Encouraging Weekend

The past few days have been very interesting and full of adventures. On Thursday Stacey and I both had several readers not show up. Although we were slightly discouraged we were able to spend some of our time helping organize the church library. On the bright side, all of our readers that had to miss called and rescheduled for next week. In addition, we had good reading sessions with the few readers that did show up. I once again got the opportunity to go on a walk with one of my readers and her children who come on an almost daily basis. I really enjoyed the walk. It was a great bonding experience.

We spent most of the day on Friday exploring the capitol city of Zagreb. Despite the fact that we accidentally got on the wrong train and almost went to Slovenia, we had a great day. We spent some time just walking around and soaking up the culture of the city. It gave Stacey and I an opportunity to build our relationship even more. I feel like we get along very well and work great as a team!

Today (Saturday) was great! The church put on a youth gathering for teens and children from all around Croatia. Stacey and I were able to meet and build relationships with other people from around Croatia. In addition to this, we were able to meet another LST team working in another part of Croatia. The team consisted of two men who were very experienced with LST (one had been on 16 trips). It was encouraging to hear their experience. It seems like they are having a very similar experience as we are in regards to number of readers and reader response. It was nice and refreshing to talk to another American LST team. Stacey and I sat in on the teen class. One lady was nice enough to translate what was being said to us. The teens discussed how having an identity with Christ affects their everyday life. It was a very good and thought provoking discussion. Afterwards, Stacey and I played Mafia with some on the teens. It was a lot of fun. In all I think there were more than 30 people in attendance, which is very good. This evening at seven the church hosted another great event. Mike Armour, the president of Eastern European Missions, came to speak at the church. He had written a book entitled New Comers Guide to the Bible. He talked about why he decided to write the book. After communist Russia fell the education minister wanted to increase ethics and morals among the young people of Russia. So he wanted to promote the Bible in public schools. The problem was that many people in Russia had no exposure to the Bible. Therefore he asked Mike to write a book that was 230 pages long and gave an introduction to the Bible that someone who had never seen a Bible before would understand. Since the book was published over a million copies and has been distributed around the world, but primarily in Eastern Europe and Russia. Mike gave every person in attendance a free autographed book that had been translated in Croatian by Peter (the missionaries son). After Mike spoke a saxophonist from Slovenia put on a mini concert. He was very good. In all I think there was close to 50 people who attended this event. It was a great outreach to church members and non-church members alike. Afterwards, Stacey and I talked to Mike for quite awhile and learned a lot about Eastern Europe and missions in general. In addition to all this, 3 new readers signed up today. Today was a great day!

God Bless,
Katie

I will tell my people about your name, I will praise you within the congregation.

Psalms 22:22