Sunday morning. The Lord's Day. Time to worship with our Croatian brothers and sisters in Christ.
Of course it doesn't matter what time zone, country, or continent you're on. The kids are going to be slow getting ready. I related to someone the other day that moving the family (at least the Gardner variety) in the morning, no day in particular, is like moving a camel. Sometimes it goes and all is well with the world. And then there are the other times. There are times when the camel decides it doesn't want to move. You can yell at it, kick it, beat it with a stick and it still won't move. In fact it might decide to make loud, obnoxious noises at you. And then it might decide to spit on you. In fact the camel will move when it darn well decides to move.
And then all is well with the world once again.
So we made it to church on time this particular morning.
Just before leaving for church we finally decided what song to sing. It was an FFH song with a soundtrack. It's a good song, easy to sing, great harmony. No problem.
The service was great. It was kind of structured between a Romanian service and a Heritage service. There were a couple of testimonies, one from Fiona (an Edge girl as they were called, all from the UK. Kelsie can handle that one) and one from a Croatian guy (probably 18-22 in age) that were interspersed with singing and corporate prayer (many people pray) and then the sermon. This particular morning the sermon was done by Sergei, an intern who is studying to be a pastor.
Did I mention our soundtrack failed? It started and Kelsie was singing right along. Then it started skipping just a little. Kelsie would have to adjust slightly to stay with it. Finally on the chorus when we were all singing it stuck in one place so we ended up turning it off and finishing without it. Tim said later that it was better acapella anyway.
One thing that I think works very well for this new church is a time of refreshment and fellowship. Somewhere before the sermon started they break for muffins and juice or water. It began when the weather was really hot and they've kept it up since then. It was a good time.
After the service we had lunch at a local restaurant and then back to Kim's for a little rest before the evening concert. Yes, we only had about an hour because we had to leave for Slavonski Brod at 4 pm. Somewhere in there we had to start getting ready to leave Monday morning for Plitvice Lakes National Park because we knew it would be close to 10 pm before we got back to Kim's flat.
So maybe you can begin to see why the blog is so out of date.
Sunday evening we were singing at a retirement center at 6:30 pm. It was nothing like I expected. The place was extremely nice. I was thinking nursing home but this was really nothing like that. The people were anywhere from 50 upwards and very responsive to our singing. Kim H. said that many of them were there because they had chosen to move out and let their kids have their homes.
And the sound. The sound was quite good. It was a narrow, tall room with natural reverb that was sweet. Some local guys in a band were kind enough to leave their mics, soundboard, and speakers set up for us already so all we had to do was add the keyboard, one more mic, and monitors. We had to rig things a bit because their board didn't have enough inputs but it was just enough to work. Their microphones were very good. I didn't catch the brand. It wasn't a common one but they were very responsive and had a good tone.
We had a new intepreter in Slavonski Brod, Lena. Bless her heart. We really worked her. All of our songs had been translated into Croatian and passed out Saturday night at the concert. Unfortunately the copies didn't make it to Brod. We only had one copy so Lena had to summarize the song lyrics before each small set.
So honestly I don't know if we reached anyone with our message. That is in God's hands. It always was. I think we at least encouraged and blessed the teams of missionaries in the two cities. Charlie, the team leader in Nova Gradiska, said that we brought a level of legitimacy to the baptish church there and I can see how that might be the case. The people seem friendly enough but it also feels like a closed society where new ideas and especially new religions are viewed with much skepticism.
Andy and his wife Lim picked up Daniel's soccer balls after the concert. They are starting an outreach to a local Roma village starting in a couple of weeks and were thrilled to have the balls and pump to use. Pictured with them is a representative from the village that plays the piano and attends the SB church.
Most of our sound equipment had been borrowed from from the church in Brod so we unloaded it at the church then drove back to NG. By the back roads it takes close to an hour so it was about 10 pm when we got back as expected.
Did we have supper? Beats me. Maybe Kim will remember.
Signing off,
Randy
Of course it doesn't matter what time zone, country, or continent you're on. The kids are going to be slow getting ready. I related to someone the other day that moving the family (at least the Gardner variety) in the morning, no day in particular, is like moving a camel. Sometimes it goes and all is well with the world. And then there are the other times. There are times when the camel decides it doesn't want to move. You can yell at it, kick it, beat it with a stick and it still won't move. In fact it might decide to make loud, obnoxious noises at you. And then it might decide to spit on you. In fact the camel will move when it darn well decides to move.
And then all is well with the world once again.
So we made it to church on time this particular morning.
 |
| the church was packed Sunday |
The service was great. It was kind of structured between a Romanian service and a Heritage service. There were a couple of testimonies, one from Fiona (an Edge girl as they were called, all from the UK. Kelsie can handle that one) and one from a Croatian guy (probably 18-22 in age) that were interspersed with singing and corporate prayer (many people pray) and then the sermon. This particular morning the sermon was done by Sergei, an intern who is studying to be a pastor.
 |
| Becky, Miro, and Kim lead worship |
Did I mention our soundtrack failed? It started and Kelsie was singing right along. Then it started skipping just a little. Kelsie would have to adjust slightly to stay with it. Finally on the chorus when we were all singing it stuck in one place so we ended up turning it off and finishing without it. Tim said later that it was better acapella anyway.
One thing that I think works very well for this new church is a time of refreshment and fellowship. Somewhere before the sermon started they break for muffins and juice or water. It began when the weather was really hot and they've kept it up since then. It was a good time.
After the service we had lunch at a local restaurant and then back to Kim's for a little rest before the evening concert. Yes, we only had about an hour because we had to leave for Slavonski Brod at 4 pm. Somewhere in there we had to start getting ready to leave Monday morning for Plitvice Lakes National Park because we knew it would be close to 10 pm before we got back to Kim's flat.
So maybe you can begin to see why the blog is so out of date.
 |
| Outside the retirement center |
 |
| Our concert hall for the evening |
 |
| Our interpreter interprets |
So honestly I don't know if we reached anyone with our message. That is in God's hands. It always was. I think we at least encouraged and blessed the teams of missionaries in the two cities. Charlie, the team leader in Nova Gradiska, said that we brought a level of legitimacy to the baptish church there and I can see how that might be the case. The people seem friendly enough but it also feels like a closed society where new ideas and especially new religions are viewed with much skepticism.
 |
| Lim, Andy, Daniel, and Soffet from the village |
Most of our sound equipment had been borrowed from from the church in Brod so we unloaded it at the church then drove back to NG. By the back roads it takes close to an hour so it was about 10 pm when we got back as expected.
Did we have supper? Beats me. Maybe Kim will remember.
Signing off,
Randy
No comments:
Post a Comment