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.

Second Night. Science Brings Out Fewer Members

Well, it was the typical meeting. Monday saw the number of members drop, but the number of guests from the community climbed! We had five guests to complement the 9 members so the meeting is reaching some of the community. After the meeting, Victor, Guntis, Gunars (German member of the congregation) and I hit the streets handing out literature. This is difficult since the community is split and you have to sort of eves drop on the conversation to know whether to give them a Latvian or a Russian brochure. The Russian community in particular is highly offended if you offer Latvian to them.

The program was on scientific foreknowledge and I could see the changes in one of the guests attitude as the lesson progressed. I started with the "sphere of the earth" mentioned in Isaiah, and he was sort of smirking, but when I brought up the slide of Edwin Hubbles work on the expanding universe and pointed out it is mentioned at least 17 times in seven different books, he was sitting at the front of his seat. When I finished with the "paths of the sea" he was no longer smirking. He left quickly after the lesson, but talking to Gunars who is a friend of his I learned that he is the only of his family who is not religious. Maybe he is thinking.

Tomorrow we talk prophecies. Victor seems to think we may have a few more out for this.

The schedule for Croatia has been set. The meeting will be Saturday to Tuesday evenings with me possibly speaking Sunday morning as well.

For the birders, yesterday we went to the coast, and along with Mew Gulls, Herring Gulls and Common Tern, I got some swans (yet unidentified) and a shorebird that will take some work. I also got my first Magpie this afternoon.

Sunday - First Day of Presentations In Latvia

All went well. It started out a little choppy, trying to get used to translations in not one, but two languages. I would speak, Victor would translate to Latvian and then two people would translate quietly to Russian. I had to learn to watch either brother Guntis or one of the sisters to see that they were finished before I went on.

The internet ad the church in Riga purchased (at quite an effort for this small congregation) had no apparent response the first day. We did get visitors from the community that said they read about it in the newspaper ad, and one from personal outreach by one of the sisters. In total there were 23 members or visitors at the meeting, double what I spoke to in 2007.

The church in Riga is quite active in outreach. Brother Guntis places material right at the top of the steps as you come in, and the members are always picking it up and taking it with them to give to friends and family. They also enjoy their fellowship periods before meeting as we do, and are very welcoming of guests. They even sang "We are one in the Spirit"in three different languages, Latvian, Russian and English with everyone trying to sing all languages. It was very apparent where the favorites were though - the Russian brothers were singing out during the Russian portion.

Tonight is the lesson on scientific foreknowledge. I feel much more comfortable with this subject and am confident all will go well. Victor expects more guests this evening too.

Saturday Preparations

Another day of preparations, assembling the packets and going over the lessons. At the last minute it clicked with me that the slides have a lot of English text, but we decided to leave them as is - translating each slide to Latvian and to Russian (čan't offend anyone) is a lot at this time.

Tomorrow everything starts. Please keep me in your prayers as the lessons are going to be long. I have decided that I will stick as close as possible to the text given to the elders to make it easier for the translators.

For the birders, I have identified one of those two birds from yesterday - a Bullfinch.