Karlovac, three months after our entry to Croatia
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| Karlovac from the Castle "Dubovac". Orange pointer shows our building, pink pointer shows Junias school direction |
Yes, where do we start ... So much has happened that we did not find the time to publish on the blog!
Maybe we should just start from the back? So, in short: we have moved! Thus, the emigration project is complete, apart from a few official matters! Wow.
We now live in:
Miroslava Krleže 29
47000 Karlovac
CROATIA / HRVATSKA
Our phone numbers (according to our age) are:
095 580 94 31 (Harry)
095 580 94 35 (Luna)
For two weeks we have been living in our pretty, small apartment with a view of the forest and castle, streets, (residential) houses and fields. In the meantime, all the furniture has been set up, boxes emptied and things sorted, a few small repairs done in the apartment and some pictures hung up. Other work is still pending, but we already feel quite at home here.
Fun facts: Here you have to turn on a boiler at night, otherwise you won't have warm water the next day. Why at night? Because there are two electricity rates here, one is the cheaper night rate. Often, families would do their laundry at night.
The heating in our block of flats is supplied by the municipal district heating plant. The locals prefer decentralized heating with wood, because that is probably much cheaper. Well, we'll see, in any case we can turn on the radiator as usual and then it will be warm. At the moment we hardly use it because the heating pipes themselves give off a lot of heat and we also get heat from below on the fourth (top) floor. ;-)
The days are no longer much warmer than in Germany.
In addition, we now cook with gas (from the bottle), which we have always wanted because it is faster, tastes better and one (child) doesn't get burned as quickly as with an electric stove. All very exciting, these country differences!
So, now I have to tell you about God's provision that shows: God provides you with exactly what you need. He has humour. And he knows us. We left our old couch and wardrobe in the old apartment. Now we were shown around here by the previous tenant and she casually said: "Oh, by the way, we would leave the couch and the wardrobe here." Folks, the closet is the closet of my (Luna's) dreams in terms of appearance and layout (Harry finds it practical too)! The (sleeping) sofa is also comfortable and our old furniture fits into the room with an accuracy of one centimetre (inch if you are from across the ocean)!
Also for the actual move from 10.29. until 10.02. God had prepared everything wonderfully. With Kristijan and Juraj, two brothers from the house church, who both could take time off, Harry had wonderful company on the long journeys and the work was done quickly, also thanks to Harry's dad and other helpers. In addition, they still had time for a nice cup of coffee with the dear house group in Doberlug-Kirchhain and an evening with Harry's sisters and Kristijan's brother (from Vogtland) in Hartenstein, (Erzgebirge=Ore Mountains). With many grateful thanks for the help of our Croatian brothers and sisters in Christ, on October 1st. in the evening everything was carried up the four floors within a good two hours!
We are so thankful to God for the many small and large details that he took care of when we didn't even know about the apartment, let alone planned to move to Croatia this year!
The apartment in pictures:
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Panorama picture of the living room
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| Bigger balcony/conservatory, view from the entrance of our bedroom towards the entrance of the living room |
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| Bedroom, in the middle of designating a place for things |
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Hallway seen from our bedroom
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Small toilet/laundry room
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Bathroom with shower
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Kitchen with dining area and a small balcony/conservatory
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Hallway from the entrance
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Sitting area in our living room
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Children's room
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As far as the house church is concerned, it is confirmed again and again that we should be right here and fit into the unity of the body of Christ here like a piece of a puzzle. God is good!!!
We are allowed to learn a lot here about spiritual warfare, about unity in the spirit, and we train the spiritual gifts that serve for mutual edification. We have witnessed and taken part in some wonderful deliverances and many healings. And above all, the (whole) gospel is preached! God always ensures contact with people of peace (see Luke 10: 6) who are ripe for a new birth. In addition, Harry currently goes to the streets for two hours twice a week with one or two brothers. They ask passers-by if they are sick or in pain and would accept prayer, explain the gospel and proclaim Jesus' rule over the city. Sometimes it's not easy, but actually not difficult either, even for Harry in Croatian language. ;-)
One day last week no one was really open to Jesus, until in the end the young brother Juraj, himself only six months in faith, started praying and proclaiming loudly. Shortly afterwards, an African came whose long-standing pain in his leg disappeared in the name of Jesus and to whom we were allowed to explain the gospel over coffee.
Another time in prayer they had the impression that they should go to the train station (although it was raining all day) and that they would meet a woman in a red coat. And that's the way it was! The woman is very open to Jesus and we are curious whether she will make him Lord, too. This type of street work is deliberately based on Jesus' mission commands, e.g .:
"Go and proclaim ... heal the sick ... cast out demons!"
(Matthew 10: 7-8)
In a discipleship training session that I (Harry) recently started doing in self-study, we had to write down all the commands from these mission commands. I tell you that through this exercise you will sharpen your eyes for the mission that we have from Jesus in relation to the many activities that we sometimes put in its place!
Here is the link for those of you who are interested in this extensive and long-proven course:
www.besent.ch (in German and English)
And if you want to read through the sending commands:
Mt 9.37-10.17; Mk 6.7-13; Luke 9: 1-6; Lk 10.1-20 and
Mt 28: 18-20; Mk 16: 15-20; Lk 24: 45-49; John 20: 21-22; Acts 1,4 + 8
A few weeks ago we had a seminar with other brothers and sisters from other connected house churches in Croatia, during which we were able to learn a lot about biblical evangelism and discipleship training. We practiced explaining the gospel to someone within about four minutes. A newly converted woman was baptized and shared her beautiful testimony of how God came into her life. Many of our siblings here have been saved and liberated from New Age and occultism; others come from dead religious systems. It is wonderful to see God's work here and to be used by Him!
Thanks to God, our Junia is doing very well at school. Everything in terms of content is still a breeze for her, her language is developing quickly and she was able to meet some new friends, but also misses her friends in Germany a lot from time to time. The teacher is still young and personable, and, above all, empathetic towards the children, but also clear in her rules. Harry is doing well "at school", namely learning Croatian at home every morning. He practices it during visits and errands. It is going a lot better than a few weeks ago and, hopefully he can have a fluent conversation at some point next year. Amos has just discovered a new way of laughing with which he often makes us laugh. He's usually in a good mood, a funny chap and as long as his balance bike and one of the many balls are around, everything is fine (and of course mum, dad and sister). As a family, we enjoy doing a lot together and are happy that the children now have a routine and their own area again after we were travelling for three months and then there was so much to do here for two weeks. We are currently meeting the individuals from the house church to get to know them better. It is nice to be able to give time and attention to other people, to pray together and to fight together for the kingdom of God. We believers as a family in which babies, teenagers and adults are part of the faith is really a great "invention" of God. How nice that none of us has to stumble through this confusing and dark world alone. This passage from the Bible springs to my mind:
"Two are better off than one, because they are well paid for their efforts. When they fall, one helps the other up. But woe to the one who falls and there is no one to help him up. When two sleep together , they get warm. But how should a single one get warm? One is easy to overpower, but the two hold up. And one triple cord doesn't break that quickly. "
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12
Our God is a God of love and community and that is why he has planted that in us too, because we are his image. You can already see that in the Trinity; it could just as easily be God the Father by himself. But then love would not be love, just self-love. And so we are all invited to the love dance between Father, Son and Spirit and with one another. They will "know from our love for one another that we are His [Jesus] disciples" (John 13:35). Dear ones, we sincerely wish you in your church communities to grow more and more into this love and unity in God! We pray for spiritual renewal if you are in a drought, for maturity if you are still babies in the faith, and that God will cut off everything in your life that must fall away in order to obediently serve Him and be full of fire to be able to help reaping the harvest for His Kingdom through the Spirit through which Jesus rose from the dead and which now lives and works in us all! (Romans 8, 11)
We greet you from Karlovac,
Shalom,
Harry and Luna
