We’re in Osijek, Croatia. Team Kingdom
Unity and Petra’s job this month to pioneer Croatia, to find
ministries and churches and missions organizations that the World
Race can partner with here in the future. We were lucky enough to be
able to get in touch with a few ministries before we even arrived in
Osijek, including the Evangelical Seminary which is connected with
the Pentecostal-Evangelical church (NOTE: the word Pentecostal, or
the denomination, does mean the same thing in Croatia as what it does
in America) and a youth center called Zadarska 19 (so named because
it is actually the street address of the building).
Despite the fact that when we set foot
off the train we had no idea where we were sleeping that night,
Heather was able to get into contact with the American missionaries
who run Zadarska 19. Less than four hours later we were setting our
packs down at the youth center. Even better, the next day they asked
us if we’d be willing to have half of our group work with Zadarska 19
in Osijek and the other half at another church in a town about 100 km
away for at least a week. After talking about it with our squad
leaders, we decided it would be a great opportunity to build a
relationship with a church and ministry the World Race may be
partnering with in the future.
However, one goal our squad leader’s
had for October was to build squad unity by keeping our two teams,
Petra and Kingdom Unity, together. So what we decided was to split
the teams up. Kingdom Unity members Heather, Lauren and Matt would
go off with Tim, the team leader of Petra, to the other town. Petra
members Danielle Contarino, Martha Lemke, and Joel Williams would
stay with Tamica, Dez, Stacy and me in Osijek.
I am excited to work with them and
excited to be in Osijek. The town is charming, with large, stone
buildings well adorned in grand European style. The buildings have
bullet holes and chunks of plaster missing after the Croatian War of
Independence in 1991-95. There is an undercurrent of ethnic hatred
here. The huge and beautiful Catholic cathedral in the center of
town just next to Zadarska 19 illustrates the presence of religion,
but many of the Catholics in Osijek are nominal at best. There is
plenty of opportunity for the Kingdom to advance here.
Please pray that God would guide our
steps as we minister with the church and the youth center, and pray
that God would open doors to others the World Race can partner with
in the future.
