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