Skip to main content

A Time to Sow and a Time to Reap

Seasons like this confirm God’s sovereignty in our lives and ministry! This fall has brought along completely unexpected opportunities that we are excited to share with you!

During the week Croatian students were heading back to school, we received a phone call inviting us to come to the high-school in Orahovica and be guest English teachers. They asked us to teach 2 classes a month for each of the eight high-school classes –making a total of 16 hours each month until Christmas.

If you remember, two years ago we were in the same high-school offering after- school English workshops for those who wanted to stay and practice their English. Though it has been nearly two years, they remembered what we had done and wanted us to supplement the current English program with the same sort of English activities we did back then.

Having more experience now, in addition to already knowing several of the students through baseball has opened more doors than we imagined.

In many ways we feel like we are reaping from our work at the beginning of our time in Orahovica. At the same time we know this is just the beginning of our efforts to plant seeds.

Our goal in teaching English is to be a positive presence in the high-school as we try to touch upon values we believe can be influential in the teenager’s lives.

For example, during one of Petra’s classes she talked about goals and how important it is for us to be thinking about our future. If you are to ask most high-schoolers what they want to do in life, they wouldn’t be able to tell you. Our desire is to demonstrate the importance of hope and vision in each of their individual lives.

Praise the Lord for his provision. We feel like this has been one of many open doors we’ve been able to take advantage of since our ministry here began a couple years ago. Please pray that we will continue to see fruit from our work in the Orahovica High School.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Exciting News

We're moving to Zagreb! In May we accepted an invitation to work with an evangelical church in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. We will be working with a young, vibrant evangelical church whose pastor we’ve known for more than ten years. This is an exciting opportunity for our family! Zagreb, Croatia Moving to the capital is significant for our kingdom work: Zagreb is Croatia’s leading city,  a place where lots of young people go to college and begin their careers. A prominent leader recently said, “Where the people go, the gospel needs to go.” We are honored to serve alongside a pastor whose vision we share while filling a need for full-time workers. Jeremy’s role: Teaching Bible studies. Leading the national scout ministry he began three years ago. Preaching occasionally and teaching English. Petra’s focus: Preparing the kids for their new school and preschool situations. Transitioning our family to city life. As things stabilize she will also take on minis...

Keep It Going

I flew into Buffalo, NY late Saturday night and drove with my parents to a skilled nursing facility where my grandparents live. I had come to the States for one reason - to join the celebration of my grandparents' 70th anniversary. It had been a last-minute decision, so it came as a surprise to my grandparents. As I sat with my grandmother while the others were preparing for the party, I asked her if she had any advice for those of us with less experience. "Keep it going," she said simply. Then a few minutes later I overheard a conversation my grandfather was having with one of the guests. Upon learning that they were celebrating their 40th anniversary on the same day, he said "Keep it going." Hearing the same words from the two people who have kept it going for 70 years made an impression on me. In fact, the more I thought about the message I realised there were two very important implications. First was the obvious one: commitment. In our 10 years of...

Love and Marriage

We often pray that God gives us discernment and guidance as we try to figure out what parts of our ministry to let go of and what possible new things He wants us to be involved in. One of our biggest prayers is that no part of our work ever exists because of tradition or because of our own desire or need for it. We aim to work in accordance to His will. Family and marriage ministry is not something either of us really considered much when we first started working here but God has really been leading us and it is increasingly becoming a bigger part of our work. As we mentioned in previous newsletters, we began a couples small group. We are now privileged to be just one of the almost 30 small groups that meet all over Croatia in affiliation with the organization ‘Family Life’. The Croatian ‘Family Life’ team has been a huge help and blessing to our marriage and family ministries. Together we were able to organize a one-day marriage seminar in October that 17 couples attended. The re...