Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose hope is in the LORD! (Jer. 17, 7)

Almost 4000 kilometers (2485 miles) by car and 250 km (155 mi) via boat in five weeks...

Slept in 10 different places, 11 nights in our tent...

Visited five churches, two house of prayer projects, one discipleship school and got to know around 20 new contacts...

Tests of faith through various things...

Experienced about 30 answers to prayer, of which one was an immediate elimination of ear ache...

These are some fun facts about our journey through Croatia this summer.

What should I write about such an intense time? How to summarize it all? Our heads are so full with impressions, pictures, thoughts. Above all, one thing remains to write first:

God is good. All the time. ALL the time.

Even when you don't "feel" his presence, when your faith and spirit seem to be dry, ridiculous, broken, veiled, clouded. All we can say is: its okay. He is still good. And He definitely is still God. ALL the time.

RIJEKA
Rijeka, or "Fiume" in Italian was under Italian reign for a long time and up to this day the whole culture in the north of Croatia has been influenced by Italian, and, since the province borders with Italy far up north, its only normal for people to have Italian words int their coastal language and culinary similarities to their neighbor. One may hear the Italian word "pomidor" for tomato. If one would use that words anywhere else in Croatia, one would only get a bewildered look. Walking through the city the architectural resemblance to Italy becomes very clear: tiny alleyways and high apartment buildings with different pastel paint coming of, appearing somewhat shabby but chic. They fit all too well into the face of the city with its big harbor, a huge, picturesque market with fresh produce and freshly caught fish. Among all of it, countless little cafes with delicious coffee being served to young and old people. Beware: if you order a regular coffee in Croatia, for about 1, 30 Euro you will always get a delicious espresso with a glass of water. Never ever would you get a filter coffee (actually, I don't know if many cafes even serve that lol)!
Anyway, we spent a week here and went to a church service on Sunday. We met a missionary family from Scotland/England there who have been living in Germany for some time as well and a lot of friendly other couples. It has been a very interesting first peek into Christian Croatian church. We also had a lot of very good conversations with my dad, which I was very grateful for because it is one of my wishes to establish a closer and deeper relationship with him. I also got to know his professional side as a journalist better and really like his way of thinking there. For some time now I have the impression to give him "The case for Christ" by Lee Strobel to read since Lee also comes from a journalism background and while reading it myself in English its quite appealing. However, pray for us to find a Croatian copy of it somewhere because it is not available in the stores anymore. It has been published years ago but they haven't printed more copies yet.

ZAGREB + ZAGORJE
After coming back to Zagreb we met with my stepmother, brother, his girlfriend (whose name is also Luna), and the other side of my family: my mother, granny, uncle and his family. Being in Zagreb was spiritually the most draining time in those five weeks unfortunately. Nevertheless, we also made many good memories and it was very good to connect to the family again. However, I often did not feel comfortable in some situations of spoken profanity, insulting words (not towards us mostly) and using God's name in vain (which is actually very normal for daily Croatian conversation for most Croatians!) between some family members. I wanted to enjoy the little time I had with my beloved grandma and my uncle's family but this was straining the experience sometimes and saddened my heart. I also had the impression of my grandmas faith being weaker or her having some signs of depression because of her extreme back pain since she underwent an operation two years ago (which was supposed to have the opposite effect). Of course, this is understandable from a human perspective. So please pray for my granny, whose 75th birthday will be tomorrow. I wrote her a really long letter encouraging her in her faith and also explaining the gospel to her again. And, really pray for the healing of her back and neck, it would be wonderful for her to move without massive pain again. She is still so full of life and has a very clear mind. Two things were amazing: first, God used me to show my family a very quick recovery from an ear infection within hours of praying for it and without taking any meds as they recommended. "My meds was prayer", I said happily to them, and was so thankful to be useful to the Lord in such a wonderful way (and for the pain to be gone of course!). Second, we prayed for my grandmas back right at the spot. It was good to pray for her in her presence.

VARAŽDIN
While staying in Zagreb, we visited a pastor in Varaždin, who leads the "Croatia for Christ" ministries. He gave us some very good insight about the state of the church and the view of Croatians on "free" churches. Can you believe that they had a long bureaucratic fight to put a little cross on top of their new church building? As a US or Canadian citizen you are reading this with bewilderment, I am sure. But yes, everything that is not Catholic is very suspect. Weird. Sect. Cult. If you are a Croatian you are Catholic. And you have to pay church tax, even if you're and atheist or attending a different denomination. Yeah, the word "denomination" hasn't reached Croatia yet. This was a real eye opener for us. Come to Croatia and you will experience what the first Christians in a Greek or Roman environment must have felt like!
The church at Varaždin has a replica of the baptism font of Nin in their building and they are using it well. As the pastor explained, most Croatians are very surprised to learn that adult baptism used to be practiced in Croatia around 1000 AD, and probably even earlier. This is quite remarkable, since up to this day, infant baptism is the normal way to go in the Catholic church here. The pastor told us how astonished people are when they find this out, so it is always a good conversation starter. He also shared a beautiful testimony story he and his Serbian colleague experienced in the US with us: they were sitting together at McDonald's talking and a guy indicated he knew the language they were speaking. But when he learned that one guy was Croatian and the other Serbian his mouth fell wide open and he said: "Wait a minute, you used to be enemies back then! I know your history! How can it be that you are sitting here together at one table happily?!" The pastor responded with a smile. "Because Jesus is sitting right between us!"

SLAVONSKI BROD
Ten days later, we left for Slavonski Brod to visit the house of prayer. We did not know yet where we would lay our heads to rest that night but were confident of Jesus leading us. And so, we were welcomed so warmly by the leaders of the prayer house and they offered us to set up our tent right in front of the prayer room outside. Like I mentioned, after what felt like a spiritual desert, this place offered us love, refuge, renewal with and through some very dear brothers and sisters in Christ. We were also able to participate in the prayer times and worship and had very good conversations. The story of how the couple came to that huge house for the prayer room without having any money and their decision of never wanting to invest, receiving such a house (or rather property) right after the war, is filled with miracles. The lovely house is on top of the mountain overviewing the city. Right now, the people manage to cover prayer times from 6am to 10pm every day and pray to reach the full 24 hours soon. They are also thinking of expanding the property to build opportunities for campers and a guest house. There is life and prayer and Spirit present and we loved it. It was one of our favorite times during our journey and we didn't even miss the ocean (I usually do). Just before we left, we were covered in powerful prayer and received various pictures:

A bridge that we are walking on crossing over from an exhausting time to a new riverside. That picture really sums up our time here since it felt like crossing over from a spiritual challenging time to an unknown but joyous future journey.

Dark hands that are reaching out to me from underneath, Me covered in spiderwebs but then falling off of me throughout the prayer
One of the brothers who we just met, asked me if I drew. We all smiled because, yes, that's what I love to do. Then he said he sees me drawing for Gods kingdom... this is where all spiritual webs truly fell off because, the fact that God chose this brother to give me a picture of something my heart was longing for such a long time, having such a personal father who cares for little Luna even though he created the whole universe and has much bigger things to think about, such a personal love was incredibly touching. The webs were also describing so well how I felt inside while staying in Zagreb. Trapped like a fly in a spiders web because we could not avoid the unfriendliness between certain family members and that sadness reaching out to me wanting to hold on to me.

We continued our journey towards the Bosnian border... and experienced two other miracles. On the way, there is a tunnel construction so its a one lane tunnel right now. We were warned in the prayer house that waiting there could take from half an hour minimum up to two hours. We had to wait for about 10 minutes. And driving through that tunnel was fascinating as well!
When we stood at the border the police officer asked us for a green card. We thought he meant the owners card for the car, which happens to be green. However, he continued asking for "the green card" and we had no clue what he meant. After a while he explained that we needed a green insurance card for our car insurance because we were leaving the EU. Oops. We said we did not have it and if we could buy it somewhere or if we should go back. Then he asked us to put 20 Euro into the passport and give it to him. Astonished, I was so shocked and irritated, if that guy just really wanted to be bribed that I accidentally translated it wrong to Harry and just said "He wants some money". Of course, Harry wanted to give him the money without hiding it in the passport but the officer refused because his boss was standing nearby watching. So he just waved us through! That was such a disturbing and marvelous experience but we were so thankful to God for even providing a bridge for us at the border.

MOSTAR
A fascinating Bosnian city with lots of history where West and Orient meet. Visually ans spiritually, there was so much to take in! We were quite surprised by the amount of tourists we encountered from all over the world. Many buildings are restored by now but in between, oddly there are some old ones with bullet holes, overgrown by nature, almost collapsing and (we guess) serving as a memorial. The city is divided by a beautiful blue river and kept together by many bridges. It is only natural for such a place to have professional bridge jumpers and a bridge jumping club and we were even there at the right time to witness such a marvelous and bold spectacle. No bungee attached. Those bridges were also a picture for the cultural bridge of Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics living together peacefully (Most=bridge). However, during the war a picturesque bridge from medieval times, the emblem of the city, was destroyed and with it also the peace between those different belief systems. Today, the bridge has been restored as have many buildings but there remains a big gap between the Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic people. Each group represents one third of the government and they can rarely execute anything since they do not agree on many things. So there has not been a lot of progress within the country unfortunately. Still, they managed to agree on rebuilding their famous bridge, which I see as a sign of hope. As we were walking through the cute street with oriental lamps and other tourist souvenirs to buy in every corner on the Muslim side of the river, the most remarkable thing we saw was a huge golden cross shining in the evening sun on top of the mountain across. Later in our journey people told us that a Christian bible school has been opened right in the Muslim part of the city and this is a huge step towards peace and proclaiming the good news for people in a war stricken country who do not have a personal relationship with the living God yet. If you are ever planning to visit this part of the world you should definitely put Mostar on your list! As we have learned, there are places on earth where bad things repeatedly happen because there is a dark spiritual force present, so the best thing one can do is to visit the place and pray and proclaim Jesus Christ, the light for the world right there. When we pray, the odds change.

In Mostar, my suspicions were confirmed after I applied lice shampoo into my hair because of a weird feeling. I did indeed have lice, even though two adults had checked my head three times. We went through lice treatment with Junia a few days ago in Zagorje, after I made one of my casual checks on her hair and found some nice little gifts of adversity. Then, the morning after, just before we wanted to head out, I checked Junias hair again. I did not find any lice - but instead six (!) tiny ticks on her body, and two of them were grabbing onto her right at the hairline in the back.
After this interesting little delay, we drove through a beautiful Bosnian landscape full of mountains, rivers, over a mountain pass on a windy, narrow, old road, through little, old villages in the middle of nowhere. Since we decided to go to a smaller border, there was not a lot of traffic. Then we reached a bigger, asphalted road and thought, yeah, now we can drive faster! But that road ended after a few kilometers in a sharp right curve on a dusty road that was even narrower than the previous one. Following an offline google map and no signs or traffic, we continued on hoping to be on the right track. A few small villages, a random soccer field on the bottom of the valley in the middle of nowhere further we finally reached a building that looked like a border. There were no other cars except ours and only one lane for each direction. Still, we had to wait for five minutes until the officer opened the gate to wave us through. It was a hilarious situation but, after a few more very serpentine like road turns, we were happy to reach the main coastal road of Croatia and headed towards our campsite.

DUBROVNIK
A city built along a mountain side greeted us with its palm trees, red roofs and hot weather. We slept at a beautiful and clean camp site (Kamp pod maslinom) for three nights and met with an American missionary couple, who help local pastors with church plants, and visited the service on Sunday. There we met the pastor and his wife, two very nice people and some other members of the church. The church was just about to start their annual evangelization project, in which they systematically knock on every door of Dubrovnik and the outer region to tell people the good news. What the church needs most is prayer for joy and encouragement. They have seen countless people "go through" the church but only a few have actually made a life transforming decision for Jesus, so they really hope for growth and also see members of their congregation grow in their faith.
Of course, we wanted to see the famous old part of the city, but this experience was cut short because of the really massive amount of tourists. It was too crowded to be really enjoyable. And expensive. But I would really like to go back some time in the winter time at some point when its more calm.

KORČULA
After leaving Dubrovnik, we drove straight to the ferry to go to this pretty island. The little tourist magnet town with the same name is truly beautiful. Almost in every corner there is a pretty view to enjoy. However, this was not our final destination. In order to reach our campsite "Vela Luka", we needed to drive through to the other side of the long island. "Kamp Mindel" was a family owned clean and wonderful camp site, that started taking in campers as early as the 1930s! They had many turtles, even a turtle day care! And many cats! And shade underneath countless olive trees! And we found a nice, little beach to refresh ourselves after the long and hot journey. We were actually planning on visiting the pastor and church of the first Christian church on an island in Vela Luka but unfortunately the pastor was traveling.
That night we sat on top of the flat roof of the bathing house and were watching the partial lunar eclipse. It was a beautiful night and we were thankful for many things. That day, Harry had contacted a German missionary in Split for a meeting. It was a sensible call, because the wife of the missionary was very sick with cancer and in Germany right now, so we weren't even sure if he would be up for an encounter. But he invited us. And we prayed wholeheartedly for a miracle healing of his wife that night. 

SPLIT
The next day, we took the three hour 45 minutes long ferry to Split (note: the new picture on top of the blog is us enjoying the windy ride on the ferry). After being trapped in the ferry for half an hour in the port of Split without having any clue why, we headed towards our apartment. Unfortunately, there are not many camp sites near Split, so this time we booked a flat. Split is hilly, but not as steep as Dubrovnik, and our car started to make funny noises there...
We met our lovely landlords and enjoyed the luxury of a spacious apartment. And then we visited the German missionary and had a good conversation. It was good to hear a realistic perspective on church work in Croatia from this man of many connections. We also prayed for his wife and handed over a picture we received from God the night before to him.
We also met a very nice local pastor and had a very good conversation with him. She told us the story of how he became a Christian. Something I am always amazed to hear from Croatian people. He was showing us their beautiful new church rooms and kindly drove us to a Christian book store since we did not wanted to strain our car further (which was probably also a wise decision lead by God as it will be shown later). We did not have a lot of time with the pastor but are looking forward to meet him again. He still owes us the miraculous story of how they got the new church rooms, too (as you have already read in the part about Varaždin, this may have been quite hard).
The old part of Split is oddly located in the old palace. Yes, you have read correctly. It is IN the palace. And there are even apartments where people live in some tiny, hidden alleys! Then, in the cellar of the palace now people are selling all kinds of things to tourists. The day was hot but I had the idea to walk to the archeological museum where we wanted to see the earliest findings and the original baptism font of Nin. So we walked with two kids along in the sun and through the thick, hot air... only to reach closed doors. The workers were indeed having a break between 1 and 5pm! We sat down in the lovely shade and were waiting for about half an hour for our bus to arrive. But he did not come. One child was not very joyous. Then Harry saw a different bus stopping for a long time on the other side of the street so we decided to take it and got on. It drove all the way to the station where we needed to take the other bus back to our apartment. Ah yes, those little tests of faith and attitude. We had many of them throughout our journey as you have read and will read.
Our car. Through the Croatian pastor we were able to find a good mechanic, but it was Friday, and he was full so he recommended to us to drive to Zadar and find someone there. He said we should try not using the clutch too much,which was the actual problem behind the smell and loud noises. Unfortunately, we could not extend our rent in Split because other people had booked the apartment so with lots of prayer we reached Zadar without any complications, which in itself is another miracle as you will read soon...

The wife of the German missionary passed away on July 27th, after he and all their children were able to have a nice day in Munich. Please pray for this man and their children, he will surely need it during this time of mourning and adjusting.

ZADAR
The most beautiful city on the coast in my opinion. Why? Because its missing the ugly socialistic sky scrapers, which makes it a view to behold. It has a beautiful little city harbor like Rijeka within the old part of it, a lot of interesting historical buildings and a long strolling promenade along the ocean peeking at the mysterious "ocean organ" whose sounds are out of this world. During the war, the people of Zadar hid in their cellars and were able to withstand the Serbian army like that for three years. The main fighting grounds were only about 10 kilometers away from the city. What is even more remarkable though is how they managed to vigorously rebuild all the historical and non-historcial parts of the city after the war very quickly. I mean, when a war ends, the last thing a person would think about are some old buildings, one would think. But I guess, repairing broken things is also a sign of hope to look towards a better future for us people. Nobody wants to live in between ruins and be reminded of a violent past constantly. I wonder, what were the people in Zadar thinking during those times of using their hands for restoration. Were tears mixed within their sweat? Was there still a fear of war coming back lingering in their thoughts? When this war happened I was very far away in Berlin and too small to understand what was happening in my birth country. Now I want to understand the people of Croatia, their culture, my culture. Most of them have experienced something I have not. And to understand today's Croatian culture one has to work through their past. I only began asking my dad about his war experience last year and still feel uncomfortable doing that because I do not want to trigger unpleasant and sad memories for him. It seems like most people have only tried to forget the war but haven't really processed or found any peace over it. There are still so many peoples lives affected and compromised by trauma and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress disorder). Genocide, killings, loosing loved ones and all possessions, rape, a constant fear and stress, war has a very ugly face and there are no winners.

We reached our campsite "Matea" in Bibinje near Zadar and were pleasantly surprised by the place for our tent set up: about 30 steps away from the water! Additionally, a family with a young girl arrived on the same day and were our neighbors, so God provided a play companion for Junia, something she was praying for. :-)
The whole campsite had a very family like touch to it due to its size and form. And again, the landlords were incredibly sweet. The landlady was actually an officer during the war and still works for the military air base nearby. I was able to listen to an interesting conversation about war and killing people she had with her eight year old son. She tried to explain to him that it is never okay to kill another human being, even if he would be an enemy.
The next day was a Sunday so we boldly used our car to get to a church in Zadar that we had already visited last year. We met new and old acquaintances and were happy to listen to a man talking to his congregation about a miraculous healing God performed in his body. He cried because he felt so overwhelmed by Gods love and it felt really good to hear his testimony.
What happened next is hilarious, tragic, and incredible at the same time. We wanted to drive back to our campsite and our car had big trouble going into reverse. The engine would die every time. So we manually tried to maneuver the car out, which was hard and worked only very slowly. Harry, who was the only driver of the car since it started acting up, tried to drive after we had a green light on a bigger road and that was the end of driving for now. He was not able to put in any gears with the clutch. A few minutes later God sent us German angels. They stopped beside our car and offered their help. The muscular man was perfect to perform the next job: pushing the car from the back with Harry during the noon heat to the closest mechanic. His son also helped most of the way while I was steering the air conditioned car with one kid ridiculously enjoying the event and the other one sleeping. Then a slight hill came and they had a brilliant idea: since they did not have a towline or bar, they decided to let our children's plastic pool to hang down out of the the closed back door to protect the bumper and then, the muscular man's wife would carefully push our car up the hill with their car. It worked really really well and I bet we put on a great road show for the locals, although some honked at us! I am sure, just out of excitement. Anyway, because of that genius idea, the men were released and could rest and the lady pushed us right through the open gates of the mechanic's shop. A few minutes later, the retired mechanic, father of the current mechanic, arrived on his motor bike. So usually, that gate is closed and we would not have been able to park the car so easily, but because he was on the road it was open. We thanked our "angels" (who mentioned that they are Jehova's witnesses) and found our way to the main bus station, that happened to be around the corner. Of course. God sends us helpers right away, then opens the gates of the shop to easily park the car, and provides us with the main bus station of Zadar nearby, which is perfect, since we needed to be back at the shop early the following morning to explain our situation (we wanted to return to Germany in five days). The next day, the nice mechanic took our car in and it was done on Thursday morning with a regular charge for changing something in the front that has to do with the clutch (please don't ask). In the meantime, we enjoyed walking through old Zadar and a few relaxing days on the beach, that was closer to the place we slept we ever experienced before.
On Wednesday, a German born Croatian man contacted Harry back. We got his number from our dear friends from the house of prayer and they said we should definitely meet up with him. However, we had not heard back from him until now. He was very glad to kindly invite us to the island he was the Tourist agent boss of for a night to get to know each other. So we had to decide:
to depart to the island on Thursday afternoon to take the boat back at 6 am the next morning, then continue driving towards North to meet up with two other people before driving back to Germany through the night... yup, sounds like a plan! I know, we are crazy.

SILBA
Our super fast lighting speed catamaran departed at 2pm from Zadar and we barely made it because of my stubbornness of argumenting about nothing before leaving the campsite on the possibly hottest day of the year. I am SO thankful that God made us catch the boat even though I had made such a mistake because... Silba was a dream come true in many ways.
A small island far away from the main coast, no cars allowed, picturesque and well kept little and big old houses wherever one would look. The view from our apartment: a little harbor with small and bigger sailing and fishing boats slowly rocking back and forth from the gentle waves. And a beautiful restaurant right beside that harbor where we ate our delicious dinner. Cicada. A familiar sound by now one hears during the whole day. They are everywhere along the coast and we really miss their sound. Because Junia slipped and scratched her leg, Harry decided to go back to the apartment with the children leaving me behind that fantastic beach worthy of a movie because my wish was to snorkel one last time before departing from the deep blue and turquoise ocean. And what a marvelous snorkeling experience this was. I saw huge fish and ocean creatures I did not see before and it was exciting. I saw little crabs in their mussel shells crawling along the sandy ground. I saw tiny baby fish, tons of sea urchins, garfish, and, what I believe to be a black tube anemone.
Since the kind brother who invited us had a lot of things to do and we got tired, we decided to lay down until he texted us to say he is done. Of course, summer is the main tourism season so there is too much to do and too little time!
It was past midnight when we finally met our friend, but it was not less intense. We listened to his remarkable testimony of how he came to Christ after a crisis and burn out in Berlin, where he grew up. Now, he is well attached to the charismatic Catholic movement in Croatia and, among all the other things to do, organizing "alternative" and more modern Catholic masses with other Churches that come to visit. Trying to bring revival of the church within the church walls and co working with the local priest of the island is wonderful. Silba truly was the chocolate cover on the chocolate cake on our trip, apart from Junia scratching herself. And spending the hottest night of our trip in a room with an AC that was only able to cool down the place a little during the night. Even then, we were able to sleep a little and after praying over the scratch, it healed very fast and well.

SEVERIN NA KUPI + KARLOVAC
Back on the main land, we arrived safely in Severin na Kupi Christian camp where we met the main brother who was running Christian outdoor adventure and language camps. They got some really nice gear there and started with kayaking this summer. Some other things they do include canoeing, climbing, hiking and archery. It was great to finally meet this brother and we were able to share good thoughts, offer our help with some camp work in the future, and to pray for each other. Their camp site with their neatly trimmed grass and log houses is truly beautiful and close to a pretty river right in the middle of the woods.
Then we continued on to see a man we heard of way back in Zagreb, when we met a British missionary. He was described as man who loves working with his hands from the Netherlands, so I imagined a big bearded lumberjack. But God surprised again by acquainting us with a tall, slim, beekeeper with glasses and his two adorable daughters. His Croatian wife was ill unfortunately, but we met her a few days ago via whatsapp video. Their dream is to see growth in numbers and Spirit of their house group and eventually start a Christian commune at some point. So this sounded quite appealing to us, and somehow, we came to love them right away. Since we did not have a lot of time talking because we were gone swimming with all the children that needed us to look after them, we talked on the phone a few days ago and it was so great to talk to them. We felt connected in many ways so maybe... this family and us God wants to use to start communal living in Croatia? They also shared a miraculous story with us:
One of their daughters is highly allergic to bee stings, ironically. A few weeks ago they made a small camp event with another family for the children to teach them more about God. Since the last bee incident, their daughter always wear shoes outside. However, somehow she slipped, fell, and landed right onto a bee with one of her hands! The mom was a bit panicky, due to the last bee sting her girl was red and itchy all over her body within five minutes and reaching the hospital from their campsite would take about half an hour. They could only pray. After a few minutes they asked the girl how she was feeling, and she said "fine". A bit later she went off to play. They were still watching her of course but nothing seemed off. Later, the parents looked at their daughter's hand and it had less swelling than her beekeeping dad's stings. God is good. All the time.

HOME?
God gave us enough power and enough rest breaks throughout the night so that we reached our apartment very tired the following day safely.
We started this journey without knowing where it will lead us. We wanted to learn more about the Christians in Croatia and listen to Gods voice if he would reveal to us where he wanted us to settle down eventually in the future. We did learn a lot, were guided so well, but the place of service he wants to place us still remains a bit in a fog.

"There is
no need
to go
somewhere else

To search
anywhere else

What's there
is also here"

–Tonči Petrasov Marović

I read on a marble statue in Split. So maybe this is some kind of road sign? Only God knows and he is going to reveal everything to us in due time. One of the best advises we received along our way was to not come to Croatia with a set plan but to be open to the surroundings around us, to the need of the people, the churches and brothers and sisters. We hope we were also an encouragement to the people we met in some ways.
The only plan we have so far is to live similar to Georg Müller, who did not set up a group of donors and a set plan before he went on to do Gods will. He solely relied on Gods promise to provide for his children, as He provides for the plants and animals. Also, we want to take Paul as our role model, who "worked day and night" to not put any financial strain onto the local churches. We know and we have experienced it as well that God will provide a plan, ideas, people, and all physical and spiritual needs. He has shown so much faithfulness, compassion and mercy to us and we are eternally thankful to be his beloved children through the sacrifice of his precious son Jeshua, who loved us so much that he conquered death in order to set us free from our sinful guilt so that we are able to grow back into the loving arms of His father.
God is good. All the time. And all the time. God is good!!! Hallelujah!

May our LORD, who loves you so much, bless you with His joy and Shalom!
Many greetings from the four Muellers :-)

Death, where is your sting? Death, where is your victory?

Dear friends,

we hope that your Christmas season was filled with Gods joy and love. May your new year be filled with His holy presence. Well, its Chinese New year and almost Valentines here by now, haha (I was planning to post this right before Christmas).

This year began with an adventure of practical hospitality for us. A family of Christian Iraqis stayed at our place for a bit and we supported them through their church asylum. Each week we would do their groceries together with others who also helped since the family was not allowed to set a foot onto the street. Many prayers were spoken to keep them invisible for the police so that they would not be sent back to their home country where only death was waiting for them. God answered those prayers, hallelujah!

We witnessed a lot of answered prayers this year. Prayers in sickness followed by instant healing and positive changes in many lives of dear people. Right now we are learning so much about powerful prayer and what it can do so that God can change the world. I just recently read in a book how our presence changes the odds of circumstances wherever we go. We fight on our knees. We firmly believe that the world without praying Christians would be even more hopeless and dark. God wants to heal, free people from their bondage with darkness and proclaim the good news of his kingdom to everyone.
 
Right now "our" Kurdish family is doing well. They have learned quite a bit of German, which supposedly does not seem to be hard for them since they know some Swedish, Turkish, Persian, Arabic and their mother language Kurdish. Not bad for someone who never learnt how to read and write, eh? Each time we see them we are amazed how much their German has improved again.
After an ordeal of getting out of church asylum and moving a few times, it has been now confirmed last week that they can stay in this area! This week they will finally move to a large apartment suited for their needs in a larger town about half an hour from here and finally settle down. We hope and pray for them now to receive a visa that allows them to stay in Germany. At least, the three older children will now finally be able to go to school! And that would allow the parents some free time to rest, to heal and to proceed with German language classes.They have also started a Trauma therapy in Berlin, which they attend once a month.

We were both able to help building a youth group here this past year, which was fun. We alternate our own attendance between each other and are a group of 8-10 young people who are faithfully coming most weeks. We are slowly building trust and a togetherness so now we can also talk about deeper themes. We pray that Jesus is going to ignite a fire for himself in their hearts which is never going to be quenched.

Spring brought us babies. A new niece and nephew, hurray! We visited our brother and sister in law in Lyon, France and loved it. The air was already much warmer there and the french people were very friendly. And we ate some of the best local strawberries in our life. In April!
A short time later we celebrated Amos‘ 1st birthday and couldn't believe how fast time flows. He is a quirky toddler by now and adores animals and cars, he is very talkative its just that we don't have a clue what he is saying most of the time in his toddler language. But its quite fun to listen to and watching him exploring the world. And has a lot of patience with his sisters' ideas of (role) playing but can also hit back… if you know what I mean.

Some siblings however are not able to do that sadly. Friends of ours lost their second child while being pregnant in week 30 because of a blood infection caused by a little tear in the amniotic sac. That was a big shock since just a week before I became a midwife spontaneously to our neighbors' very spontaneous home birth (one that I wish would happen to every woman, it was fantastic, 20 minutes, no tears, everything went super smooth) witnessing the miracle of a birth from the other side for the first time. We were still so engaged in this joy of new life and incredible experience that the other message hit us like a big truck. Life and death are often closer to each other than we think.

Summer approached quite fast after spring and we were on our road trip to Croatia. And it was hot. Very hot. Half a year without any rain. We were quite happy to be near the ocean for most of our trip. During this time, our planned move to Croatia swished more into reality. We contacted a bunch of missionaries and it was a blast to meet Christians there to praise our God. It was a first time experience for me to talk about Christ in my other native language and culture and extraordinary. We were also able to meet family, which was nice as well. Remember us asking for prayer to start meaningful conversations? Well, for the first time I was able to talk o my dad about his war experiences during the war between Serbia and Croatia (1991-1995) and felt it was ground breaking but also quite sad of course. "Time heals most wounds", is what my father said...

During fall we had a load of friends visiting us over a few days and we loved our time of reconnecting. It is so important to work on friendships but also a challenge to do so when there is an areal distance between our friends and us. Well, and then we had four young ladies move in with us. Prillan, Hannelore, Hildegard and Hertha (now English speaking friends, try saying these names aloud please!) moved into the finished chicken coop and started laying eggs for us a little while later. And another couple we know well had to let go of their unborn baby in early pregnancy.


A short time later, on Friday, December 12th, in the afternoon, we got a whats app message saying „the son of our friend became unconscious and they are resuscitating him.“ A short time later apparently his heart was beating on the way to the hospital but he was still unconscious.
Two hours later we got a call that he passed away from complications due to a very rare heart condition.

Someday we will also be just two hours away from death. Are we well equipped for it? This young man and his family were prepared.

The mother and younger sister of the young man have the same rare heart condition. They have the possibility of an immediate death close by every single day. Even though something like that could happen to everyone of us we don't have it in front of our eyes like they do. And still. Still, the mother build a christian kids church within the last few years which has now grown quite a bit. She goes to work every day and gives her sorrows and fears of her own immediate death and that of her children to God every day. And God fills her with this unearthly peace and joy and carries the burden of evanescence that she could never carry by herself. Because we are not designed to carry such loads on our own. For such loads there are broader, more powerful shoulders available.
Her daughter is dreaming of becoming a surgeon from a very young age. When other children were watching cartoons she preferred watching YouTube videos of surgical procedures.
Her brother knew that it was not the smartest thing to play soccer with his heart condition. But he couldn't care less. He said: „I‘d rather risk something in my life when I know that I am going to die anyway one day than living my whole life in fear.“ Wow… what a life wisdom coming from a 15 year old…
When a human being decides to follow Jesus and become one of Gods own children, then death has no power anymore. A bigger adventure follows physical death then but this time without death, tears and sadness. Death is eaten up by victory. Death, where is your sting? Death, where is your victory?
(1st Colossians 15)
Just read that whole chapter because it will give you goose bumps.

After reading such verses one can only shout: Hallelujah, our Lord lives and because we believe, we also live forever!



Are we ready to take risks in our life like the young man who passed away or do we rely on ourselves? Do we rely on insurances or the conviction of a prosperity gospel? God has given us this life only. What do we make out of it? Are we ready to take risks for our King? Are we consciously swimming against the current like a salmon or do we let ourselves drift in it with all the other fish because everyone does it and „this is how it was always done“? Every human being is only a mist passing by. Passing by so fast. Like a flower in the wind. The question is: are we ready to die and wither as a flower so that our seeds can fall into the dry ground and produce an ocean of flowers?

We questioned ourselves and found an answer for our life. Yes, Jesus, for you we want to give everything! For our King we want to sacrifice everything because we do not posses anything in this life anyway.

So, as we are moving forward with steps of mourning, crying, praying, and receiving a deep happiness from the Lord within trials and tribulations, we are making changes. The week before Christmas marked Junias last days in daycare because from now on we will start with preschool homeschooling (a program called ACE - Accelerated Christian Education). We are planning to continue doing so in Croatia as well because we do not like the current school system there and want to show our children a love for self-motivated learning. We know that it is the right decision for our family right now to have our children at home. By now Junia has made quite a few little friends who we are seeing on a regular basis so don't worry about her social-emotional development.

This summer we are not going to book anything in advance for the holidays in Croatia. We want to drive  towards the destinations that God is going to lead us to, just as Paul has done many years ago. Some places along that adventure we want to visit though is a prayer house in Slavonski Brod, and also Varazdin (kind of THE Christian city of Croatia), and Split. Looking forward to it. It feels a bit crazy but also really exciting. We are aware it may not be all "fun and happy" all the time but it will surely lead us into growth, contentment and unity with each other in Jesus.

We are planning to pack our tents here in about 1,5 years to go to New Zealand for a year. During this time we will stay there with good friends who live in a Christian community according to the first church in Acts. They are two of the founders of their community, which was established over 20 years ago and is still doing well. This couple has made a big spiritual impact on us and helped us to grow a lot, as many of you have as well. One of our goals is to establish a similar Christian community within the ministry in Croatia with the people who join the vision. This vision of a bible school for young Croatian Christians is slowly getting more concrete, which is very exciting. We have so many ideas and are looking forward as to how it all will become reality in the end by the wisdom and love of our King. It is an adventure to live radical and especially to put our own desires under Gods will (but also very hard as you may know!). We are looking very much forward to which doors God will open and close, which people he will gather with us to bring blessing to Croatia. We told some of our friends about our ideas and gave them a little nudge to see whether God calls them… so if you feel that nudge of God right now please let us know. ;-)
The most important piece which we need the most though are praying people. Because nothing happens without prayer. But everything happens and everything is possible with prayer!

May he also bless you!
We are happy to be connected to you through HIM!


PICTURES CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES Password as always....

PS: A book that is helping me tremendously in mourning is "7 Lessons from Heaven" by Dr. Mary C. Neal. It puts the right perspective onto death and shows there is only a great love waiting after death for everyone who wants to accept such a love.

PPS: We have Whats app on our phones so if you like to connect to us on a more regular basis we are happy to send you our numbers!