Camp, getting ready, etc.

I haven't blogged in forever because it's been real busy. That's good in some ways, but we feel like we have to weed out some less important things in order to find the most important things. We're preparing right now to leave for America. We'll be there 3 months. This is a good thing for the church here...even though it can be overwhelming for them also. It's good for the church to see that they can function without us. Regardless, we are trying to prepare the necessary people to take over different aspects of our ministry here. This along with preparing ourselves, our home, making plans while in the States, etc. is taking up lots of our time.

We also had our camp last weekend up in the mountains of Croatia about an hour away. The majority of the church went and we had a speaker from Karlovac (nearby the camp) come. She and her husband are the leaders of the prayer movement here in Croatia...so we talked about prayer and worship. It was good retreat. I wouldn't call it our best, but it was needed and useful. We really believe it was exactly what God wanted to do with the time. Here's a couple of pics below with captions explaining what's happening.

This is the about half of my worship team. There's 2 key people missing...my other guitar player (Ivan) and one of my main singers (Maja). From left to right in the picture are: Nerka, Juliana, James, and Damir.

Group pic!

This is Helena with some of our kids. Helena goes to a local church in Zagreb. We hired her to come work with our preschool kids. The group of kids here are a mix of preschool and school aged. From left to right: Addie, Bekah (our little girl), Andrej, Mihaela, Cameron, Ivor, Ian, and Helena.

This is Maja (who is the regular babysitter for our kids) working with the school aged kids...and Lizzie. Lizzie just happened to pop in on that picture. Maja did great with the kids and the kids loved her as well.

Report from China

Below is a letter from our dear friend who is a Chinese student from Chengdu in Sichuan Province. I've left his name off for his protection, but many of you probably know who this is. Pray for lives to be saved in this country!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am a Chinese graduate student currently living in Chengdu (city), Sichuan (province), China. I have studied in an US college for about 5 years and became a Christian in my second year there. As you know, multiple cities in Sichuan and several other provinces suffered greatly after a devastating earthquake. Thousands have been killed; thousands are still buried under the ruins, their chance of survival dimming as each second passes; thousands are wounded and suffering great pain, many without medical treatment; thousands have lost homes and are living in tents on streets; thousands cannot be reached by rescuing workers due to sliding mountains, blocking rocks, broken bridges, rainy weather, etc.; thousands are living without water, food, and shelter; thousands... Words cannot describe what these precious souls are going through, and just seeing and hearing what's happening through the media makes a living person like me- deeply heartbroken. I have no way to get to the rescuing frontline where the disaster has occurred, but as a Christian I can ask my Lord who is over any disaster to save, heal, and restore. I believe that God hears my prayers, and even more so when thousands are gathered to pray in unity. There is power when believers come together and intercede for suffering souls because they are the very ones that our Lord loves and cares for. Time is urgent. One second lost may be the end of a beautiful life. Please, dear brothers and sisters, I plead for your fervent prayers. Pray that lives be saved, wounds be healed, and broken hearts be restored. Pray for the rescuing workers who are risking their lives to break through the ruins in search for survivors. Pray for the medical workers who are caring for the injured without rest. Pray for more hearts of love, of giving, and of sacrifice in China. Pray for the churches of China to stand out in love and unity, to be the salt and light in this tragedy, to walk in the Spirit, and to speak and act in the name of Jesus. Pray for this nation to be changed by the love of God. Particularly, please listen to and hear from our Lord as to what and how you can pray for the suffering Chinese people.

I am Chinese, and I love my people, but I know that Jesus loves them much more. Brothers and sisters, would you please ask Him how He would have you show His love to these lovely people?

Here's the latest death toll according to China's official news website: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90782/6409713.html. It should help you pray more specifically.

I thank the Lord for you all, and may He bless your lives abundantly! May His Kingdom come, and His will be done in China!

Your brother in Christ,

****

Anthony Skinner in Zagreb

Anthony Skinner came through town this last week! For those of you who are not familiar with him, he's a great worship leader/song writer. Check out his website at www.anthonyskinner.com.
They invited him in for a big youth conference called Srcokret which roughly translated means something like heart movement. This conference brought in 1000 youth from the former Yugoslavia and was really a success! Anyway, back to Anthony. Anthony and his band BROUGHT IT on Friday night at the concert! Not only were they musically great, the Lord also used them to transform the main square (the equivalent of Time Square in NYC) into a temple of worship. People were dancing, singing, praying, shouting...all forms of prayer and worship were being lifted up. It was spiritually significant for this country. Above are a few shots from the show. Hope you enjoy. Also, be sure to purchase some of Anthony's music on iTunes. He has some great current albums and new ones on their way as well.

I also had a chance to go pick up Anthony, his wife (Mary-Keith), and their drummer (who's also the drummer for Matt Redman) from Sibenik on the coast. This was a great chance for me to connect with them and to receive from them as a worship leader as well.

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!