Bekah's learning to talk!

Bekah is starting to do that hilarious babbling that little ones do. She really seems to be saying something...sentences with punctuation, inflection, and an obvious period. We tried to catch some of it on video. Hope you all enjoy!

An article about Croatian economy

Hey guys,

Check out this article on a demonstration that happened here last weekend. I've probably barely mentioned this problem, but the cost of living in Croatia is high (generally it's a bit higher cost of living that in the States). This is contrary to the stereotype in our head that eastern Europe is cheap. Yes, it's slightly cheaper than western Europe, but most of you would consider it expensive to live here. The issue is, most people's salaries here are much less than the average American salary. A typical monthly salary is $1,000. This is for a good job. Many are paid much less than this. Obviously this creates a serious problem when the cost of living is so high and the salaries are so low. People are burying themselves in credit. So, anyway, read the article. It's short. I think you'll find it interesting. Have a good one!

http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/newsbriefs/2008/04/13/nb-07

Encouraging link

This is a link showing how the 24-7 group was reaching out to Ibiza, Spain. Ibiza is an island off the coast of Spain that is known especially among the British as a party island. During the summer, anything goes. It's a Vegas or New Orleans type atmosphere. This video shows how they're creatively bringing light into a very dark place. They have now established a prayer room there. Instead of expecting people to come into their church, they're taking church to the people. Good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5RWSWshmnI

Trip to England

Andrej and I returned late Monday night from our whirlwind trip to southern England. We were in Guildford, England visiting the 24-7 prayer guys. These are the guys who wrote, "Red Moon Rising" and "Punk Monk"...as well as others. (Visit www.24-7prayer.com for more info.) We got in contact with a couple who are moving to the Balkan Peninsula next year and we wanted to talk prayer, church-planting movement, and the Balkan together. I knew there was a lot for me to learn from them...and I hope I was able to pass on something useful about living here. Here's some pictures of our trip with an explanation under each picture.

Here's our host, Phil. He's a serious cook and this is him preparing our meal.

Here's Phil, myself, and Anna (his wife) during a walk through the English countryside. Just a side note...this weekend we experienced some truly English weather...rain, sunshine, hail, and snow. Craziness!

This walk lasted a few hours and we just shared our stories and talked about what God's doing in our lives. We also talked a bit about "footy" and horse racing as well. We're not that spiritual. :)

On Sunday they took us to Brighton on the southern coast of England. It snowed. Never been to the beach in the snow. Have you?

Between deeply spiritual talks, we threw some snowballs at seagulls and small children. :) Just kidding. Just throwing them into the water.

We came back after a day at the snowy beach for some time with some of the students in their "Transit" house. This program is a year long program that is something like YWAM's Discipleship Training School.

We played games for the most part as well as just chatted hearing each other's stories.

London baby!

Cool pic, huh! That's the "Tube" whizzing by.

I'll post some more later on this trip and about this group. We were really encouraged by our time together and look forward to more contact with them in the future. Thanks again to all who prayed for us!

A few pictures from the last few weeks

Above: Lizzie and Cameron pet the Massey's neighbor's new little baby goats. These neighbors, Stef and Marica, have come to our church service a few times.

Above: Bekah and Cameron with the little goat

Above: Lizzie and I looking at a seal at the Zagreb Zoo. We went there with Lizzie and Bekah's Mimi (Laura's mom)

Humanitarian Aid Work

We've mentioned before (in newsletters) that we've had the chance to help a number of households in the villages near Karlovac and in the villages outside of Samobor. We're so excited to be able to be a part of justice in distributing food and basic supplies to those who otherwise can not afford it. We believe this is God's heart and we believe because it is God's heart, it is an act of bringing His Kingdom on the earth. It's almost like an act of prayer asking God to distribute justice, kindness, and love in Croatia.

Below are some pictures of some of the people we've been able to help. We continue to help these people monthly.


Below: This woman is neighbors with her sister. They are Serbians from Belgrade and their children rarely if ever help them. This woman's roof is still in bad condition from what happened in the war in the early 90's. We hope to be able to take care of that.

Below: These 2 women are neighbors and are so sweet. The woman on the right is the spunkiest 76 year old you've ever met. The one on the right is primarily very sad because she can't see her daughter and grandchildren in Belgrade very often. Life is hard for these women.






I'm sorry I have run out of time to continue describing each picture in detail. I will in our newsletter at a later time. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of these beautiful people!

Once

Just watched a great movie last night with Laura. For music lovers, it's a must see. This is what gripped me in the movie. You might have heard of it. It's a little Irish film called "Once" that has become pretty popular. The soundtrack is outrageously good...the kind I can't stop listening to. The story line is slightly slow, yet also full of character. They say it was filmed in Dublin in 17 days. The credits at the end of the film lasted about 3 minutes as opposed to a normal 10-15 on a big budget movie. All that to say, despite it's small budget, it's full of life and worth a watch. Here's a link below to the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mIpwx5lA5I