Our Last Days in Croatia!

Our Last Days in Croatia! - Jesse

Yesterday we finished up our time with our friends at the conference. Our final worship time was really sweet and it was nice to say goodbye to everyone and speak encouragement and blessing over each other.

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They even gave a gift bag to each of us as a thank-you gift for coming and serving them. Wayne, Tabby, and Tamarah got to pray over the kids and it was a blessing to see how excited the kids were about the journals they made. I even saw one mom exclaim with genuine excitement and maybe even some surprise, “…you made that?!?!” It was clear that the kids felt loved and cared for and our team bonded with them in a special way. We might even have some stories of funny things that were said if you ask us!

On Monday night we had a time of worship and healing prayer. Wayne and I led some musical worship and one of our Alliance partners led times of prayer and communion. We then opened up a time for healing prayer. Some encouraging testimonies were shared of healings some had witnessed and many shared their needs as others would gather around them, anointing them with oil and we all prayed as some spontaneously led out in prayer. Sometimes after praying someone would share an encouraging image they saw or a picture that came to their mind. It was a very uplifting time and just so so good.

Tuesday afternoon we went to Dubrovnik with many of our friends. One of our partners took us around the old city which is hemmed in by castle walls. We got to walk into a couple of beautiful Catholic churches. There is so much history here and my mind was overwhelmed with wondering about many many things. I would need to spend more time learning and exploring to be satisfied. When we returned to our hotel everyone was sunbaked and tired but we had an hour of extended worship together. There was singing and then a time of prayer in small groups as we shared some characteristics of God that we are thankful for and then things that we want to see God do in us, the teams we work with, and in our community. I got to work with one of our new friends on that night. Most of it was her idea, but I was glad to be able to participate in some small way. I heard a couple of people say that at first they were not excited about this activity but by the end they were really glad to have participated.

Today our team is enjoying a day off. We went souvenir shopping in the community where our hotel is located and we plan to go out for dinner tonight. We also swam in the Adriatic sea together (Wayne and Tabitha jumped in on Monday as well, but today was the first time for Tamarah and me). It was cold but refreshing. We get up early tomorrow morning to catch our flight to Istanbul and then home to Seattle! Pray for safe travels and on-time flights! We’ll see you all soon!

live from Croatia, it's Jesse and Wayne

Hey there church family, we just wanted to share this quick update with y'all about our short-term trip to Croatia to serve our ministry partners in this part of the world. Thanks so much for your support and prayers!

Hello from Croatia!

Hello from Croatia!

Hello from Croatia! The team is in high spirits as we provide worship and childcare for our IWs at the Field Forum. We have been busy listening to stories about God's people all over the world during meals. The children are thoroughly enjoying all of their craft supplies and creating journals with their stories inside. Adults and children have shared they are excited to be worshipping in English with like-minded believers. What a powerful time. We have seen blessing after blessing and cannot wait to see what God does with the rest of our week.

Our First Day

Our First Day - Tamarah

Thank you all so much for praying for us!! We have felt your prayers!!

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Today was a great day! After breakfast, we set out on a stroll along the waterfront with a few of the international workers who had also arrived early for the conference and began hearing their stories. As the day progressed, more and more international workers trickled in, and the outpouring of their stories continued. Shared over coffee in the lobby, ice-cream along the waterfront, cake and coffee on the patio in the late afternoon, and around the dining tables at lunch and dinner (if you are noticing a theme, that might be because their was one 😉 ... obviously of faithful adherence to a strict diet of health and moderation), each story was a window into the heart of the speaker as well as an opportunity for us to listen well and reflect back how their stories were impacting us. It was a privilege and a gift.

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As the stories continued, it was fascinating and encouraging to see how the different experiences described throughout the day wove together to paint a larger picture of something really beautiful God is doing across the whole region!

A few other highlights from the day were going swimming, finding a tentacle in Jesse's salad (aptly named "Fruit of the Sea"), and the guys flying their drones over the water during the golden hour of sunset.

Looking forward, we would love your prayers for the logistics of tomorrow as we go about setting up our spaces and gear. Please pray for all the little details as well as for a deep connection within each of us individually as well as a group collectively to the voice and desires of the Holy Spirit.

We've Arrived!

We've Arrived - by Jesse

Thank you all for praying for us and following along with our trip through this blog! We left from SEA Wednesday at 6:40pm and all of our travel went smoothly. We are so grateful for that. We all got at least a little sleep on the 12 hour flight to Istanbul. We enjoyed fruit smoothies in the Istanbul airport and then boarded a short flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia! All our luggage made it just fine, including our instruments (I always get a little nervous traveling with my guitar!). We were greeted by friends at the airport and got checked into the hotel where we are staying and where the conference will be hosted. The buffet was still open so we sat down to eat a meal together before exploring the hotel a little bit and heading to bed. Sadly, the platter of shark was all gone from the buffet, so we didn’t get to try any of that.

Currently, as I write this it is 3 am, Wayne and I are rooming together and we are both wide awake and have been for the last hour and a half or so. That’s not so good, cause I think I only slept for 3 hours. But seeing how it’s 6 pm in Kelso, our bodies have some adjusting to do! You can pray that we adjust well. We have tomorrow to explore and get acclimated here before the conference starts on Saturday afternoon. It sounds like arrivals for the conference will trickle in all day tomorrow and Saturday. We are looking forward to seeing more of our friends and getting to meet new people that we came here to serve. We’ll keep you posted!

Follow Us Here!

Thank you for checking out our blog! East Hills is sending a small team to Croatia to serve Alliance international workers from the European region as they meet for their yearly conference. The four of us leave on April 24th and return to the States on May 3rd. We would love to have you follow this blog as we post about the trip along the way! We’d also very much appreciate your prayers. We will be leading worship for the conference as well as working with the kids of these International Workers.

We are very excited to be present with and serve these workers. We are praying that God will allow us to be safe, listening ears and that we can bring blessing and encouragement to these families. This is a time for the workers to rest, be refreshed, and be spiritually built up. Please pray that we’ll have every opportunity to help facilitate that as God leads us!

We also hope that we’ll gain further perspective on how God is working around the world and we anticipate getting to share that insight with you as well. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to be better senders and better partners because of the things we glean from this trip.

Thank you for sending us! And thanks for coming along with us on this journey by reading our blog! More to come soon!