In the third week of June I went down to Croatia! After a few years of not having missionaries there, we were re-launching camps this year. It was a long drive, broken up with an overnight with some missionary friends in Slovenia. But within ten minutes of arriving in Split I was walking along this little beach - which was a great reward for the drive!
I was in Split to see where our missionaries live and serve, and to see their short term team orientation. When the short term team arrived we spent some time touring Split, and hearing the history of this place, which was fascinating and gave us insights into the culture that really impacts how we share the Gospel.
The rest of the day was spent in the little church building in Split - I'm taking the photo from the back of the church - I think there are 20-30 seats in the church. I loved hearing John and Mladen share their heart and vision for the country of Croatia. It often happens when I travel, but I was definitely ready to stay! (And, after my car got towed away from camp, staying was definitely looking like a possibility!)
We also spent time in training on the various aspects of camp like leading small groups, sharing the Gospel, and I gave some tips on how to teach English.
The theme for camps this year was "Did you get my message?" And the talks looked at stories from creation to the cross that showed the redemptive arc of Scripture. Above we have John giving the talks and Mladen translating.
The team found out just a couple of days before camp that they had to wash the dishes after each meal. So this was my view on many days, as I much preferred freeing our full time staff and the short term team up to connect with students. It's a joy to get to travel to camps and serve in whatever capacity I'm needed once I get there!
It was Euro time and one night at camp we watched Croatia play - and, though it was rather nail biting, they won!
Camp was an incredible experience for these students and it was a joy to see them become more confident in their English, and process the stories and what the implications were for their lives.
The camp was kind of in the middle of nowhere but beside this beautiful church.
On the last night of camp students went through a labyrinth - a series of multi sensory stations designed to help them process what they learnt during the week.
And then there was a bonfire to close out camp well!
The theme for camps this year was "Did you get my message?" And the talks looked at stories from creation to the cross that showed the redemptive arc of Scripture. Above we have John giving the talks and Mladen translating.
The team found out just a couple of days before camp that they had to wash the dishes after each meal. So this was my view on many days, as I much preferred freeing our full time staff and the short term team up to connect with students. It's a joy to get to travel to camps and serve in whatever capacity I'm needed once I get there!
It was Euro time and one night at camp we watched Croatia play - and, though it was rather nail biting, they won!
Camp was an incredible experience for these students and it was a joy to see them become more confident in their English, and process the stories and what the implications were for their lives.
The camp was kind of in the middle of nowhere but beside this beautiful church.
On the last night of camp students went through a labyrinth - a series of multi sensory stations designed to help them process what they learnt during the week.
And then there was a bonfire to close out camp well!
I am so glad I could be in Croatia as we re-launched camps there! It was a joy to spend the week with Croatian students and our team there and I really think we'll look back at this week and see that God started something really cool during this time.
(And for those of you wondering, I got my car back on Thursday and managed to drive it the 11 hours home without any incidents - except for all the road works that made it turned an 8 hour journey into 11 hours!)
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