bjerktree

Recently it occurred to me that blogging has sort of been forgotten in the busyness and uncertainty of the past month. Sometimes life just seems to get in the way of blogging. (Fancy that!) So, basically there has been little web activity going on here since before Christmas. In light of the dry spell, I thought it might be good to whip up a little update on what has been happening around here.

Perhaps the biggest news (and what has been the greatest challenge to us) is that just before Christmas we hit some rather sizeable “bumps” in our road to ministry in Croatia. We didn’t do anything wrong, and we are convinced that we were heading in the direction God had for us, even if it was only to test our faith in Him. The circumstances were out of our control, and we have been learning much in the aftermath of some difficult weeks. “Faithful is He who has called you, who also will do it” has been running through my mind almost daily as we do some serious thinking and rearranging. We are now contemplating a videography ministry (as opposed to church planting), through which we can serve our mission board, churches here in the States, Christian citizens of several countries, and missionaries around the world as we create quality field videos, deputation and furlough presentations, and audio/visual material for nationals to use in ministry. Without the bumps we’ve experienced we may never have thought about this needed (and greatly desired by our mission board for a long time) ministry. It is hard to go through trials, especially when you believe you are doing the right thing (and when you’ve invested lots of time and a good bit of money as well); but God, in His infinite wisdom, sometimes changes His children’s paths—for His glory and their good. We do still plan to live in Croatia; however, we will most likely be closer to the capital than to the cities in which we hoped to plant churches. Although we have not made a final decision on which ministry we will pursue, we are excited about the possibilities for videography, and we will probably still be close enough to help Pastor Vladimir with evangelism and special projects.

Rearranging mission work plans can be stressful, so we are incredibly thankful for the stability that God has blessed us with in other areas of life. We both have new jobs that we enjoy (no more car sales!!!), and we are no longer on 100% commission. What a blessing! Being on commission tested our faith and trust in God like it hadn’t been tested before, and we are thankful for having gone through those months. But we are glad that is over (at least until we are on mission support). There is still a long road ahead, but we are thrilled to be on it and hope to be moving a little bit faster soon.