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!

General Update

2 ER visits, one case of pink eye, one car accident (neighbor hit our parked car), another neighbor freaking out and screaming for a while (told you guys about that one), and other crazy events all have happened in the past 2 weeks. Please pray for protection and health in our family. We are working to establish a Kingdom...the Kingdom of God...in this nation. Currently another kingdom rules here and it desires for us and others to be out of here. This is not a battle against flesh and blood, as Paul explained to us. We battle in the spiritual realm. It sounds like voo-doo, but it's not. It's the real deal. It's more real than we think. So, we humbly ask for your prayers.

Good news: church service on Sunday was excellent. It was a small group of us because many of our folks were out at retreats and conferences. We had 5 adults so we planned to just pray and worship and eat lunch together. Honestly, our expectations were low...which was wrong. Needless to say, we all came into the time of worship and prayer very tired and honestly not wanting to be there. Robi told me he just wanted to go home and sleep. That's always encouraging to hear when you're about to lead your church into a time of worship. :) Fact is, I wanted to do the same. Anyway, we just began to pray and sing...and the Holy Spirit came. I was playing guitar and singing standing up. I was just asking God to do something...anything. Everyone else was sitting down with fairly long faces. Then, on the 2nd song, we began to sing, "God is good. We sing to Him now. God is good. Now we worship Him", and I saw Robi (and his 7 foot self) stand up and begin to sing with all his might. Then his wife Anita really began to join in as well. We didn't stop for the next hour or more. We then ate together from 1pm till 4:30pm. The community was just too good to leave. God was so kind to us to come and minister His love to us.

May you be encouraged today because of Jesus. Blessings and love to all of you!
-J,L,L,B

Multiplication Party & Our Neighbors

Today (Sunday) we had a celebration party for the multiplication of our cell group. Starting this week we will begin to meet in two different cell groups. The top picture is of the "West Zagreb" cell group. The bottom picture is of the "East Zagreb" cell group. We celebrated by praying for one another to be the light of Jesus in our neighborhood and then we had a huge BBQ. Damir was the head chef grilling chicken and pork chops that were all finger-lickin' good. There was a real sense of joy and brotherly love there among us. We worshiped loudly and passionately led by Damir Mehanovic. Goran Medved spoke on remembering on where we came from and how far we've come...in Christ and as a church. In general, it was a happy, Jesus-honoring type of day. This is just another sign of life in this little church plant. We're so thankful to God and pray He gives both of these groups success.

On a completely different note, we have some pretty rude neighbors. I know that's not a real nice thing to say, but it's the truth. These are our neighbors who live directly across the hall from us. In fact, we share a hall together...and yet our lives rarely intersect. There is a mother and her 2 grown daughters. They basically ignore our existence. The daughters, though they're not far from our age, if they do speak to us, they speak to us in formal Croatian...thereby keeping us at a distance. The mother has never once said a word to us or even made eye contact. Not to be dramatic or something, but her eyes are icy cold. It's actually a pretty creepy.

Them not being polite is the least of their problems however. We often hear them in "knock-out, drag-out" fights complete with yelling, slamming doors, and even the occasional throwing of a pot or pan. Our hearts long for them to know the hope that is possible for them, but they won't let us in their lives to hear it. As far as we can see, they don't let many people in their lives.

Well tonight we heard more from their apartment. We started to hear screams coming from their place. It sounded like one woman (we think the mother) screaming violently about every 10-20 seconds. This went on for about 10 minutes. This was the type of scream that sends a chill all the way down your spine and back up again. It was awful! Laura and I (and the girls) went to knock on their door. We thought someone might be hurt or even found dead. We had no idea what was happening. When we knocked, the screaming stopped. Of course, no one answered. To make a long story short the screaming began to slow down and eventually stop. We called the police, but we don't believe they were successful in getting in to find out what in the world was happening.

That was a long story to explain to you another part of our lives here in Croatia. Our hearts long for them. As we heard the screams tonight our family prayed for their family...and that by some miracle, God's love would get into their apartment. It will have to be a miracle. It feels helpless sitting over here about 15 feet from someone who is in some kind of hell. I only know One who can rescue us from hell...both now and eternal...and it is to Him that we cry out for mercy for our neighbors. Their last name is Androlon (that's all we know since they've never allowed us to meet them). Please pray for them and for us to be the light of Jesus to them.