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!