Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday was raining, so the sightseeing planned for the day was delayed. I prepared a brochure to be used to introduce the church in conjunction with the "What Every Family Needs" books by Dr's Faulkner and Brecheen that will be distributed next week

Thursday we did some touring through areas of Croatia that were hit hard by the war. It is hard for us to imagine that now, 15 years after the fact, homes would still not be rebuilt, but I saw it first hand. In many cases, these are Serbian homes, and the feelings are still so strong that the people do not feel safe returning. This home was in a small village south of Zagreb, not 20 minutes from the international airport. Ivan tells me that, in some cases the people would destroy their own homes. In other cases, their neighbors did it for them!

Croatia is a land of contrasts. Amid the modern buildings and a growing economy, one can find quaint reminders of yesterday - wooden homes for which this region is noted. Sometimes, as in this photo Ivan took, the two stand side by side.

Croatia is also noted for their storks. These beautiful birds were quite plentiful as we got south of Zagreb, and since they are now on the nest, it was not hard, even for me, to get a couple of photos. These birds are also not above building their nests on our homes, as in the photo that Ivan took of a nest on a utility pole right next to one on a home.

But the most amazing thing to me had to be the wonderful old homes, some of which you can see in some of these shots. Many are still in use today, both by people and by the storks!

Monday and Tuesday Attendance Was UP!

I got a very pleasant surprise on Monday and Tuesday when the attendance at the workshops turned out to be the best yet. Groups from a couple of surrounding congregations attended both nights making it much easier to speak.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I will have opportunity to visit a portion of Croatia that has been ravaged by the wars. As a side, we will also visit a community where more White Storks than people live.

A Busy Sunday in Zapresic

Sunday was a full day. In the morning, I spoke to the congregation presenting a lesson both encouraging them to grow and to come out to the evening lessons. In the evening, the program was again mostly to the congregation, though there were some guests for the science program.

At noon, they had a birthday party for Nicola (Ivan's brother) and Tomi, one of the young people. They tell me this is usually held the last Sunday of the month, but my visit gave them excuse to have it this Sunday and next Sunday too!

Zapresic is a little community nestled among the mountains of Zagreb region in Croatia. Ivan and I had opportunity to drive around a little Saturday. The view to the front of the Christian Family Center in Zapresic shows the mountain, complete with some of the rock cuts. The mornings bring a cool breeze off the hill, but the afternoons can be very humid, with the Adriatic Sea influencing the weather patterns here.

The country was previously ruled by a royal family. During some of the turmoil of past political change, some of the Dukes of Croatia left the country, ceding some of their property to the Catholic Church. One of these castles, pictured here, has become an orphanage, and the church in Zapresic helps with this home when money is available. As a result, a young girl who lost her mother recently (the father is alcoholic and there were some allegations of abuse) was able to go to this home, and is allowed occasionally to attend meetings of the church, although the home is run by the Catholic Church.

Driving through a country that was very recently ravaged by war, and seeing the poppies growing wild in the field, it is not hard to picture what the poet was seeing as he penned the words to the poem about Flander's Field. I have been told that we will visit some of the areas that were hit harder by the fighting on Wednesday or Thursday. Sentiments are still strong in the area, one of the members of the congregation here was involved in the fighting and he returned with an illness he will suffer the rest of his life, but life has returned to somewhat normal. We were down near the border with Slovenia on Saturday, and Ivan commented that we could drive into that country by just continuing down the road.

Tomorrow we go into Zagreb to visit with the faculty and students at the Bible Institute there.

First Full Day in Zapresic

Well, day one of the program is done.

Today, Ivan and I drove about Zapresic putting up posters and handing out material. This evening we joined Ruth and Peter for dinner and then off to the building. After ten minutes of fighting to get the computer to communicate with the projector, the program started.

Peter did a GREAT job of translating - I struggle with a lot of those names in English and he had to hear them in English and present them in Croatian.

We had 18 out tonight all together. It was a little small, but Saturday is wedding day here, and driving to the building we saw several weddings.

For the birders - seeing lots of great birds. Again I got a Black-billed Magpie right outside the door. Jackdaw, Dunnocks and Hooded-crow are quite common. Got one today that will take some book work.

On to Croatia

I left Riga early Thursday morning, and after an extended delay due to an instrument error in the cockpit, we landed in Amsterdam about 3 in the afternoon. By 5:00 I was checked into the hotel and off to see some of the sites. Took a cruise on the canals. Amsterdam is built, as we all know, by reclaiming swamp lands, and so the best way to see the various architecture etc. of the city is by canal cruise. It was very interesting. I did get to see the Ann Frank home - where she sheltered many Jews of the region during world war 2 to get them out of the country - eventually at the cost of going to the concentration camps.

After the cruise, the only home I wanted to see that I had not seen was the Royal palace, so...
It meant a walk through one of the less pleasant sections of Amsterdam but I made my way up the street to the square. The palace was under construction, but it was still an impressive site.

This morning I flew into Croatia and brother Ivan was waiting at the Zagreb airport. The ride through town introduced me to the town and I am now staying in the Cristian Life Center. It is a beautiful structure, well located and effective in reaching the community. It turns out I will open a two week series of lessons, prayer and other activities to celebrate the anniversary of this congregation and the release in Croatian of Dr´s Brecheen and Faulkners book ˝Whatever Happened to Mom, Dad and the Kids˝.

My lessons in Zapresc (a suburb of Zagreb) start tomorrow night.

Ivan and Ruth send their greetings to the congregations that helped to send me, as do Victor and Sarmite. I hope to get back to daily postings.

Last Night in Latvia

The numbers were much better tonight - 13 total including two guests from the community and 1 that is a member of the church but who could not attend the previous meetings. The two from the community were contacted through the internet ad, so in total the internet ad brought 3 guests while the standard newspaper ad brought 2. Don't know if this really tells us anything or not.

The work will not end here in Latvia. Thanks to the efforts of about 8 translators, the written lessons will be able to be posted on the web in both Latvian (useful in Latvia and some surrounding nations) and in Russian which can reach from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific across Europe and Asia.

Tomorrow morning I fly to Amsterdam and then on to Croatia.

Smallest Group Yet

We had only 9 or 10 people out for the meeting tonight at which I spoke on the prophecies. There was a small incident during yesterday's program, and I am not sure if it discouraged people from coming back or not. One of the guests got upset that one of the Russian translators was "disrupting"the presentation. I am learning to look at the Russian translators and watch for them to nod, or to simply stop talking as an indication to proceed. Sometimes they have to wait for Victor to translate first when there is English they do not understand.

Tomorrow is the final presentation in Latvia. The bags are mostly packed, and I move on to Croatia on Thursday with an overnight in Amsterdam.