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(Not So Brief) Pictorial History of Our Time in Croatia
  In the fall of 2003 we began feeling the call into foreign missions. Specifically we felt the call to Croatia. Some of the major factors in this were Berean Baptist Church's involvement in 40 Days of Purpose. (Berean is our home church in Burnsville, MN.) During that time, we were also reading Don't Waste Your Life. Both books had a positive impact on our family...especially John Piper's book. At the same time we were getting to know the Meeker family who serves with SEND International in Croatia. Around Christmas of 2003, we decided to pursue missionary work with SEND in Croatia.
It took almost a whole year from the time we decided to pursue missions work until we were able to visit Croatia. What we saw was a beautiful country with people who needed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
In January 2005, our entire family attended SEND's Candidate Orientation Program in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. During that time we were accepted into SEND.
Once accepted, the process of finding our prayer and financial partners began. That was a long and slow journey but we made so many friends along the way who we will always cherish.
In the summer of 2006, right after Mike resigned from his job, we attended our final SEND orientation in Michigan and training on how to learn a new language in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
March 2007 was the month we reached full support through the generous faith promises of six churches and dozens of families.
From March until June 2007, we said our goodbyes and packed the belongings we were taking with us. We arrived in Croatia on Lily's seventh birthday.
Right away we began trying to get connected in Croatia. Connor went to camp with other Missionary Kids (MKs), we got our paperwork for the government completed, attended a Croatian wedding, and had Brenda begin studying the language.
Ariel also went to MK camp and our family attended a SEND conference in Bulgaria.
Lily started school at the local elementary school while the others began another year of home schooling.
And of course we got our dog, Fiona.
Throughout the first year, we continued to do things in order to become connected to the culture.
Mike and Ariel helped with an English night at Baptist Church Dubrava.
We attended social gatherings with Baptist Church Dubrava.
We tried to learn more about the culture by visiting Mirigoj cemetery in Zagreb on All Saints Day.
Of course we also tried to connect with our SEND colleagues.
We were involved in a climbing club that was meant to be an outreach to youth.
We hung out with classmates from our language school.
We did our best to keep you informed about our lives.
By the time Christmas came, we were all missing our families back home, but we were blessed to have a visit from Mike's parents, Oma & Papa.
In January 2008, we finished our first semester of language study. We were excited by the progress we had made but were also feeling like it would take longer than the planned two years of study to get a reasonable level of proficiency. One of the best things about language school was the opportunity to interact with people from so many different backgrounds. It also made us appreciate how blessed we are to have English as our native language.
We learned many lessons on this journey. One that our family will always remember is Ian's first-hand discovery of the power of prayer and God caring for the little things in life. He wanted "puppy chow" which is a dessert made with Chex cereal which wasn't available in Croatia. We told him he could pray that somebody would send us some Chex cereal and it arrived later that day. We weren't even aware that a care package was on its way!
Prayer is vital in all aspect of life. That includes ministry. SEND asks each country or area to set aside one weekend per year for a time of focused prayer. It was a blessing to spend time with colleagues from other countries. It was also a good time to be together as a family.
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One of the biggest blessings during our time in Croatia was to watch Ian blossom. When we moved to Croatia, we did so knowing he had been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, dyslexia, and ADHD. As our time progressed and he was in a new environment, we began to doubt the accuracy of these diagnoses. By the time March 2008 came around, we were glad to have him tested at an MK education conference in Hungary. The testing suggested that we were right in our doubting and that he likely has significant dyslexia...and that's it!
We also learned during that conference that when pressed, our six passenger car could transport eleven people!
One of the most astounding things happened on our return from Hungary to Croatia; crossing the border into Croatia felt like returning home.
When Berean sent a team to Croatia to work on the camp where the rest of SEND in Croatia worked, Ariel was invited to join them along with several other MKs from Croatia and Hungary. It was a cold, wet, miserable, wonderful experience for her and our family had the pleasure of meeting the team at the airport and hosting Jack, Jane, and Terry for a night.
Shortly after the Berean team came to Croatia, a slightly more prominent American visited...and Lily shook his hand.
Our second semester of language study was nice because we were able to be in the same class. It not only meant time together, but also the development of common friends.
Nice weather brought some family outings as we tried to become better acquainted with Zagreb and the rest of Croatia.
Some of those outings were to:
--Zagreb's zoo where we enjoyed the sunshine...
...and got to look at North American crayfish.
--A restaurant connected to a small farm...
...and a playground...
...located in a small town with historic ruins.
About the same time, Mike was able to attend a church planting conference in a Čakovec, Croatia with colleagues from other agencies and national pastors. The speaker was a Dutchman who had been a pastor in Belgium and was now teaching in English and being translated into Croatian!
We had the joy of seeing new believers and young people professing their faith through baptism.
Once classes were done for the spring...
...Mike was able to visit and pray for a nearby town where the church we attended wanted to start another church.
We were also able to spend some time together on Croatia's Adriatic coast.
However, summer also brought another round of language classes for Mike...
...and camp for the kids.
The summer also brought opportunity to connect with Berean's missions pastor, Scott...
...and to help with Sunday School.
The fall of 2008 brought expansion (and subsequently extra cleaning) to the building where our church met.
It also brought an update our prayer cards, more language classes, Brenda's mom Verna, and some deepening friendships.
Unfortunately, as autumn changed to winter we also realized that our efforts to adapt to cross-cultural church planting in Croatia were not and would not be sufficient. We've shared about that in our past emails and will be happy to share more if you want to hear about it but we will leave that out of this overview. Suffice it to say, our time with a counselor in at the Budapest Care Center in Hungary was extremely valuable and we would encourage other missionaries in Europe to go there for counseling.
We returned to the United States at the end of February. A member of our home church provided a wonderful house for us to rent at a price we could afford. Our partners stayed with us through this time of transition. We sought God's guidance on where to live and if we should stay in ministry or to do some other work.
God has been so good to us. He has given us peace with leaving career ministry for now and has provided a good job despite the bad economy. Now we are we are searching for a home of our own near Apple Valley, MN.
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