Easter and the Crikvenica Retreat
- Zach and Savannah
- Apr 18, 2018
- 2 min read
April started off fast from day one with a special Easter Sunday. Friends and family came from far away, so the church building was packed. For the past few months when we’ve met on Sunday, we’ve had a Bible class, a sermon, and the Lord’s supper in that order (with singing and prayers throughout), but Easter service was different. We centered around the story of the Cross.
In fact, we had an actual cross standing front and center at the head of the room. It was coarse and gray and wrapped in chicken wire. As we started talking and singing about the shame of the Cross and our sin, the sad, gray cross in front of us echoed the message.
Later, we each wrote our sins on pieces of paper and put them on the cross, and wine was poured over them to symbolize Jesus's blood. Then came the best part—the blooming of the cross.
Every person took some flowers (some people brought their own but we had plenty available for anyone who didn’t) and we covered the cross with them. The whole atmosphere of the room changed seeing the cross come alive. It was an amazing thing. I think I can speak for everyone and say that we really felt the joy of believing life has come out of death.
After service we stayed a long while talking and eating together.
The very next day, we were off to Crikvenica, a coastal town about 3 hours west of Zagreb, for an intercongregational retreat. Savannah and I had been preparing for this retreat for a while (making lessons and gathering supplies), so we were pretty excited. Savannah helped teach the younger kids, and I helped teach the teens. She had about 20 in her lessons and I had 7 in mine. All in all, there were about 80 (a fairly confident guess) kids and adults there.
The retreat was from Monday, April 2nd through Friday, April 6th. In the mornings we’d eat breakfast together, sing worship songs, and then head off to our separate classes. After class came lunch and after lunch came a long free period. Croatian life-style is all about getting to know people and spending lots of time doing it, so if we weren’t preparing for the next day’s lesson or having a meeting, we usually spent our free time walking and talking with the people there or playing games with the kids.
After dinner, we’d have a lesson from our guest speaker, Dr. Robert Klemm from Houston, Texas. Bob spoke about fundamentals of the living Church—truth, worship, prayer, and unity. He was a great speaker, informative and challenging.
The whole week went great, our lessons included! Most importantly, we’re much closer to the brothers and sisters and kids that we’re here to serve, so I’d call Crikvenica a great success.
Looking ahead, we have another Camp on Wheels at the end of the month and plenty of meetings about the summer camps in between (That’s right! Summer is knocking at the door!). Please continue to pray for us and the Church in Croatia as we continue to thank God always for each of you.
Peace.
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