Tu smo! We are in Croatia!

Travel Day #26

Pozdravi iz Zagreba - We say "Hi" from Zagreb, Croatia!

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It is fantastic to have arrived here in Croatia !! God is so good and so faithful !! 10 years ago he gave us the wish to serve Him in Croatia and then he prepared the time and the way, and now we are there! :-)

Two weeks ago we had a wonderful time with a dear friend in the Black Forest. We shared many wonderful moments and deep spiritual fellowship and also enjoyed the beautiful area. Then we spent another night with other dear friends near Berchtesgarden. Again, it was nice to refresh the friendship and we enjoyed the short visit. We are also thankful for the way God divided up our trip into three parts of 450-500km, so that not one trip was too long. The drive across the Alps and country borders to Zagreb was particularly blessed, considering it is the holiday season.

On a like hike along a Black Forest creek to a lake and waterfall.

While we were in Freudenstadt in the Black Forest, we read the section on the conquest of Jericho in the book of Joshua and had the impression that we should also walk around "Jericho" in a spiritual battle for Croatia for seven days after we arrived. We were much encouraged by God's promise to Joshua:

"Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

Joshua 1.8-9

What a wonderful promise from God to us in this exciting, yet uncertain time! God is good always!!! Yes, and we experience every day that God is with us. Above all, He guides and fills us through his Spirit with joy and confidence every day, even in challenging situations.

We will stay in this rented apartment until July 31st and then we will go first to Luna's father near the Adriatic sea in Rijeka, possibly with a stop in Karlovac. Rijeka is the impression that God gave us as the next stop, also that we should first be "witnesses in Jerusalem" (with our own family) (Acts 1.8) and then move on to the wider world.
So we were happy that Lunas family here was open to watch the film "The Beginning" from The Last Reformation with us last Sunday (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zka4DUYeJ5g - everyone should watch it, who longs to see what we read in the New Testament happening today) to show them what we want to do here in Croatia. The reaction varied between positive and open to rather skeptical. We are grateful for the opportunity to share the gospel clearly and also that they wished us all the best for our project, which is really great.

Luna's grandma went through the heart surgery well and will probably be home tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers! We were also able to pray for them and are incredibly grateful that the surgery could not have gone better. Grandma's back pain also seems to be better and she is moving more agile than before, for which we are extra grateful. Please pray for peace, kindness and gentleness in the family and also for grandma to recover well.

On Sunday we were in a wonderful church in Zagreb, and it actually turned out to be in the same building as the editorial office in which Luna's dad works! We were greeted very friendly by many brothers and sisters and were offered coffee from all sides. We felt very spiritually connected, because the first love for Jesus was visible burning. The pastor's wife even offered help when she found out about our calling. A really nice experience. Maybe we will have more to do with the church in the future. It would be great to get to know these brothers and sisters more.

Today we came back from "Zagorje", the place in the country where grandpa and grandma come from. Grandma has a nice little house where there is often plenty to do, including in the small vineyard. Luna's uncle usually does much of the work by himself, but yesterday Harry was able to help him mow the lawn on the orchard slope and in the vineyard. We were happy to have been of help and to enjoy the wonderful green nature up there.
Tonight Luna's stepmother and brother were here for dinner. It was nice to be able to cook for them once instead of always being a guest. They didn't have too much time, but we laughed a lot and reconnected well.

Tomorrow is our last day of "walking around Jericho", so it will be loud !!! Luna's mom then looks after the children and visits the zoo with them so that we can have a longer time of prayer and singing. We pray that "Jericho's walls will fall!", As it is written in an English song:

Lift high the banners of love, Hallelujah!

Sound the trumpets of war!

Christ has gotten us the victory, Hallelujah!

Jericho must fall!

The body of Christ is an army

Fighting power unseen,

Bringing the captives to freedom

In the Name of Jesus, our King.

Brothers, are you sure of your calling?

Will you fight for Jesus the King?

Are you prepared in this battle

To lay down your lives for your friends?

We must stand in unity,

By the Spirit made strong;

Stand with Jesus our Captain,

And fight till God's kingdom has come.

Preach the Saviour crucified,

Dead and risen again.

Come against the powers of darkness

In His glorious Name.

In the name of God the Father,

In the name of Jesus his Son,

And in the name of the Spirit,

We will fight till we are called home.

That's all from us for today!

May the Love, Blessing and Shalom of Christ keep you and guide you every day!

P.S. We were ask to provide our bank account somewhere. If you are reading on a cell phone, you'd have to go to the very bottom and click on "Web Version", and then it will show you again at the very bottom.

Please use it only if God puts it on your heart. Thank you!

Let's go: On our way to Croatia

Travel day #8

Dear friends, brothers and sisters in Christ,

we write to you from Hartenstein in Saxony, Germany, where we are staying with my (Harry's) sister and enjoy a few quiet days after two very busy, exhausting, yet also blessed weeks!

June 24th was Harry's last working day at the Christian High school in Doberlug-Kirchhain. Before that, and especially afterwards, we were busy packing boxes, dismantling furniture, giving notice for and cancelling all kinds of things and "signing out of" Germany. Thank God we were able to rent the attic room above our old apartment and stored our belongings there for our move to a Croatian place later. That took most of June 25th and 26th.

On June 28th, we were actually able to paint the entire apartment, so the next day we could look for fitting roof racks and a roof box for our car since, while moving out, we were forced to realize that not everything we wanted to take with us for the next few months was going to fit inside the car. All this fast renovating, organizing and packing up was possible thanks to the help of many friends, especially from our home group in DoKi. Without the numerous hands cooking for us, packing with us, carrying boxes and furniture upstairs, helping to renovate and looking after the children, everything would have taken much longer and would have been much more stressful.

My dad also wanted to come to help renovating, but my mom had to go to the hospital unexpectedly. The Lord heard the many prayers for her and she was actually able to attend the family reunion just last weekend! Nobody would have thought that five days earlier.

We drove to the reunion last Friday after we said goodbye to Luna's mom in Berlin on Wednesday and had a lot to pack, buy and organize on Thursday. We are also grateful for wonderful farewell moments from our church family in DoKi, the night before we left as well as in church the Sunday before and at our farewell party in the garden on June 13th.

The family reunion took place where my mum grew up in Thüringen. There is a nice campsite by the lake there. Some of my five siblings camped with their families, others had an apartment. We stayed at my aunt's house. Because of the corona uncertainty, we had a rather relaxed set-up this time without fixed gathering times or meals, but that also contributed to a relaxed, happy weekend. On Sunday morning we celebrated a nice service together with a theater performance of the parable of the two sons (Luke 15).

What's next?

Next week we would like to visit a friend in the Black Forest, who had repeatedly invited us before. Now we are free to take the time to visit her. :-)

Then it's off to Croatia!
Many will know that we actually wanted to live, work and learn in a friendly Christian community in New Zealand for nine months. But New Zealand has been keeping the borders closed for foreigners - God knows whether we can go there soon or only much later.

In Croatia we want to follow the mission Jesus gave to his disciples:
"When you enter a town ... heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’" (Luke 10: 8-9)
Jesus repeated a call several times (see Mt 10.7-8; Mk 16, 15-18; Joh 20.21, Acts 1.8) and in the book of Acts we see how the followers of Jesus carried out precisely this call. At no point is it withdrawn or modified, so it applies to us today as well as the promises of Jesus that go with it:

"Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Mt 28:20)

We do not yet know where exactly we will start, where we will find a church community and look for an apartment. We trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who will always show us the next steps.

Luna and I do not consider it presumptuous or naive to go into the unknown, because we have experienced over many years how God keeps his promises faithfully and that his word is absolutely reliable and still alive today.
There are also other Christians who experience the same thing. "The Last Reformation" has many encouraging videos on YouTube. In the following example Thorben shares some testimonies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4d9oAr4oec

God does not call every Christian to leave his home, family, etc. and serve Him elsewhere. Nevertheless, everyone can experience that Jesus' words still apply today in his home town. We want to encourage all of our brothers and sisters in Jesus to reach out for everything He has in store for us!

We pray that the peace of Christ, His Shalom, may rest upon you!
We will write again soon,

Harry, Luna, Junia and Amos

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