Welcome to our home on the web. Here you will find information related to our family and our adventure as church workers with SEND International-Croatia. We Hope you find this site interesting and informative.
Perhaps you are a missionary and you've heard comments like those.
Perhaps you have family or friends that are missionaries and
you've said...or at least though...something like that. We'll,
yes it is exciting to be called by God to a a foreign land to
declare His glory to those who need to hear his message. Sometimes,
though, it's just ordinary life.
Let me give you a taste of what a recent Saturday (Subota for you language hounds) looked like:
I got up at about 8:30. Everybody else was up. I hadn't slept
well because one of the kids had awakened the dog at about 3 AM and
I had to deal with her. (Do you want to know more about the dog?
That's mostly what my oldest child, Ariel, writes about on her
blog. Check it out at http://www.notamermaid.com )
After breakfast Brenda and the kids went to the zoo by our
house. It's in a park that is almost as old as the United States
of America. In fact, I think it was opened seven years after the
the U.S. got around to approving its constitution. (You can check
out professional pictures of the zoo at http://www.zoo.hr. However,
I would recommend that you stick around until the end of this article
for our pictures of the zoo. The wildlife, i.e. my family, is much
better.
I stayed home and worked on an expense report for the month. Yep.
How's that for something to make you nervous? Well, Brenda keeps
our family finances together, so I know she is always excited when
the reimbursement check clears. I don't think that is what most
people are thinking, though, when they suggest it must be exciting
to be missionaries.
After the zoo, we all went shopping. We needed some exciting
things...like an iron, blank CDs, and a pair of pants. We had some
success but wow, who knew it would be so hard to find pants for an
eleven year old American boy. It's not like they don't wear pants
here!
Ah, the food. The first
night we were in Croatia, we had pizza. The kids hated it. It was
awful. There is no way they would eat it again. In fact, it must
have been downright dangerous it was so bad. That is probably what
people mean when they ask what we are thinking by bringing our kids
here with us. Well, it's amazing how tastes change. The final
picture below is of Brenda and Lily sitting at Rubelj Grill waiting for our pizza. The kids love it that we try to get pizza once per week from there. They think it is great pizza! What they didn't realize until about two weeks ago is that it is the SAME place they hated the day we arrived.
After supper, my older son tried to call his cousin in the USA. In the 21st century, a missionary kid can do that with Skype for about $0.02 per minute. That's almost free! What was so urgent that he needed to call across seven time zones? He wanted advice on how to play a new game on his Nintendo DS. Tough, huh?
The day ended with our family watching episode 2 of season 2 of
MythBusters. Brenda downloaded the entire season last week
from iTunes. (No...we don't use a Mac.) While we watched, I ironed
shirts with that the new iron that we purchased today.
I know. It's not as glamerous as you might hope...but at least
Monday will come soon. Then it will be back to the grind of
language class.
Pray that we can learn Croatian soon. Once we do, not only can we
share Christ with Croats...we can start ordering a different kind
of pizza!
Oh...in case you are wondering: Most of the kids in the pictures are mine. Some belong to another website . None of the ones with fur or feathers are actually related to me. In the last picture, there are two really pretty girls. Only one is my daughter. The other is my wife.
I have no idea what kind of bird that really ugly one is. I think it's a cross between a pelican and a garbage truck. Oh, and that reindeer isn't real...unless you believe in Santa Claus. Lily is pretty sure its not real and she was standing by it...so she would know. Apparently it didn't smell of sweaty fur...which is what you would expect a real reindeer to smell like if it was in a heated building standing in fake snow.
On June 15, 2007, the
McCollum family arrived in Zagreb, Croatia. Croatia is a
country with a long history of calling itself Christian but with few who
actually know Christ as their savior. The McCollum family believes God has
called them to teach the people of Croatia what it truly means to be followers of
Christ.
Once they finish formal
language school, they will serve on a church planting team with other
missionaries and Croats. Church planting, or starting churches, is a core aspect
of SEND International ministries:
Starting churches where there are none and
helping them where there are by Evangelizing the unreached, Nurturing disciples, and Developing leaders from among the national
people.
On their journey to
Croatia, one elderly pastor shared
his story of a life well lived for the glory of God. This has become a growing
passion for the family as they begin serving in God's work in
Croatia.
After years of
preparation, the McCollum family is glad to be where God has called them.
Although right now their relationships are limited by language, they look
forward to the day when they can communicate clearly with Croats and actively
engage in ministry.
How will they preach unless they are sent? - Romans 10:15
