Dear English-speaking friends,
it all happened very quickly. Three weeks ago Luna received a call in response to an application, which she had already sent in early December. Next day was the skype interview. We immediately had the impression that this was from God.
After the interview there was another one, then more formalities, then two weeks ago training started and today she is already finishing her third week of work.
The employer is called "QExperience" and is based in Zagreb, but most of the employees have been working from home since March 2020. "QExperience" offers customer service, especially for German or English speaking countries. Luna works in customer service for the German company "Unzer", who customize online and in-store payment solutions for its customers.
For this purpose she now has a corner with work desk in the bedroom. The laptop, screen and accessories were delivered to her by mail from Qx. She now sits there for 7 hours Monday-Friday (with 1 hour break in between), either in the morning from 7 a.m. or in the afternoon from 2 p.m., processes customer inquiries, forwards them to the right contact person at "Unzer" or answers telephone calls. Together with her there are 2-3 other colleagues each shift who can usually cover the work pretty well.
Luna got used to the work pretty quickly. She likes her whole team; her team leader is called "Emanuel", which to us is a little divine confirmation of this job, because Emanuel (= Jesus) has been her boss for the last 22 years already. :-)
(Also Harry's school headmaster, when he started his last job, was called Immanuel. ^^)
Due to Luna's employment, it will finally be possible to register Harry in the Croatian system, because for this we have to show a regular income and health insurance for Luna, which is now provided for. We are also pleased that, for that German company, she only works Monday to Friday with no night shifts. The contract will initially run for three months and then we are excited to see how it will continue. The work as such is not very hard, but rather nice and quiet, compared to working in kindergarten. Over time, however, there will be more responsibilities that they will have to tackle together as a team. Only sitting for so long is a bit strenuous, but it can be endured with enough exercise outside of working hours and healthy muscles that were built up up to this point throughout the last year. This job is a real blessing: not a lot of stress, Luna is comfortable at home, does not have to drive to her work place and the loved ones are always around the corner. :-D
So I (Harry) now take on most of the cooking, housekeeping and looking after the precious little ones. Usually that's not a problem for me either; I like to cook and I know how important it is to spend time with my children - after all, they are the first two disciples the Lord gave us. ;-)
Often times it all works very well. Luna can take a break for dinner or lunch and the children can also come over to show her something or say goodnight.
Sometimes in the evenings I'm very tired of everything. I also have to admit that while my mind knows this is important work for me, my man's heart now and then feels in the wrong place. Normally God has just appointed men to be providers for the family (see e.g. Genesis 3:17, 1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12) and women as his counterpart and helper, mother and manager of the house (1 (Moses 2.18; 3.16; Titus 2.3ff, Proverbs 31.10-31). So what I feel is God's normal order that he has placed in us (... plus the world's distortion of what is and isn't important!).
On the other hand, I know that God has deliberately ordered our life like this right now. A few reasons for it are already visible: I can continue to divide my time relatively freely to create space for prayer, evangelism, discipleship training with brothers and sisters or preparing teachings for the fellowship. Whenever I find an hour for it, I keep learning Croatian grammar. I practice vocabulary every day anyway, but most of the practice comes from everyday encounters in the city or fellowship with brothers and sisters. (In most cases I can make myself understood and roughly understand what others are trying to tell me. I also memorized the Gospel in Croatian, with many Bible verses in between, which I can read out then).
In addition, as already mentioned, I can give our children the attention they need, a loving upbringing and child-appropriate "discipleship". After all, that is a father's job as well (see Proverbs 22: 6; Ephesians 6: 4). When I think about it, I realize I had kept telling God that I would be happy to take a job if he wanted me to. But he didn't show me anything like that, but rather put it on Luna's heart to write a few applications, which was at the end of November/beginning of December.
Now, because of her work, Luna of course has less time for her art, but that's not a problem. So far she's sold almost everything she painted, but that was all within our community. There have not yet been any online inquiries so far. So she can continue to create something without pressure when the Spirit guides her to do so or when someone would like to buy a canvas.
In addition to this recent change, we experience a fairly regular everyday life: Harry drives Junia to school, either in the morning or in the afternoon, and picks her up again, at home she then has to do her homework and plays alone, with Amos or her new neighbor friend. Amos also likes to play alone or with mom or dad. The last few days we very much enjoyed the 30 cm of snow that fell on Sunday. We built a snow cave and snowmen and the children went sledding with friends, while Luna and I were able to go on a wonderful winter forest walk. :-)
Wednesday and Saturday evenings we meet as a house church, as always, and each time with great blessings. On Thursdays two brothers and I go out to evangelize, to pray for the sick, and before or after we sit down for fellowship and prayer. Now and then we come together as a group of men. Thursday evening we have discipleship via WhatsApp with someone in Germany; On Sunday evening Luna goes with another sister to a younger sister whom they disciple together. There have been some recent attacks on our community that have drawn us deeply into prayer and worship. God lets us experience spiritual victories through it all.
"In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
(Romans 8:37)
The attacks also strengthen our unity. We go forward together in the belief that God wants to start new house churches through us, who will bring forth new disciples and new house churches of their own in their time!
Sometimes we are allowed to serve others in a special way: Once we visited a young family about 45 minutes away, in which the man is caught in false religious mixed beliefs, but the woman has already started to live with Jesus. Luna was able to encourage her in her walk.
Another time, Harry got an unexpected opportunity to pray for a neighbor's friend. First his knee pain disappeared, which had stopped him from working, and after he jumped up and down a bit and then came back for prayer for his marriage against the quarrels with his wife.
We have also gotten in contact with a few neighbors here and have been able to pass on parts of the gospel. Luna was already able to give testimony at work and pray for a colleague. But we also continue to pray for more open doors to witness for Jesus - for our liking, it could be more. :-P
Family: Luna's grandmother recovered quickly from the constricted blood vessel in the neck and the associated minor stroke and hospital stay in December. Last week she was operated on the left artery, where a bypass was placed and thank God that was also successful. She is resting a lot now, but can move around on her own, which is a great blessing because the doctors had predicted 6 weeks of recovery time.
Earthquake: We haven't felt anything for a few weeks, but there are still aftershocks in the region around Petrinja. Unfortunately, it is not possible to predict whether another big quake will come or not.
In a nutshell: We are doing great. :-D
How are you?
God bless you and He makes you lie down in green pastures with fresh water and leads you on the right path! (Psalm 23:3)
Greetings, 2 kisses left and right and lots of hugs,
The Mullers from Karlovac :-)
