Humanitarian Aid and Cell Group Breakthrough

I wanted to report about my day yesterday because it was pretty encouraging for us! We found ourselves in the middle of some answered prayers a number of times.

First, I went with my colleague to distribute humanitarian aid out in the villages near Karlovac. This is the area that we have 14 households we give to. We were encouraged again when a woman from down the street from one of our bakas (grandmas) saw our car and came to hunt us down. She said that her mom had recently broken her hips. She lives on 300 kuna a month (about $50). Her general health is in bad condition. Recently this daughter had to come back from Serbia to take care of her mom...and the daughter's situation is almost as bad (financially). Anyhow, this mom lives nearby so we went to visit her...and the situation was as bad as her daughter had explained it. We told her that when we came through next month we would for sure bring her a package of food.

On another note, we asked our people if this package of food got them through the entire month. They said with the exception of a few items, this package was getting them through the month! To give you an idea of how much these people need, we spent about 170 kuna per family (less than $30). They don't need much and are thankful, content people. We learn a lot of them.

Finally, while we were out there we were able to pray for multiple people. There's one lady in particular who lives with her son up on an isolated hill in one of the villages. To get to her house we have to park the car and walk 5 minutes up a rough road (passable only with a 4x4). She's mostly deaf and can barely see. She doesn't go outside because she can hardly move around. There is very much a sense of depression and sadness all around this home. When we ask her how she is she always says she's horrible. We tell her that God has not forgotten her and that He loves her...that's why we're here. She says she doubts that God remembers her. It's a heavy, sad place...but we just keep praying for her and telling her about who Jesus is. We feel privledged that in such a remote, isolated place we're able to get to her and bring the Kingdom of God that's in us into that home. What a great opportunity!

When I came home from distributing aid, we started to prepare for our cell group which was at our house that evening. We were not expecting a lot of people to come and honestly, it has been a bit discouraging lately. Some people that we had great expectations for had let us down, etc...so we were trying to move on from that. So, last night we weren't expecting too much, but God had different plans.

I'm not sure if any of you remember a guy I have asked you all to pray for before. I won't mention his name for his privacy...but he is the husband of a woman in our church. He is a believer, but for the majority of their marriage he has been deathly afraid of sickness. It's a long story of how this all happened, but the bottom line is he didn't leave his apartment for a few years. His mental illness was severe. But we prayed for him. We visited him often. We had prayer meetings and even cell meetings at their house so that he could be included. Bottom line is, we just kept praying for him. In recent months, he finally started to take little steps of going out....to get groceries, to pick up their son from daycare, etc. We were so encouraged by this and it only fueled our prayer...so we kept praying. Well, last night, for the first time in his life he came to a cell group at our apartment! We were SOOOOO encouraged! He participated well and experienced what I think was a life-giving time at the group. Praise God with us for this breakthrough. He's a deliverer even of the most difficult cases. Though there's more deliverance needed in this case, God is not done with him.

Ministry and Family Life Update

Just wanted to give a little update on both family and ministry life right now.

Ministry:

We have been a bit busier in recent weeks and have had to compensate some for that. Here are a few bullet points of what's happening and what's ahead.

• Our Slovenian friends who have asked us to help them prepare for church planting in their home town of Maribor, Slovenia have recently moved to Maribor. Not only have I travelled there a couple of times, but there has also been more Skype calls and chats as well as emails due to all the decisions their having to make right now. This is fun for us for a couple of reasons. One, because they're our dear friends and we love being around them. Two, because I sense the joy of the Lord as I work with them and help them prepare and strategize for the long road ahead of them. I feel like this aspect of ministry could be something I do more of in the future.
  
• We are preparing for our spring camp as a church. Our camp will happen in mid-April after Easter. We plan to go to the mountains about 1 hour from Zagreb. Our theme this year is "Freedom in Christ". We hope to prepare our church to take the next step in their personal lives towards more freedom in Christ. For some this will mean going through deliverance ministry for the first time in their lives. For others, it means just continuing to ask the Holy Spirit how to live their lives in more freedom. Our own dynamic threesome of Roger, Goran, and Damir will preach the sessions this year and I will be leading worship.
  
• Along those lines, we added Damir and Maja Mehanovic to our leadership team on a part time basis. They are vocation (not full-time ministers) therefore can not make it to every meeting. We are however thrilled to see them step up into a role of leadership they deserve as they have shown much faithfulness.
• Worship team: This is going great and I'm personally really enjoying this aspect of ministry. We have recently switched Ivan from guitar to violin and it's awesome! He's a talented musician who has a real sense of timing and atmosphere in a song. Damir is co-leading with me and does a great job of following when it's time to follow me, and leading when it's time to lead. I'm getting so much joy out of working with him lately.
  

From left to right: James, Nerka, Maja, Damir, and Ivan. There are 2-3 others who participate on a regular basis as well. God has continued to give us new songs and we're really feeling the flow.

Family Life

• Mimi (Laura's mom) and Aunt Yvonne (Laura's mom's sister) are planning a visit at the end of April. Our plan is to take some vacation time and travel with them to Prague and Krakow, Poland. We're looking forward to this adventure with them and the kids can hardly wait!
  
• The girls are so stinkin' cute these days! Lizzie is doing great with her potty training. She's having a hard time going #2, but we're not concerned. Apparently this is a very normal thing. Bekah is talking away in a language we can not understand...and it's hilarious. We are starting to be able to recognize some words though. Among the top phrases are, "I don't know", and "Help me".
  
• Lizzie has figured out that 2 languages exist. Before she just thought that it was one big language (Cro-english) but now she has realized that this other language called Croatian exists. The other day a friend of ours was over and she was talking to Lizzie in Croatian. Lizzie turned around to me and asked with a confused face, "Daddy, is that Croatian?" Made me laugh...as I realized she just figured out there was another language. She's learning Croatian just fine though. Just like other 3 years old her age, she shouted out to me the other day, "Neću!" which means, "No, I won't!" This was shortly followed by discipline. :-)
  
• There's no snow on the ground right now, but it's cold. Lizzie's constantly complaining of it being too cold though. It's like the Texas slipped in her blood without her ever having lived there! She also loves snow though and talks about it all the time if it's on the ground. She's like her daddy in that way. I've attached some other photos of them enjoying the various winter weather we've had lately.

Above & Below: Lizzie and Bekah playing in the rain sporting their rain jackets and rain boots. They've been waiting for an opportunity to use them.

Above & Below: One Saturday it was pretty warm for a February day in Zagreb (near 50 degrees) so we decided to go down to the lake near our apartment to get ice cream, throw rocks, look at birds, etc. We had a blast!