Team Croatia Missions Trip -Day 4

I was hoping I would recap the missions trip on a daily basis, but unfortunately, real life gets me sidetracked too often.

Day 4 in Croatia was a Thursday. The ladies held Vacation Bible School for the children again in the morning, while the guys headed out to the town square. Still, quite a few kids showed up that day, maybe even a few more from the day before. Our team brought white t-shirts and fabric markers and let them all design their own shirt to keep. I must have left my camera behind that day, because I have no pictures of that morning.

After lunch, the whole group headed into the main part of Cakovec to witness to the locals, pass out tracts, and meet people.



Down that pathway is the main square of the town, with shops and eateries along the side. The buildings and architecture are stunning and quaint at the same time. The team split up in small groups of two and three and stationed ourselves at various spots around the square.

Lizzie stood at a corner in front of a bank. In contrast to our Ireland trip, we really had to break through the language barrier. We weren't able to converse in Croatian, and most Croatians spoke very little English, if at all. Typically, the younger ones had a greater chance of knowing English. However, the tracts we handed out were all written in Croatian, so our job was to hand out as many as we could, and if they happened to speak English, then we could start a conversation with them.

Here's Brett, in his Titleist visor :) speaking with a couple of people. Most of our encounters started us with saying, Dobre dan, meaning hello. We would ask if they spoke English. If they said no, we would hand them a tract and tell them it was for them to read and have a good day. If they said yes, then we told them we were from America, and came over to their country to spread the good news that Jesus loves them. We said, there are a lot of religions out there that teach you have to DO something in order to earn salvation, but Jesus Christ died on the cross so that you DON'T have to do anything, but accept the free gift he gave. In our limited English conversations, we tried to convey the grace the Christ offers frees them from the bondage of sin and works. Several people were saved as a result of conversations like this throughout the week.

Lizzie and me at the end of the afternoon. We got to know each other really well on this trip, and I believe that she's a fantastic friend who is fun to hang out with. Lizzie is going through medical school, is "wicked smahrt", and she is the person to go to if you ever want to learn more about microphagia, western blots, and all other cellular biology topics. Her heart seeks to serve the Lord and I'm already praying that her medical residency keeps her in Toledo, because I would sure hate for her to have to give up her medical career to stay in this area :)

The castle in Cakovec. I'm sure it has some official name, but I forget it now.

More of the castle.

At the end of the afternoon, we went walking around for awhile, taking in the sights of the town.

Thursday evening was the second night of the evening meetings at the Baptist Church. Jeff spoke with the help of Pastor Rich, the translator. It must be difficult to speak only a sentence or two at a time, then pause while it is spoken in another language. Listening to it, however, wasn't a problem at all and your mind got used to the back and forth sounds.

Stay tuned for Day 5 . . .