Bohall Ministry

Despite the fact that it began in the U.S., I hadn't heard of Royal Rangers before I moved to Croatia. But as of this writing, I've been serving as the Croatian National Coordinator for 11 years. It was a role I was reluctant to take on at the beginning. In fact, I accepted only becasue it was the only way I could use Royal Rangers as a tool in our local church where there were a number of pre-teen guys I was discipling.  I also qualified my agreement by expressing my desire to hand it off to someone from Croatia one day. I didn't feel that it made sense for a foreigner to lead this ministry long-term.  That moment came in early November when my good friend Danijel officially became the National Coordinator of RR.  Danijel's been working with me from the beginning. Together, we attended our first training camp in western Serbia in 2011. He has been a trusted friend and advisor, always ready to help in whatever way he possible can. Handing this ministry off to Danijel ha...

" One generation shall commend your works to another ." - Psalm 145:4 Royal Rangers workshop at Kids Camp Orahovica 2022 Jeremy here. Although I wasn't at Kids Camp this summer, the picture above jumped out at me as I was looking through the highlights on social media. Besides the fact that it was taken in Orahovica, a place we lived for nine years and have spent most of the summers since, the man on the right is a friend of mine and a significant part of the time we spent in Orahovica. His name is Filip and he was six years old when we moved to Croatia.  Filip was one of the first boys in our baseball ministry back in 2007 when I invited whoever wanted to come to the local soccer field to learn how to hit and play catch. He was a young teenager when we began Royal Rangers in Orahovica. And this past week, he led the Royal Rangers workshop at Kids Camp. We're thankful for Filip and his desire to commend the Lord's work to the next generation.  To be clear, this is...

Due to Covid restrictions, this summer's plans were up in the air until as recently as mid-May. Should we host camps even if cafes (a European and Croatian staple) aren't open inside? Will we be able to meet all the requirements for social distancing? But on the other side, we were already way past our normal deadline for finding volunteers and speakers to be at the camps.  In the end, we decided to hold Teen Camp and a modified version of Kids Camp - Royal Rangers Kids Camp. This would mean that Petra would work at Teen Camp and both of us would be 100% involved in the RR Kids Camp. In fact, it meant that 5 of the 7 Bohalls would be at camp while our oldest - Enoh - and youngest - Mihej - stayed with their  baka (grandmother) for the week. We had a fantastic team of volunteers who led small groups, planned various events and prepared various scouting activities like setting up tents, preparing bonfires and workshops. The theme for this camp was "Serving God, the local chu...

As is true of so many segments of life, our scout ministry has been affected by the pandemic. We've had fewer and shorter meetings since the virus came to Croatia in February. Last Monday was the third day of a three-day weekend and a beautiful day for a hike. We took advantage of it.   I (Jeremy) have the pleasure of leading Royal Rangers with one of my good friends, Danijel K. His two oldest boys (middle) are pictured here with our two oldest boys. I am so thankful for the friendship our two families have. 

As we head into the fall and winter, there will be several changes to our ministry.  First of all, Jeremy has begun a Masters degree in Theology (MTh) at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek—which is only about an hour from Orahovica.  Since he began teaching and preaching several years ago, Jeremy has had a growing awareness of the gift of teaching the Lord has given him.  Please pray with us that the Lord would continue to direct Jeremy’s steps in this endeavor. Secondly, we are praying for wisdom in how to move ahead with youth groups.  The last two years saw tremendous growth in our youth group through baseball, and the opportunity we had to teach in the High School.  But many of those teenagers have graduated and gone off to college.  In the next few months Petra will begin again, but we’re not sure what shape youth groups will take. Thirdly, Jeremy is planning on beginning the Royal Rangers ministry in Orahovica this winter.  Though...