Easter Retreat 2019

The group photo

As it usually does, the annual Easter retreat took place from April 22 - 26 on the Adriatic coast in a town called Crikvenica. We absolutely love the Easter retreat!

Brothers and sisters came from all over--from Serbia, the U.S., Ireland, and mostly Croatia. Everyone stays together in a small, Christian-owned hotel, singing, eating, talking, and just living together, seeing old friends and making new ones.

Gathering for morning worship

The theme for the week was "what can we learn from the Old Testament?" Our guest speaker, Tony Coffey, came from Ireland and preached about Jonah, Moses, and Elijah.

Tony Coffey on the right and Goran Medved, our translator, on the left

Savannah and I spent a lot of time preparing for the retreat. During group time, Savannah taught the kids lessons and I taught the teen lessons.

The stairwell isn't the fanciest location, but it was still our location

In the teen group, we talked about the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). If the Shema is the greatest command in the Bible, and we want to know what the Old Testament can teach us, then the Shema is the perfect place to start (at least that's what I think).

So, we spent the week digging into some key words in the Shema and finding practical ways we could obey the Shema that very day. Then at the end of each group time we all wrote down a short prayer and went off to pray.

Some of the teen group singing a "They Will Know We are Christians by Our Love"

They were a really good group. We had fun outside of class eating together, walking to the city center, getting ice cream, or playing games.

Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of Savannah teaching the young kids, but she did an amazing job. She became fast friends with all of them, and at the Lord's leading she even scrapped one of her lessons to deliver a brand new lesson.

She had been talking with the kids and praying for them, and realized God had a special lesson to encourage them that was outside of her original plan. So she stayed up late and put together a new lesson about finding identity and confidence in God and rejecting Satan's lies about ourselves and each other.

A few of the younger kids singing a song for everyone

Coming back from the Easter retreat was really encouraging to us, and now we're working hard and excited for the summer. We are in full swing planning our summer camps! Let's Start Talking (free English practice for those that want it using the Bible as a talking point) starts in a week, and Champ's Camp is just 5 weeks away!

Please keep praying for us, and thank you so much for your support.