Year Two in Zagreb: Surviving & Thriving

​March was a wild ride, friends! Two major things happened in the past month; first, several of you already know and were praying for us as we all fought the flu. Thank you for praying! This was the first time we had all come down with a virus at the same time and worse yet, our first time taking one of our kids to the hospital. Jeremiah was home sick and caring for the girls while I fought through my own symptoms and took Silas for treatment. As we went from the pediatrician’s office to the hospital, I was flooded with fear and anxiety as I navigated a foreign medical system in a foreign language. It was the most helpless I’ve felt since arriving here in Croatia. The only thing I could do was cry out to the Lord and to reach out to His people to intercede for us.  I’m happy to say that Silas responded well to the treatment and we didn’t have to stay in the hospital overnight. Our church family and neighbors helped meet our needs with pharmacy runs and bringing us soup. Praise God for His provision! 

In the midst of our stent with the flu, our two year anniversary date came and went. When we felt well enough to celebrate, we went for lunch with our colleagues and enjoyed American cuisine. Nothing says “celebration” (or America)  like ribs and bacon cheese fries. As we reflected on the past year, it just occurred to us how much life has happened since we arrived in Croatia. We are now a family of five, we have a new nephew in America that we haven’t met yet, our girls are speaking a second language, and we have a whole new community of friends here. That being said, we realize that life has changed a lot for many of you as well. So thank you for remembering us, in general and in your prayers, and as always, thank you for all the ways many of you have given to support our ministry here. 

Although much of our time is spent on language learning, we have been able to serve in some exciting ways. At the moment, we are predominantly working alongside Croatian brothers and sisters to disciple and encourage them in their walk with Christ. This includes training them up for service in the church, but it’s also evangelistic. A really cool opportunity came knocking at our door last week.

A young man with no parents knocked at our door asking for money to help pay for his sister’s school expenses. As I fumbled through the conversation in my broken Croatian, my Croatian sister who came to spend the evening with us came to the door to help me better understand the young man’s request. She faithfully encouraged him with gospel truths and then suggested that we pray for him. He agreed that we could say a prayer for him, and I could sense that his understanding of prayer in this Catholic context was that we would just repeat an impersonal prayer that we’d memorized. As I attempted to explain in Croatian to him that we believe that God is like a father who cares for us and wants us to talk directly to Him, my dear friend stepped in. I proudly listened as she began explaining the grand narrative of the Bible to him and pointed him to specific scripture that would help him get to know Jesus. It was such a cool moment because she and I have prayed that she would have the courage to share her faith. 

There are also exciting things happening in our church! We attended our church’s first International Worship Night where brothers and sisters took turns leading worship in their native languages. As we sang in English, Croatian, Spanish, German, Hindi and Ukrainian, I was also able to share with a Greek tourist about the God who unites us all together. In my email update, I will include a link to a TV segment that our national news station did on this amazing community of Christians coming together from all over the world. We are excited about all that God is doing in and through our church. Up until now, we have asked that you pray for our church as they search for a new building as we have more than outgrown the current one. Last week, the church voted to pursue the purchase of a building! Please continue to pray for the church as they undergo this massive project and that God would be glorified through it. 

-Anna