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Beginning of this year, in our last post, we shared with you how God provided for us during the first year and a half here in Croatia. A lot has happened since then, but we were too busy to write it down. Here are some stories from us we hope will encourage you:
New job for Harry - Back to the outdoor industry
Since last October I'd been riding my bicycle for 20-25 hours a week delivering fast food and other meals in Karlovac. As the temperatures rose more and more in May, this became more and more difficult, at least during the day. I asked my (divine) Papa if I should continue this work through the summer on the hot asphalt and in the stuffy city air. The answer came a few days later through my wife. She forwarded me an ad from the company "Turizam Kupa Sports" looking for outdoor guides for rafting/kayaking and other activities. At first I didn't even want to look into it because I knew that there would be long days of being away from home with a job like this. Finally, I looked at the website and put the matter in God's hands - He would know best.
And so it came that from the end of May I worked as an outdoor guide - mainly on the rivers Kupa and Mrežnica, where rafting or kayaking was on the program, depending on the water level. It was a steep learning curve, guiding groups down white-water rivers the first time after almost 10 years, even if I had been able to paddle here and there since. Yet God gave me grace and after less than 2 months I was already guiding by myself. In spring and autumn we hosted a good number of Croatian companies. They call that "team building" here - but without team-building training program; they compensate that with more alcohol. In addition to the river adventure, such a day also includes culinary hospitality and other activities such as hiking, paintball, "Village Olympics"-games or cooking on a tripod over the campfire. Then, during the high season, we had between 15 and 30 tourists almost every day on our beautiful Mrežnica waterfalls tour.
I had agreed with Marijan on a 30-hour week and at least one day off on the weekend, because our biggest concern was that family and marriage would suffer under the job. Overall it was a very blessed season. I have enjoyed taking people into nature and have had many opportunities to share my testimony of how God brought us to Croatia, which, for Croatians, is a very unusual decision, since many Croatians go to Germany for work. Yet in August, after my colleague had a car accident and was out for 2 weeks, and in October there was so much work that I got to my limits. The Lord faithfully helped us through these times.
Currently I'm preparing the programs for next season on the computer, working on the website and advertising and taking over part of the customer contact in English and German. This comes out at around 10 hours per week, which suits me well, because now I have more time for the children again and Luna doesn't have to do so much around the house in addition to her full-time job. More importantly, November/December has been a time for me, where the Lord has rekindled His fire and His Spirit of prayer in me!
Luna's team is growing - and are her responsibilities
In my (Luna's) work in the service team for corporate customers at a large German financial services provider, I'm now taking on more and more responsibility. The team is growing and new employees have to be trained and an employee manual created, while ongoing tasks also take time. Again I realize that coaching suits me very well, that I enjoy it and that it always seems to come back to me. Hopefully we will soon officially receive allowance for the position of a coach, so that I can focus mainly on this area. I'm currently doing a lot: dispatching incoming tickets (assigning inquiries from business customers to one of the 20 or so groups and employees), which is my actual main task, writing the manual, coaching, helping colleagues with questions every day and standing in for the team leader in his absence, as well as some additional duties. God has given me a wonderful team, where the atmosphere is mostly joyful and harmonious. This in itself is a valuable gift and a miracle in the work place. Because we are in a (Microsoft Teams) meeting together throughout the whole working time, we help each other and there are always opportunities for deeper conversations and to tell about Jesus. Colleagues are also grateful and open to prayer. After a long period of relatively high stress and pressure, things are currently calmer, partly because the team has grown and the work load are now shared between more shoulders. In addition to sitting at the laptop a lot, I stay fit with shorter or longer sports sessions. And sometimes, when there really isn't much going on, I can even bake cookies with the kids or do other things on the side. :-)
Late summer and fall
(Harry writing again)
In the summer, Luna wasn't able to take more vacation than was necessary for our trip to Germany. Nevertheless, we went to "Zagorje" with her grandma for a few days, to stay in grandma's cottage, and then another week to Rijeka, where her dad spent his summer vacation. She simply took her laptop and router with her. Grandpa, Luna and the kids went to the beach (in Rijeka) after 4 o'clock, when Luna was off work. In the evening, I came home from work and picked them up there.
At the end of October, God gave the four of us a short vacation of 5 days by the sea. It was a beautiful time and felt very refreshing after a busy summer. We decided to leave the cell phones off while on holiday. Thanks to wetsuits from my work, the children were in the water every day. On the way back we finally visited the famous Plitvice Lakes National Park with its hundreds of waterfalls and 16 lakes of turquoise water. An absolute dream, a piece of the new world, it seemed to us. "Coincidentally", Luna met one of her colleagues there, whom she otherwise only hears through the headset or sees on the screen. In addition to his job in the team, he is also a tourist guide and was out and about with a group in the park on that very day.
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Trip to Germany in July
The annual Müller family reunion in Mama's hometown of Breitungen an der Werra was planned for mid-July, so we intended to come to Germany then. Our loving Father confirmed this plan through good-old friends from Canada who told us a few months earlier that God had put it on their hearts to send us a larger sum of money. It arrived a few days before we left and was sufficient for almost all expenses including three overnight stays and the due car inspection including minor repairs (our dear Renault Scenic is still registered in Germany). God is so good and always faithful.
We left early on Saturday morning and arrived in Heidelberg, Western Germany, around 5pm, where we had booked two nights in a guest house. That evening I, and the next day we all, went to "Die Taube" ("The Dove Church") whose YouTube broadcasts of worship, sermons and prayers are a great encouragement to us here in Croatia. On Sunday afternoon there was a church service where people prayed especially for healing - Praise God, since then I haven't had any more problems with nightly leg cramps, which I had been struggling with for over half a year, in spite of magnesium supplements.
There we also met some good friends from the Black Forest, Berlin and Denmark - it was a very happy and encouraging reunion!
After that we spend a very pleasant week with my sister in the mountains of East Germany, with visits to and excursions with my other sister, her children and my parents, who all live in the same town. We then went to the middle of Germany for the family reunion, from Friday to Sunday, with all of them, my other siblings, as well as some relatives from Mama's side. It felt so good to see everyone again, sharing stories and news, seeing the nephews and nieces growing up etc. Also, Dad's birthday was on that Saturday. After a joint church service on Sunday, most of them drove home again, while we made our way to our old home in Doberlug-Kirchhain on Monday..
In our old home town, our former neighbor Sabine hosted us in our "very own" former apartment, since she had moved into it in the meantime. Everything was familiar to us again in an instant, and yet we were guests that week and enjoyed it as such. The second evening our entire former house church got together for a little garden celebration and worship, plus some brethren and sisters who had joined since we left. This was a truly uplifting for us, as was another worship evening later this week. We went for swims with friends and once to another town visiting other friends there, which made the week full, beautiful and meaningful. In fact, the best and most satisfying thing about this trip for us was that we could pray with and for friends and relatives and praise God together so much. All sightseeing, pleasant conversations and delicious meals do not come close to the deep pleasure of spiritual communion. :-)
That Saturday it was time for us to head home. We quickly booked accommodation in the Czech Republic on the border with Austria for one night so that we didn't have such an exhausting return journey after two very full weeks. They had a swimming pool there and a playroom for children, much to the kids' delight. Along the way, we stopped for an hour in Prague and the next day at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna - speed sightseeing, so to speak. That way we arrived back in our Croatian homeland on Sunday evening.
Bikes stolen, car damaged
In the months after our return, unfortunately, already existing problems with our neighbor took on a sharper form. First, the children's bicycles disappeared from the building, which is only accessible to residents. Other neighbors found Amos' bike in the pond next to our apartment building, which thank God was dry at the time. But Junia's bike was never found, so a few weeks later we had to get her another one. Of course we suspected the man who lives below us because he is very aggressive towards others and has been causing problems for years. Often, when the children forget themselves and run around the apartment playing, he yells insults from below. On the other hand, he sometimes leaves his radio on all night or plays very loud music for an hour or two. He could have stolen the bikes out of revenge and thrown them somewhere when we were not intimidated by his threats and hostilities. - Once in a few months he swears at us when we meet him outside or on the stairs, and then we usually don't say much, but bless him in the name of Jesus and tell him that God loves him.
However, that doesn't mean we're pretending that everything's fine. Once before, Luna had called the police when he turned on loud music in the middle of the night. That seemed to help. Then, one morning in September, one tail light on our car was smashed in, and the following morning the other tail light as well, plus both side mirrors and all windshield wipers. What a grievous experience! I filed a complaint against unknown (because we couldn't find any solid evidence against our neighbor) and was able to have our suspicions recorded. We also installed a "dash cam" in the car, about which I told him when we met in the parking lot, and so far that seems to have stopped him from demolishing our car again. Thank God.
All of that certainly isn't pretty, yet it reminds us and the children to pray for him, not to be afraid, and to trust God in everything, even when things are out of our control. That is why we are even grateful for these attacks, because it helps increase our faith. "Bless your enemies" in real life. If you are aware that people never are our enemies, but rather the evil, spiritual powers of darkness behind them (see Eph. 6), then you also have a completely different attitude towards such people - and you know how and for what have to fight in prayer. That doesn't mean that you have to put up with everything and allow others to insult you. For me (Luna) it is clear that the next time the neighbor stops me in the stairwell, stands in my way and throws insults and hateful words at me in front of my children, I will call the police. That is clearly a crossing the line, which is about mutual respect and human dignity, and we don't have to put up with such behavior as Christians (also, this is not persecution for Christ's sake). But here, as always, it is important for us to give our anger, fear and bitterness over to God, to forgive and to continue to pray.
House church - Growth on the inside, not the outside
Our house church is also growing – even if it looks different than we all imagined a year or two ago. We are not there (yet?) where we regularly lead others to Jesus and form similar churches in their homes. Instead, we as a small group grew closer together and into Jesus. Yet, there is fruit on the outside as well: All of us have opportunities here and there to encourage other believers, to pray for people and see God answer and to share those testimonies with others. Recently, two sisters who work as physiotherapists in a small hospital were able to pray for an older Baptist sister who had fallen into severe depression and who had been believed Satan's lies that the best thing for her was to go to the nursing home and to die there with her mother (to name just one of the many lies she was deceived by.) After a few weeks of sustained prayer (by us as well as the baptist church) and of our two sisters visiting her, they saw how God had pity on this woman and delivered her completely within days! Now she's running around, happily sharing what God has done for her, enjoying the little things of life and taking care of everyday matters, all of which someone in depression doesn't do. Jesus is able to do what psychologists and psychotropic drugs cannot do, because they do not identify or treat the spiritual causes of mental problems. Jesus himself is life, He has conquered death and gives lives to us, who ask for it! SLAVA BOGU! (Praise God!)
Encouraged by such works of the Lord, we keep praying for our city, our country, for Germany and also for you abroad, expecting the doors to open for the gospel of Jesus, signs and wonders to happen and for God Himself to establish his kingdom in our culture and society. That is possible and there are many testimonies of this, even in the midst of this evil time.
Light into Darkness, Truth against Lies
How important it is that, as children of God, we stand on the truths of God and resist the lies of the enemy. He comes to steal our joy, destroy our relationships, and kill us—and if we believe his lies, he does just that to us. But God's will is that we have life in abundance, that we have joy and a deep inner peace in Him. We want to encourage you to proclaim this as a prayer into any darkness in your life, wherever the kingdom of darkness seems to have power over you. Jesus wants to shine light in those areas. Therefore, it is important to have as a foundation our identity in Christ. We are kings and priests, we are not tail but head, we are Jesus' brothers and sisters, co-heirs with Christ, children of the most high God. And nothing less! This is not dependent on our piety, but solely on whether we put all our trust in Jesus. When we are aware of our identity as adopted sons and daughters of the Father, and meditate on His Word of truth every day, we can discern the enemy's lies, resist them with the truth, and see them lose their power. Light destroys the darkness.
We want to encourage you to understand, accept and live this area of your identity more deeply in the new year. "You are a God who sees me" is a motto verse in Germany for the year 2023. How wonderfully encouraging it is that our dad notices us, is happy about us, admonishes us with love and so enjoys spending time with us! Take time to just sit in the father's lap, let yourself be loved and simply enjoy his presence.
But Jesus' light does not only destroy the darkness in individual hearts - He also wants to change entire cities, countries or social trends. Some time ago we received a report from the German-speaking Pregnancy Counselling Initiative "1000+". Through God's grace they were able to reach more than 100,000 women in German-speaking countries this year, giving them practical help and encouraging them to bring their babies into the world. Over 1,000,000 visitors viewed their website. Viewed against the 95,000 abortions in Germany in 2021 (5% less than in the previous year), 1,000+ is now publicly-known network and one can therefore say that a pregnant woman in a conflict situation finally can choose help from qualified counselors who stand up for life. A few years ago this "market" was occupied almost exclusively by "pro-choice" counselors (for whom abortion might be the best solution). This is a great change in society for which we are thankful to our Lord - even as we pray for the change to continue!
Mountains are moved by faith. Faith is not faith, when it sees the results before it, but when it expects and asks for things, trusting in the ruler of history. Far too often we join in with the general complaints about prices, the energy crisis, the evil politicians here as well as in the East and let Satan scare us. Thereby, we dishonor God because by our complaints we prove that we don't trust Him to carry out His plans, nevermind in which situation!
Not only did Jesus pay for our sins on the cross, but he also achieved victory over all the powers of darkness! There is power in the blood of Jesus, sufficient for every challenge of our time. Do you believe Him?
Let us never get tired of believing, thanking, praying, pleading, and seeing our great God work miracles for ourselves, our family, friends, our city, and our country.
"Over and out - That's the way it should be!"
(Meaning "Amen". Quote from a Christian children's book that we're currently reading.) 😀
Be blessed!
