Blessing for Croatia :: Prayer Points

November 29, 2006

Encouragement from Britain!

November 15-27 I had the opportunity to visit many churches in England, Wales and Scotland! Many are praying! 2,500 miles, 13 churches and three bible colleges… so much encouragement… & one ECM mission’s conference. The Lord Jesus really does want to change the city of Zagreb and many are praying to this end!

Thank you to all the many brothers and sisters who are praying for the salvation of dear lost folk. Thank you to all those who one day will be willing to serve the Lord in this beautiful country. Pray the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into His field. The corn is white unto harvest.

Zagreb Christians are greatly encouraged that their brothers and sisters abroad are standing with them before the eternal throne of King Jesus. Thank you!

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Prayer Points

Life in Croatia

Missionaries

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November 12, 2006

Life and ministries in the Dubrava churchplant

This last week has been quite hectic! Baptisms, 15 preachers training together in Zagreb, praying and preparing for revival and a great youth meeting (our first with double figures!) made us all very happy and very tired!

Here are some pics…

Marina (centre) before she was baptised. Marina gave her life to God just two days after regular services started at the Dubrava (eastern Zagreb).

Exciting days! 15 of us met at the Dubrava church Saturday 11.11.2006 for the first of I hope many sessions on preaching. For 4 hours we were trained in this art. Each of us had to stand up before the others to describe (without notes!) how one item of our clothing felt during our daily life! Not so wierd as it sounds… As preachers we must learn how to describe and relate in an interesting fashion… so as not to bore the pants off our poor listeners!

Later on we all had to speak another two minutes (on film) on a favourite subject of our choice. The listerners were allowed (even ocasionally encouraged!) to heckle! I gave a deputation talk, asking for plenty of prayer for our mother church, when they discover 30 of their members have left for the new church plant 18.2.07, when we have independent services! Josip Čeh (an elder at the mother church for 35 years and who also will leave the mother church to form part of the new church’s leadership) spoke about the need for finances for our new building, saying in his 2 minute talk that we had just been thrown out of our rented accomodation by the landlord! He just made this up, but he wanted to communicate that they should think how theycan help us!!!

We also were taught by the pastor on the "spiritual life" and how believe that God actually wants to change our listeners, so we should be bold and preach for change, actually believing that the seed of the Word will CHANGE! Dare we say "AMEN, HALLELIJAH!"

Tabita & I felt last May that we had to do something with the young people in our church (Dubrava), That Sunday we had 19 between 0 and 20 years old! We did two meetings with the youth and this Autumn (after having been somewhat inspired by a visit to a youth meeting at St. Thomas’s Kendal, England) we decided to have regular meetings every two weeks. Here we met and we had two new folk Anita (second left) and Silvio (boy 4th left). Pray this would really develop and that faith would be strengthened and those new will give their lives totally to THE LORD!

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Prayer Points

Life in Croatia

Missionaries

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Balkan Rendezvous Nov 6-9 in Zagreb

Just a few days ago we had a great time at the first "Balkan Rendezvous"! (At least till we were reminded by Tihomir that Croatia isn’t in the Balkans!). Radovan and his son Vladimir came from their churchplants in two towns in Bosnia and Gani came from Peja, Kosova. They were joined by locals Tihomir & Ulrike & Stephen & Tabita (Zagreb), led by the enchanting and experienced churchplanter extrodinaire, Johan from Belgium. Much fun was had by all. Here are some pictures!

Here are the boys, resting from numerous discussions

The Team find the Way Ahead (envisioning)

Once we get going, there’s no stopping us!

Pastors Gani and Radovan join in the discussions

Gani getting enthusiastic…

Gani quite proud of His Kosova… (Rroftë Kosova!!! - Albanian for "Kosova forever!")

The team fellowshipping together…

Johan helping us all from his vast experience!

So, you can see that a lot of fun was had! Working in the Balkans (+ in Croatia, Tihomir!) can often be lonely. Pray for these priceless guys that they will see God’s blessing in their ministries. Pray they would have joy and stay faithful, despite the difficult circumstances they work under.

So, we say farewell to you all… emoticon

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October 29, 2006

Prayer Points

Prayer

Serious intercessory prayer required for revival in Croatia

Encouragement for the 145 evangelical churches throughout Croatia and strength and vision for their leaders.

Pray the Lord of the Harvest for new Croatian leaders and pastors and new missionaries from abroad.

Thank God for the increasing unity amongst the Croatian believers. Continue to pray for joyous unity as God works in their midst.

That numerous new churches be planted in and around Zagreb during the next 10 years.

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Missionary Opportunities - Recruitment

Ministry Opportunities (updated October 2006)

Church Planters

Men and women who can commit themselves to church planting in interdenominational teams, working together with the Croatian Baptists.

Qualities/Gifting
Primarily we are looking for people with a «heart after God», people who are:

Committed 100% to following the lord’s leading in their lives and are decided on being flexible to the Lord’s will.

a) Willing to learn by mistakes. b) Willing to submit to the team leadership, team-culture and national Croatian church..

c) Willing to commit themselves to learning Croatian over their first two years. Most people will know zero Croatian at the beginning. However, language is the number one «enabling factor» in effective missionary service.

d) People who with God’s help want to make a difference and help in the Lord’s Harvestfield.

e) Bible College is most helpful to provide a basic ability to minister.

f) Musical ability is always welcomed, though not required.

Tasks
These will be varied according to needs arising. Forseeable are all local church ministries.

We recognise that missionaries will also develop ministries and expertise on the field.

Our strategy is to train and encourage Croatian believers into leadership, preaching, house-group leaders and all normal church ministries. Missionaries will have opportunity to participate in these ministries, hopefuly giving a leading example.

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Vision, Recruitment, Principles

Vision Statement

ECM in Croatia is committed to helping the Croatian Baptists plant new churches in and around the capital city of Zagreb (pop 1,000,000).

Missionary Principles

We are committed to full co-operation with the national church, believing that this

a) honours God and

b) is most effective in bringing lasting fruit.

We are looking to the Lord to initiate and continually modify our vision.

We believe in working through dynamic teams. We do not want to work in isolation.

Thus we are initially developing a church-planting team in and around Zagreb.

We are open to working elsewhere throughout Croatia, but only as new teams and a modified vision from the Lord enable.

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God at work in Croatia

Spiritual Climate of Croatia

Croatia is not noted for its revivals, never really having enjoyed great spiritual growth. However there are now clear signs of growing unity amongst its approximately 8,000 evangelical Christians and there is a real need now for Christians worldwide to rise to the challenge of serious intercessory prayer. Number one on the list must be new conversions. Secondly, that the relatively small number of Christian leaders in Croatia be swelled by the Lord who calls workers into His harvest. In the past evangelicals have been pressured by society to remain in the evangelical enclaves, but in recent times have been encouraged to proclaim a dynamic witness. Let us support them in their endeavour. Currently there are 145 evangelical churches throughout Croatia and 16 in and around Zagreb. It is generally understood that to be a "good Croatian" is to be Catholic. If you were to ask most Croatians what religion they belong to the answer would be, "I’m Catholic." This is not an indication that everyone in the country is religious, nor does it mean that a majority attends church regularly. But it does reveal Croatia’s strong traditional ties to the Roman Catholic Church.

Church-planting in Zagreb – Croatia’s capital city, population 1 million

There is a dynamic church-planting work developing in co-operation with the Croatian Baptists. In Summer 2004 an agreement was made with Radićeva Baptists (Zagreb) that they would act as a mother church to establish a daughter church in Dubrava (Eastern-Zagreb) The church started regular Sunday services February 20th 2005 and is now working towards further independence. Much joy has been experience by the new «fledgling» church and also by those supporting from the mother-church. There is much openness to further growth as God leads. The new churchplant will become independent February 18th 2007.

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Opening Service of the Dubrava Churchplant in Eastern Zagreb 20th Feb 2005

It was a joyous occasion! 181 attended, including 50 new visitors. Two weeks before the building was a gaudy and dissused music shop. Members of the mother church "Radićeva Baptists", together with those forming the new church painted, cleaned, donated over 100 chairs (70 brand new!), speaker system including mixer, new piano, etc, etc, etc!

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