This month our ministry in Croatia was awesome!!  I knew pretty much nothing about Croatia when we arrived in Osijeck with no contacts and no place to stay.  Needless to say, I learned quickly that our month would be filled with lots of adventure and tons of amazing relationships.  Within one day half of us packed up and went off to a small town four hours away.  For a week we built relationships with a pastor and his wife, as well as a missionary couple there from the states.  We got to work a lot on the church they are renovating, so I got my paint on for sure.  Here are some pictures from that week.

This is the church we painted, dusted, swept, and pretty much did everything else to.

Meet Bojena.  This wonderful woman is truly the Proverbs 31 woman.  She cooks, cleans, sews, paints and pretty much everything else you could possibly think of.  One day I commented on her beautiful outfit and she told me that she sewed it all herself.

Our whole group for the week.

The Pastor and his wife invited us to a barbecue where we ate roasted lamb and had communion.

The church in Osijeck that the other World Race team partnered with.

After reuniting with our teams we all packed up and traveled to Pula, Croatia – one of the most beautiful coastal cities I have ever seen.  Our week here consisted of pouring into the youth of the area and helping out local foster families in the area.

Dez leading worship with our wonderful friend Matija on the beach.  It was a beautiful moment.

Yes, this icecream was only $3.  Thank you conversation rates.

After cleaning a playroom for a foster organization, our group decided to have a silly hat, stuffed animal team party.

Our group really knows how to relax after a long day’s work.

Meet David, our wonderful new brother from Osijeck.

David has been a missionary in Croatia for a year now.

He has an amazing story and the most wonderful heart we have ever seen.

We were so blessed to get to work with David for the month!

This is Pula, the dock right outside of the church we worked with.  It was absolutely beautiful.

From Pula we learned that our groups would be splitting up yet again and we would be in four small teams for our last week of ministry in a different town.

Meet team BEST (Best Ever Small Team). Lauren was our leader for the week and we had the assignment of packing up, and going into the unknown.  We had no contacts and no place to stay, we just knew God was calling us to minister to Vincovci for the week.  We unloaded at 10am on a Sunday morning and just decided to start walking to a church to see if we could make contact.  Through some amazing God intervention, we had a place to stay less than 2 hours later and had met our wonderful contact, David.

David and his wife leading worship for us.

We met with David and talked about the possibility of other World Race teams working with him in the future.  I really felt like we were tiling the ground.  David also gave us the opportunity to speak in church, so I got to preach twice for the first time on the Race!

It was an awesome month of ministry for us.  We got to make lasting relationships and really poured into the existing churches that were there.  There is a huge need for youth workers in Croatia, so if you or anyone you know has a heart for being a youth pastor, Croatia just might be the perfect fit for them!

We left Croatia and now I find myself heading to Ephesus, Turkey in a few minutes for a month.  I am very excited about the opportunities there!  Please be in prayer for us as we seek out divine appointments.  I hope to update on Turkey soon!

While we were in Croatia, I made a video for the church in Pula to say “Thank You” for everything they did.  Enjoy!

Our Time In Pula from Jennifer Mitchell on Vimeo.