We made it

It wasn't all that fun, but we made it. And now that we're here, we're very glad. The 19 hour travels on Friday from Croatia to America were a bit rough on the girls, but there was also a surprising amount of peace on the girls. I give credit to Jesus for that. Thanks for your prayers. We are enjoying ourselves and the girls are loving being with their Mimi and Pa (Laura's parents). We'll have a chance to see my family as well later in July.

Just wanted you all to know that we arrived. Blessings!

Roof repair and new prayer room

Here's a couple pictures of the finished (ok...there's a few little details that still need to be done) prayer room at the Massey's house. Behind their house they have a little house that was unfinished when they moved in. Long story short, they felt like God had set this room aside as a prayer room. Temporarily this is where the church will meet too. We are desperate to get space in the city, but this will do for now. Anyway, we're very excited about our prayer room and can't wait to put into use!



The next few pictures below are of the elderly woman we helped through Love in Action, International...the humanitarian aid organization we work with part time. This woman's roof was still severely damaged from the war and because of her ethnicity Croatia was letting red tape stop her from receiving a new roof. (This is a common story for Serbians living in Croatia. We work with many of them in these villages where we distribute aid.) When it rained, water would leak into the one little room where she lives. We found a Christian contractor out near her village and hired him to do the work. He did an excellent job and we are very pleased that God let us help this woman out a little. Due to finances we were only able to repair her roof over the room where she lives, but this will suffice for now and stop the water from flowing in when it rains.

Below: This is the before picture.

Above: This is near the end of the project. Unfortunately I couldn't stay till the end to see the final product, but my co-workers will be going out next week to see how it looks. I'm sure I'll get pictures from them.

European Championship

It's soccer-mania around here lately. Croatian flags hanging from apartment windows, attached to cars, people wearing the typical Croatian red and white checkered soccer jerseys all around town...it's total mania around here! It's sort of a fun atmosphere. One Croatian explained it to me saying that in the 90's they had the war that gathered Croatians and made them root together as one nation...now they have soccer. Soccer is life around here. Everyone plays. Everyone watches. When Croatia scores a goal, firecrackers and gun shots are heard around the city...horns are honking, people are shouting. Someone also told me a pretty shocking statistic...they estimate that approximately 50% of Croatians during the European Championship this month have either taken sick leave from their jobs, taken their vacation time, or have quit their jobs. That's some soccer passion! (Direct that passion at Jesus, and you got yourself a pretty freakin' radical group of people!)

On Sunday Croatia won 1-0 verses Austria and tonight (Thursday) they'll play Germany. Go Croatia!

Who reads this?

This is not a needy question. I'm just curious if I've done a good job "advertising" that we have a blog and use it pretty regularly. I wanted to see if you who read this wouldn't mind shooting me an email and letting me know that you read it. (You could also throw in a comment about my amazing writing skills if you like.) :-) Just kidding.

Shoot me an email at james@albrightcrew.com or albrights@sharelifenow.net.

Thanks!

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.