonna hold this 50 person party? The Masseys sacrificed their house as it was really the only option. We decided to have a big feast with a huge spread of Croatian Christmas dishes, then have some singing after which Goran would share a quick message, then we'd give gifts to the kids. My part in this was the singing, which was an interesting task. This was not an easy task as it meant learning Croatian Christmas songs...and I don't just mean "Jingle Bells" translated (although we did sing that). What ended up happening is Croatian Christmas tunes are all from the Catholic Church and there are only a few in our church that have a Catholic background. (Many of them grew up atheist or just not attending church, therefore they did not know the songs.) I ended up having one of our brothers help lead a few traditional Croatian Christmas carols which turned out to be a lot of fun. Anyway, the whole night was really great! We had a bunch of people there...I'd guess some where around 35 adults and 15-20 kids. It was crazy, but really successful. So, here's some pictures from the evening.

Above: The table of feasting. Pictured are (left to right) Jaksa (new church member), Damir (my worship partner), a guest (I didn't catch her name), Marica & Stef (the Masseys neighbors who sell them goat milk).

Above: More feasting. That's Roger Massey in the foreground on the left.

Above: Dalia (just got baptized last month) and Maja Mehanovic (Damir's wife)

Above: From left to right - a guest who came with Nerka (the girl in the middle), Nerka (new member of the church...engaged to Jaksa who was pictured above), Erin Massey (our teammate).

Above: Besim with our little girl, Bekah. Besim is a long time friend of ours who Laura knew even before we came to Croatia. He's a true friend and feels more like family than friend.

Above: The kids sit and listen to a beautiful Christmas story read by Dalia (pictured above) complete with slides on the TV.
Above: Who is that freaky looking Santa?!? That's right...it's Roger Massey (our teammate) handing out gifts to our little ones. The kids loved it!

Week of milestones

Well friends, this has truly been a week of milestones. First milestone is, today is Bekah's 1st birthday! That's the good news. The sad news is that Bekah has bronchitis for her birthday. :-( Bummer for all of us. (Sick babies are the worst!) Second milestone is that last week Bekah learned how to stand up. She's just starting that whole "cruising" thing they do. So, that's fun...and dangerous as we have hardwoods throughout the apartment. Third and final milestone is that Lizzie went pee-pee on the potty for the first time today. She's been telling us she wants to go to the potty all week, but she was bluffing. We kept at it though wanting to encourage her, and finally today I heard those beautiful little drops falling in the toilet. :-) Laura and I yelled with joy and then we rewarded her with gummy bears. (It's amazing what a kid will do for a gummy bear.) Next stop: poo-poo.

Just wanted to update you all. Have a good week!

1st Snow

This weekend we had our 1st snow here in Zagreb. It was a wet, sloppy snow...nonetheless a snow and very fun. I'm a huge fan of snow and love this aspect of living in Croatia. After church on Sunday the kids had a big snow ball fight. Of course this ended with multiple kids crying due to snow in the face. Oh well...they survived. Lizzie just laughed at all of it. Anyway, we had a great time this weekend! Enjoy the pics.

Travels with my parents

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated the blog. If we ever did have any faithful readers, I've probably lost them at this point. Please forgive me. I promise to do better. :)

Well, my parents just left a week ago or so after a month long visit to Europe. They spent the first 5 days here in Zagreb helping me watch the kids while Laura went on a trip to Rome with her mom (1st time without kids in 2 years). The next week, our family and my parents went on a road trip to Tuscany in northern Italy. It was a blast and I highly recommend it...even with little kids. It's full of little towns set on top of a hill and vineyards as far as the eye can see...then olive groves after that. It was very relaxing. Anyway, after our trip to Tuscany they came back and spent 5 days or so in Zagreb with us while we got back to work. Then they took a trip to beautiful Dubrovnik on the Croatian Adriatic coast. A few days later they returned for America. We got very used to them being around as did the kids.

For those of you who might one day consider or who have already gone to Tuscany, we stayed about 10km from San Gimignano...the town with all the cool medieval towers. We spent a lot of time there. We also went to Siena a few times which was beautiful. Other towns we visited were Florence (of course), Volterra, Pienza, and Montapulciano. It's so great because you can choose a couple of towns to visit one day and on the way you'll pass by a bunch of vineyards with wine tasting. You choose a vineyard to pop in on and enjoy some of the local wines. One of my favorites was "Rosso di Montalcino". I haven't found it for sale here yet, but maybe you can get it in your part of the world.

Anyway, it was a very enjoyable vacation. The location was great and the company was even better!

Flooded River

I've started a habit of going up to pray at a levy along the River Sava which winds through Zagreb. It's just behind the student dorms, about 5 minute bike ride from our apartment...it's a great location to pray for the city and for students specifically. As I've told you about in the past, there is a prayer movement which has started among us. Currently as a church we are praying more than 24 hours in a week for our city and nation. This number is only increasing. Along with this, I feel God stirring in me to round up intercessors in the city to pray more specifically for this younger generation of college students. You see, the spiritual atmosphere here in Zagreb is suffocating. People are not open to listen. Generally speaking, there is a lack of spiritual hunger...and if for some reason hunger does exist, this post-Christian culture turns to other answers. We're praying that they'll come back to reality...to the way we were meant to live...in intimate relationship with our Maker. This turning in people's hearts (in my own heart) is only a work of God and must come through prayer. So because of this, we need to pray for our city and change the spiritual atmosphere.

Back to where I started...I was up praying on the levy the other day which has now become my habit. Well, one night we had some strong storms come through our area. When I woke up that morning and went out the levy, the river was flooded over it's banks and into the flood plain. It had doubled it's size in a matter of hours and was now strong enough to uproot and carry entire trees and bails of hay. I saw all kinds of crazy things floating down the river! It struck me as a picture of what these prayers are like. The river is always there flowing through the city just as our prayers are. Then one day, due to a downpour of God's "rain"...His Spirit, the prayers increase to flood stage. This flood will totally change the face of the river bed. It will wash away all kinds of junk out of the city. It will be noticed by all who pass by...and people will watch in amazement at it's strength. This prayer movement is the same way. Only may it never die down! May it be passed on from person to person and from generation to generation.

We praise God for all the miracles He's performed since this movement began. In our newsletter (which I am currently writing) I'm giving more detail about all the Lord has done around us. If you are not receiving that newsletter and would like to, please send me an email at albrights@sharelifenow.net. We're encouraged. Please pray for steadfastness. -James

Lizzie Vocab

Well, our little (near) 2 year old has developed quite an interesting vocabulary and we thought you guys might laugh along with us at some of her words. If you're ever trying to communicate with Lizzie, here's a little dictionary you can use.

Dora (as in Dora the Explorer) = duda

Penguin = mingo

Triangle = gyno

Outside = side

Please = peas

Nana (her grandmother) = Ma

Barney (as in the dinosaur) = Marney

Pacifier = duda (Croatian word for pacifier)

Cookies = geeky

Banana = ba

Bekah = beda (she's getting better at pronouncing her name now)

More = mo

Water = wa-er

I love you = I yuv you

Elephant = e-fant

Chip = s#*t

Shake = s@*t

My wife is wanting me to make sure you all know that Lizzie says plenty of words correctly, has a great vocabulary, and to our knowledge does not have a speech impediment. :-) Hope you enjoyed our little 2 year old dictionary. - james

Late night thoughts

If you guys would like to read an amazing story, go to this blog below.

http://fromaxumtohere.blogspot.com

One of our friends has adopted a little 9 month old Ethiopian boy and just returned to the States with him yesterday. Go the this link above to see how precious this little boy is. In every picture you can see him beaming with excitement...his newly adopted parents have an equal sized smile on as well. :) It'll make you happy to read a couple of the entries they made while in Ethiopia.

Other than that, I have nothing important to say. It's August around here which means things have slowed down to a near halt. Everyone was gone today for our normal church gathering with the exception of one family. We ate together and just relaxed. It was enjoyable and beneficial. We normally to not get 1 on 1 time with this family. So we were happy to deepen our relationship with them.

Blessings, - james

Prayer Needs

Hey folks...please write these down to pray for. This is a prayer update that our teammate, Erin, has written out for all of our intercessors. We are in a special time of prayer right now. Erin explains more about it in her letter. Here it is:

Friends, Supporters, Intercessors, Watchman on the wall,

We thank God for you and value your support and prayers. We'd like to do a better job keeping you updated on what we see as our targets in prayer. As always, if the Holy Spirit leads you to pray in a different direction we say go for it, and we ask for your feedback if the Lord leads you to share with us.

Hebrews 6:12 "Do not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and patience.

Hosea 6:3 Let us press on to know the Lord! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of the dawn of the coming of rains in early spring.

Praying for by faith:

-- Meeting place: We have been prayer walking Horvacanska street (We, the Albrights, live right off of this street) this week and are praying for favor to meet in one of the community centers on this 3 mile stretch. We are drawn to the Knjezia center which is more central for all our members, very accessible via public transport, and across the street from the student housing. Pray that the center will be available for us to use on Sunday mornings. Goran will approach them next week. We are also considering a small office in this same area.

-- Disciples/Seekers: We are praying for divine appointments and kingdom friendships. Pray for these friends,coworkers and neighbors: Zlata, Goran, Tomislav, Ivan, Mirjana, Dubravka, Andrea, Marica, Stef, Maja, Jelena.

--Cell Groups: Continued Growth in vision, leadership, and Life.

--Personal Intimacy and Transformation: Pray that each of us will draw closer to the Lord, growing in faith, intimacy and hunger for him. Pray for our times with Him. Pray that we will be submitted to constant transformation into Christ's likeness.

--Prayer Movement: As a church, we would like to commit to 24 hours of intercession each week starting in September. We are also praying for greater unity in prayer with other croatian churches and would like to continue to host and expand monthly prayer meetings together. Pray for strategy and perseverance.

--Finances: Pray that the Lord would bless our church and our individual families with miracles, good stewardship, and total provision. Pray for increased faith and faithfulness in this area.


Ok...there you go. Please do pray with us. Whether you quickly go over them before work or spend hours praying for them it doesn't matter to us. We appreciate any and all prayers. We know it is the one key to this work in Croatia. Thank you!

James

Westminster Nappy

Just got back from visiting family in England as well as enjoying a couple of extra days for a quick vacation. We had a great time!

Here's one of the coolest places we've ever changed a "nappy"...Westminster Abbey.

Cute Girls, huh!

Check out this song

As a worship leader here, I'm very interested in encouraging Croatians to write their own worship music rather than just translating English songs. Many times the translations just turn out awkward and less powerful after the translation.

I say that all to say, there is a Croatian believer down in Split who has recently written a worship song which in our opinion, is extremely powerful and seems to really be for this season in Croatia. I wanted to just translate the song for you to encourage you to pray for Croatia. The more we pray, the closer we are to God's purpose being fulfilled in this nation.

Here's the song. It's called, "Your Kingdom":

God, your grace is greater than all sins
and we are forgiven
Let us be courageous
Because in the power of Your Spirit
Is our victory
Prepare a great harvest...
and Your word is the sickle
You are the Lord of the harvest
Hear our prayer!

For your Kingdom is soon coming
And now is the time of salvation
Now is the time for us (I love this line!!)
That we speak to all about your grace
By which you give life
From which comes salvation

Pretty great words, huh! It has a cool melody too. I'll try to catch some of it on video or audio file so you guys can hear it.

Blessings to you! - James

Pictures of the kids

Back by popular demand, pictures of our cute biscuits...Lizzie and Bekah!

Presidential Debates

Did anyone see the presidential debates last week? I've been trying to get some decent information about how the candidates looked and was curious if any of you saw them. Let me know. Thanks!
-James

Sorry it's been so long

There's been so much going on! I'm really sorry I've not been more faithful at updating this. I'm sure you've given up on me by now. I hope to be more consistent at updating you all via the blog. I'm also working on a newsletter which will give a more detailed look at what's been happening with us and the church plant over the past few months. For now, I'll give you some highlights.

• Conversational English with Students: Roger and I meet with 4 (and now there's 3...one got a job) girls who are college students at the University of Zagreb twice a week for conversational English class. We started with just some get to know you topics like "favorites", "family", "marriage", "future/career", etc. From the very first weeks, we hit it off and became friends. It was a real blessing. Later, Roger and I started working through "The Purpose Driven Life" with them hoping we could find out more of where they were spiritually. Boy...did we find out! They are all over the place. Some hate the church (meaning the Catholic Church in their minds. For most Croatians, that is there only concept of church). Others believe in a God of some kind but not a personal God. Others believe in a new-age form a God attainable through meditation of various kinds, etc. Since then, we've stopped working through "The Purpose Driven Life" and started discussing social issues. Anyway, through all of this, we have had many opportunities to share about who we are and why we love Jesus. Some of them are unaffected. Others have been very curious and always want to hear us say more. We'll continue these relationships more through the summer, but stop the formal class at the end of June.
  
• Prayer Movement: Man...there's a lot to this one so I'll expand on it more in our newsletter. Bottom line is, we've noticed a trend here in Croatia. For many years now the small struggling church has been faithful at witnessing on the streets, to their friends, etc. and little fruit has been produced. There has been a general realization among us and among many others in the country that we need to back up and start to pray more. We realized we were primarily throwing our seed on to rocky, awful soil. We need to start working the soil over with our prayers. We also work the soil over with our actions...we continue to witness to our friends, we do random acts of kindness, we give abundantly, etc. All these acts of the Kingdom sow into the soil, but we realized one of the main ways we needed to help get the soil ready was through prayer. So, we've started to pray...a lot...and it's been wonderful. There's much more to this, but I'll stop here for now.
  
• Our Girls: Lizzie and Bekah are growing so quickly. Lizzie looks like a little girl now and not a baby. Bekah is growing completely out of her newborn look and is (as we like to call her) a "chunky monkey". They keep us tired and laughing. We LOVE being parents and despite all the exhaustion, we wouldn't have it any other way.
  
• Visit from Laura's Mom and Aunt: Laura's mom (Rae) and aunt (Yvonne) came to see us in mid May. Their visit enabled me to attend Kenny Kon & Zeida Rojas' wedding in mid-May as well. When I returned from my quick visit to the States, we immediately headed north to Salzburg, Austria for 4 days. It was a really enjoyable vacation with family. Lizzie and Bekah loved the attention.
  
• Kenny and Zeida's Wedding: What a stinkin' blast that was! Tim and I went golfing. All the guys played paintball for the bachelor party. We had lots of time together just sittin' and enjoying. Most of all, we saw Kenny Kon, the eternal bachelor, finally tie the knot. What a blessing and it was truly a celebration! We all partied like it was 1999. :-)
  

I believe that hits all the major points over the last few months. Like I said, a newsletter will be coming out soon which will cover some of these events and more in more detail. Forgive the quickness of this entry. I just wanted to get back out here bloggin'. Much love to all of you from the Albright family!

Johnny Cash

Check out this link to www.youtube.com. This is a music video Johnny Cash made before he died. Although the video generally has a kind-of dark feel to it, it is very encouraging. Watch the video and realize this man had it all...fame, money, women, all that the world has to offer. And now, this video is his final response to the world. The quote that gets me every time and sends chills down my spine is in the chorus when he says, "You can have it all...my empire of dirt." Anyway, let this encourage you today to see the world and all it offers for what it really is...dirt. Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO9dbmJ_2zU

Don't let the dark feel of the video distract you from the message. Even David wrote lamenting Psalms. The rumor is that Johnny became a believer before he passed away.

Peace of Christ to you, friends!

Welcoming Jesus into Zagreb

Today was a big holiday for Croatians. (Most Croatians are Catholic by tradition...their ethnicity and "religion" go together. Unfortunately, it means nothing to many of their hearts). It was Palm Sunday. I love Palm Sunday generally because the citizens of Jerusalem gave Jesus the welcome and praise He deserves. It inspires me to grab my own "tree branch" and lay it down on the ground so that Jesus has a paved path into my heart and into my city. The Croatians have a beautiful way of celebrating this day. They sell at the markets olive tree branches for people to carry around on Palm Sunday. So, as Laura and I drove to church this morning we saw people walking around coming to and from church or the market holding their olive tree branch. It was as though the citizens of Zagreb were saying, "Welcome Jesus! Welcome to our city!" As we saw them, Laura and I began to intercede and pray telling Jesus He is welcome in this city. Unfortunately, this beautiful tradition is meaningless to many Croatians. For years, as long as they can remember many of them had olive branches on Palm Sunday. Why? Not real sure. That's just what we do. Laura and I instead see this as a bridge to the Gospel. It is a sign to us that eternity is in their hearts (see Don Richardson's books "Eternity in their Hearts" & "Peace Child").

I'm not exactly sure why I'm telling you all this except for the fact that this tradition is so beautiful and stirring to us. It stirs us to pray this week and we ask that you pray together with us...for this city, for this nation. God is doing something right now in this country. Churches are people planted. People are being stirred to pray. Workers are being raised up. Unfortunately, the ground is still so hard. The Gospel is being sown, but there is little harvest being reaped. So, we go back to first things...pray. We must pray with passion and the fire of the Holy Spirit. We must see the strategy of God in taking this nation. If we pray, He will prepare a great harvest. So, please pray with us. Pray Zagreb and Croatia will welcome their King!

General Update

2 ER visits, one case of pink eye, one car accident (neighbor hit our parked car), another neighbor freaking out and screaming for a while (told you guys about that one), and other crazy events all have happened in the past 2 weeks. Please pray for protection and health in our family. We are working to establish a Kingdom...the Kingdom of God...in this nation. Currently another kingdom rules here and it desires for us and others to be out of here. This is not a battle against flesh and blood, as Paul explained to us. We battle in the spiritual realm. It sounds like voo-doo, but it's not. It's the real deal. It's more real than we think. So, we humbly ask for your prayers.

Good news: church service on Sunday was excellent. It was a small group of us because many of our folks were out at retreats and conferences. We had 5 adults so we planned to just pray and worship and eat lunch together. Honestly, our expectations were low...which was wrong. Needless to say, we all came into the time of worship and prayer very tired and honestly not wanting to be there. Robi told me he just wanted to go home and sleep. That's always encouraging to hear when you're about to lead your church into a time of worship. :) Fact is, I wanted to do the same. Anyway, we just began to pray and sing...and the Holy Spirit came. I was playing guitar and singing standing up. I was just asking God to do something...anything. Everyone else was sitting down with fairly long faces. Then, on the 2nd song, we began to sing, "God is good. We sing to Him now. God is good. Now we worship Him", and I saw Robi (and his 7 foot self) stand up and begin to sing with all his might. Then his wife Anita really began to join in as well. We didn't stop for the next hour or more. We then ate together from 1pm till 4:30pm. The community was just too good to leave. God was so kind to us to come and minister His love to us.

May you be encouraged today because of Jesus. Blessings and love to all of you!
-J,L,L,B

Multiplication Party & Our Neighbors

Today (Sunday) we had a celebration party for the multiplication of our cell group. Starting this week we will begin to meet in two different cell groups. The top picture is of the "West Zagreb" cell group. The bottom picture is of the "East Zagreb" cell group. We celebrated by praying for one another to be the light of Jesus in our neighborhood and then we had a huge BBQ. Damir was the head chef grilling chicken and pork chops that were all finger-lickin' good. There was a real sense of joy and brotherly love there among us. We worshiped loudly and passionately led by Damir Mehanovic. Goran Medved spoke on remembering on where we came from and how far we've come...in Christ and as a church. In general, it was a happy, Jesus-honoring type of day. This is just another sign of life in this little church plant. We're so thankful to God and pray He gives both of these groups success.

On a completely different note, we have some pretty rude neighbors. I know that's not a real nice thing to say, but it's the truth. These are our neighbors who live directly across the hall from us. In fact, we share a hall together...and yet our lives rarely intersect. There is a mother and her 2 grown daughters. They basically ignore our existence. The daughters, though they're not far from our age, if they do speak to us, they speak to us in formal Croatian...thereby keeping us at a distance. The mother has never once said a word to us or even made eye contact. Not to be dramatic or something, but her eyes are icy cold. It's actually a pretty creepy.

Them not being polite is the least of their problems however. We often hear them in "knock-out, drag-out" fights complete with yelling, slamming doors, and even the occasional throwing of a pot or pan. Our hearts long for them to know the hope that is possible for them, but they won't let us in their lives to hear it. As far as we can see, they don't let many people in their lives.

Well tonight we heard more from their apartment. We started to hear screams coming from their place. It sounded like one woman (we think the mother) screaming violently about every 10-20 seconds. This went on for about 10 minutes. This was the type of scream that sends a chill all the way down your spine and back up again. It was awful! Laura and I (and the girls) went to knock on their door. We thought someone might be hurt or even found dead. We had no idea what was happening. When we knocked, the screaming stopped. Of course, no one answered. To make a long story short the screaming began to slow down and eventually stop. We called the police, but we don't believe they were successful in getting in to find out what in the world was happening.

That was a long story to explain to you another part of our lives here in Croatia. Our hearts long for them. As we heard the screams tonight our family prayed for their family...and that by some miracle, God's love would get into their apartment. It will have to be a miracle. It feels helpless sitting over here about 15 feet from someone who is in some kind of hell. I only know One who can rescue us from hell...both now and eternal...and it is to Him that we cry out for mercy for our neighbors. Their last name is Androlon (that's all we know since they've never allowed us to meet them). Please pray for them and for us to be the light of Jesus to them.

Values

Throughout the life of the church plant here in ZG we've had to make hard choices. Our values have dictated those choices. Some of those choices come with ease and make everyone happy. Others, unfortunately, do not. Nonetheless, in order to live our what we've found to be true, we make these choices...no matter the cost. (This, of course, is only true most of the time. Sometimes we wimp out. Just feeling the need to confess there.:) )

This little church plant of 12-15 people has been to together now for about a year and a half. It's as old as my daughter Lizzie almost exactly. As we grow, we have seen that it's time to multiply our small group as the walls of the Dakic's apartment (the folks at whose apt we meet) are busting out with children and adults alike. This group has become family. Our kids play together as though they were cousins...a bit of arguing, but a ton of loving. Some of our people...most of our people I should say...have never experience community like this before. Why? Because it's community induced by the Holy Spirit. It's been attained spiritually in prayer and by the Spirit of Christ who lives in us...not through hard work. (I'm not claiming it's all perfect by any means. Just FYI.) Now, we as leaders keep putting in front of our people the need to multiply this house church and make two. Everyone agrees, but hates it. It's one of those choices. It's one of those defining moments. Today Roger (our team leader) preached on these things. Many people expressed their concerns and suggested other options. Roger, however, stuck to his guns. These are defining moments in the life of the church.

I'm just inspired right now by these defining moments in our lives where we have the choice to live out of our values or not. Lately I feel like Father's been saying to me, "What would you do if you had no fear?" What would I do different? How would I daily act? This is a phenomenal question I want to daily ask myself. This is a question we as a church want to ask ourselves. We want to live out of what we believe...not out of fear...fear of others, fear of the unknown, fear of failure. God, help us. His perfect love has made this possible.

Entering the blogosphere

Well, Laura and I have decided to enter the world of "blogging". We hope it will just be another fun, current way to keep in contact with friends and family via the wonders of technology. I set this blog up under the name of Laura and myself...and I truly hope she adds to the blog. She has much better thoughts that I do...far more profound, pure, and thought-provoking. I, however, am more of the computer hound, so more than likely will be doing the majority of the writing. Sorry about that.

So, to all our dear friends and family...hello from the blogosphere! We hope you enjoy. We'll add more soon. Blessings! -James & Laura