New things to come...

      A lot has happened since my last post.  Through a lot of thought and prayer I have decided to return to the states.  This decision wasn't made lightly; it’s something that I have struggled with for a little while now.  For some time I have been feeling a sense of restlessness in my spirit.  At first I thought it was homesickness, and then wondered if it was what I was or wasn't doing here.  Once I started getting heavily involved, the restlessness still remained.  Going home was never an option for me at the time.  You see I saw that as failing, quitting, or giving up.  I was too afraid of what people would think, if they would be mad, or disappointed.  So I continued, hoping the restlessness would fade.  Unfortunately it didn't. 

It took a long conversation with someone, whose opinion means a lot, for me to realize that when God sends you somewhere for a specific reason at a specific time, His timing is not our timing.  Sometimes He might pull us out before we expect it.  They helped me see that it wouldn't be quitting, that I can be proud of what I have done here, the time I have given. 

Like I said, this wasn't an easy decision, I had many sleepless nights but once the decision was made I had an instant sense of peace.  I feel good about my decision, but on the flip side I have a heavy heart.  I have learned and grown so much over the past year and half.  I have made friendships that I truly believe will last a lifetime.  Not to mention, I love Croatia, I love Europe.  I can say with all my heart that God used my time in Croatia to continue to mold and shape me into the woman of God He wants me to be.    

I believe in what is happening in Croatia.  God is working in ways that still blows my mind.  It humbles me to think that He could use me to further His kingdom here.  I am so excited to look at Croatia 10 years from now and see how it has grown.

I don’t know what the future holds for me.  If I’m honest with you, I’m a little scared to be walking into the unknown, but that’s the exciting part too right?  I know God has big plans for me and I am so excited to see what’s next. 

I can’t thank you enough for all your support, seriously.. THANK YOU

Until the next chapter…

Steph 

My family in Germany!  

Happy New Year all!  December has come and gone so quickly!  I hope you all had a great holiday season, I know I did.  My family was able to come for Christmas and News years.  They arrived in Budapest, from there we spent 4 days in Zagreb.  The day after Christmas we headed to Germany, then on to Switzerland, Italy, and finally ended back in Budapest where they flew out.  It was a great time to see them but also for them to see where I have spent the last year and half of my life. 

My sister and I 

Now we are in full swing in Zagreb.  Amazing things are happening.  THIS Sunday, January 20^th, we are starting a service/bible study type thing.  We are so excited!  It is called International Christian Community.  My role in this is helping the teens with worship and working the children workers preparing the curriculum.  This has been something that we have been wanting to do for a while but just waiting on God’s timing and all of a sudden it was kind of thrown into our laps.  God is good!  I will keep you posted how it goes. 

Another really cool thing that is happening is that we have found a space for a thrift store/community center.  We will be able to move in on March 1^st.  This will be a place where we can serve the community not only by having sales but also providing English classes/camps and many other fun activities.  We are excited to get to know the surrounding community.

Update on Puscine (where the flood hit).  There is still a lot of damage and families are nowhere near from recovering their homes.  Unfortunately it is very cold here right now so it is almost impossible for them to do any work.  They plan to wait until the spring to start working again.  I am starting to go up once a week to work with Karmen on her home and the surrounding area in whatever way I can. 

Update on the car front… I have one!!  God provided through all of you and we were able to purchase a vehicle for me to use for the remainder of my time here!! 

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Right now there is about 2 ½ feet of snow and they are expecting almost another foot by the end of the weekend.  This is the most snow Zagreb has had… EVER.  I am not a huge fan of snow, however I do have to admit that it is pretty cool to be here for this.  Not to mention it is absolutely gorgeous.  I haven’t quite mastered walking in the snow and ice BUT I would like to point out that I have not fallen as of yet.  Fingers crossed it stays that way.

 Until next time
-S

My car is somewhere under there.  

Now that I’ve been back for almost a month, I’ve really begun to start settling in.  I found a semi-permanent home and have made it feel nice and cozy for the holiday season.   Excited to host my very first Christmas in my own place with my family (My parents, sister, AND Grandma are coming for Christmas!). 

Karmen's home, after the water had receded a little

While I was trying to get settled in Zagreb a tragedy hit about an hour away in Puscine.  Last Wednesday Slovenia had a flood that caused a huge wave to come down the river into Croatia and flood the small village of Puscine.  This is where the home of Karmen (One of our partners with the Roma) is.  Unfortunately her entire 1^st floor of her home was flooded.  The water line came to about a foot from the ceiling.  Their church just up the road was also damaged significantly by the water. 

This was the room I stayed every week when
 I would go up and help  Karmen in the Villages

I was able to go up on Saturday to help with whatever I could, at one point I was speaking with Bratko (Karmen’s husband), I just hugged him and said how sorry I was.  He turned to me and said “But you know what, I have my life, I have my family, no one is dead or hurt, so it’s ok”.  I was pleasantly surprised by his attitude.  There is still quite a lot of work to be done but everyone is safe which is the important thing.  It’s been an extremely humbling experience to see how everyone is dealing with this tragedy. 

Something else that is that extremely time sensitive is that we are purchasing a team car for me to use to get back and forth to the Roma villages.  We need this now, in fact there is a car in mind that we are going to look at soon.  The thing is, we have the money for the car but we still need money to pay for insurance and registration.  My district was able to take a love offering for me at a youth event and they raised $300, which is great!  We only need $700 more.  I normally don’t do this, I actually hate doing this, but will you please consider donating $10-$15 toward this project?

If you can give you can give online to the link attached to the side of my blog labbled Stephanie’s Convio.  This is through Nazarene Mission Corps so it is very safe for you to give online.   

This will open so many doors for our ministry not only in the Roma but also in Zagreb.  Thanks for your consideration. 

Please keep the people of Puscine in your prayers.

Until next time

Steph

India, Home, and few places in between..

India was amazing!  We arrived a few days early so we were able to see a bit of Chennai before the conference started.  The conference was incredible.  There was about 260 people there and 19 different nationalities!  So we literally got to meet people from all over the world (or at least Eurasia).  God was really working at this conference; it was a great time of growth.  On our way back to Croatia we had a layover in Istanbul so we went into the city.  It was amazing!  So beautiful!  As promised here are some pictures from India, sorry it took a bit longer to get them to you!  

At the beach in Chennai

Acy!  She is from Indonesia but now lives in Isti More

We had a cultural dance party one night in the girls dorm, this is a girl from Sri Lanka.  What dance did I do you ask?  Why line dancing of course ;)

One of the temples in Chennai

All of the Americans and 2 British

Istanbul!

 

My time spent at home these past couple of months have been amazing!  It was so great to be able to see family and friends, relax, and get some beach time in :).  While being home, I've had a lot of time to think about what this next year is going to look like.  It’s going to be intense but amazing.  God is working in Croatia and I am so blessed to be a part of it.

Now that I’m back in Croatia I've been trying to adjust back into life here, dealing with a little homesickness and some culture shock.  I've been here almost a week now and ready to get started in ministry.    

This time around has been quite different than my last experience.  Yes it’s the same location but some variables have changed.  I've really been trying to figure out where I fit in this time around.  I went to coffee with a friend today, at one point she asked me “Steph, why did you come back?” I told her it’s because of the Roma, they have captured my heart. 

Renaldo

We still don’t know the specifics of what all will be happening or what exactly I will be doing, but God does and I have full faith that God will lead me where to go.  One day at a time. 

Please continue to pray for our team and discernment.

Excited for this new chapter!

Steph

Long Awaited Post... Sorry guys!!

Scotland, the land of Lochs, William Wallace, and… Haggis??

Sorrrrrrryyy guys for the long time lapse.  If it’s any consolation.. I have a good excuse… we went to Scotland!  Dave and Betsy were invited to speak at the North British Isles District Assembly, so Ben and I got to tag along.  Wow where to even begin, the first part of our trip was a mini vacation.  We spoke at a couple of churches and were able to see quite a bit of Scotland.  We went to see the William Wallace monument and the Stirling Castle.  Another day we were able to visit a Loch on probably one of the most beautiful days we had the entire trip.  We were also able to have fish and chips on a couple of occasions, one of which they handed me this fried patty looking thing and told me to eat it… never again .  It was haggis, if you don’t know what it is, look it up.  I think I was the only one that didn’t like it, just couldn’t get past what it was.  But, I can now say that I have had haggis. 

The second part of our trip was the Assembly.  This was by far my favorite part.  One night I was sitting in the service thinking “how cool is this that I’m at a District Assembly in Scotland”.  It blows my mind the opportunities God is providing.  Anyway, back to the Assembly, we were able to meet so many people; a few of them are coming to Croatia for a mission’s trip.  It was great because often you don’t meet your teams until they land at the airport but this Assembly gave us the opportunity to begin to build those relationships.  I’ve got to say, this team is awesome and I’m excited to see what God has in store for them.   

At the Assembly, it really got me excited again about what is happening in Croatia.  It was so encouraging to see so many churches alive and thriving!  It gives me hope about Croatia.  That could be us in a few years; WE could have a District Assembly.  That blows my mind to even think about it!  (There's a lot on mind blowing happening J) There is no doubt in my mind that God has this incredible plan for Croatia and I feel so fortunate to be a part of it! 

Here are a few pictures of the trip:

This was Stirling Castle

The view from William Wallace Monument

The Assembly!

On the train in London
(We had an 8 hour layover in London so we went  into the city for a little while)

New Things Afoot

Hello blog followers. New things are afoot in Croatia for our team and we have been doing some cool things. Steph and I finished our semester of language learning at the end of January, and since then we have been spending time with Roma people and those who regularly work with Roma people. Roma people are gypsy people who live in Croatia who came here after being roamers around europe, I beleive they come from Romania. Anyways, I have been going to an area about an hour away from Zagreb for a few days everyweek to spend time in ministry to these people. They are very friendly, when we get there many kids surround us and we stumble through talking in Croatian and they are awesome people. I have been able to spend some time with a 17 year old guy named Miljenko (Mee-lyen-co), he invited me to drink some Cola with him when we met and he always asks me if i am going to give him my cell phone but I am hoping that I can be a part of Gods grace calling and reaching out to him.

We go to 4 or 5 gypsy villages every week. These people live in very poor conditions and one village that we go to is much worse than the rest. It has less people, only 20 or 30 versus hundreds in other villages. It is very sad to see a 4 year old girl who has to take care of younger siblings and to see little kids walking with no shoes in the snow. They do not have running water and in the worst of the winter we went to try and insulate and patch up some of the holes that they had in their houses as well as give them clothes. Two of the mothers are in wheelchairs and there are so many difficulties in this village. Most of the adults are drunk almost all of the time and this village needs your prayers. In the village that we go to the most, a 31 year old man died from drinking too much alcohol so pray also for his family and that these people would stop their addiction alcohol and turn to God

Good things are happening in these villages as well. There was a convention for the Roma people in January and many of them gave their lives to Christ. We are praying and trying to partner with the people to try and bring adults together for discipleship and possibly help them develop a church in the future. We were invited to come here to do this ministry by a lady named Karmen and when we are not in villages we stay with her at her house. She is a great cook and an amazing person. She has been doing ministry in these villages for many years, mostly with the children and I have been able to help her with her Good News Clubs by playing guitar in Croatian.

When I am in Zagreb on the weekends I am still leading worship for the International service and playing some cajon for the Croatian service at the church we attend and it is going great. We are going to Scotland in a few weeks for the North British Isles district NMI conference and I am excited to get to travel some as well.

Thank you for your prayers and support!