“I’m not happy with you having so many children at your house every Friday night,” our landlord said.

In the summer of 2022, after having arrived in Croatia only a few months prior, we hosted Friday night vespers at our home for the children in our neighborhood. Things were going well until our landlord expressed his unhappiness with us having 15 or more children at our house each time. In his defense, the homes here are very small, so with that many children, it is inevitable that they spill onto the porch and make noise. His family lived on the floor above us, so it was bothersome.

The following summer, we reached out even further into our community, hosting movie nights, snake encounters, rock painting by the sea and a back-to-school party. For each of these events, Gabe would go to the city and request the necessary permits. Paperwork had to be filled out, and Gabe would have to visit the city multiple times to expedite the process; otherwise, they would set our requests aside.

When we returned to the city office in the summer of 2024, they seemed reluctant to grant us the permits, and we were unable to secure approval for any events. At the same time, we noticed that rock painting events and movie nights were taking place at the same location where we had previously hosted ours. While we initially felt our ideas had been stolen, we then realized that we had accomplished part of our goal; we had impacted our community, and the locals continued what we started. Many people thought it was still us hosting these events because, prior to our involvement, nothing like that had been done. We were at peace and knew the Lord was working behind the scenes, though we could not imagine how.

Fast forward to this summer. Our town elected a new mayor who enforced a law that no individuals would be allowed to host events; instead, they must go through a business. We then connected with the director of the local tourist board, a very kind woman who opened the door for us to work together, pulled all the necessary permits for the events, and offered us access to additional locations. The tourist board even promoted our events and occasionally provided financial assistance.

We learned that it was the tourist board that had repeated our events during the summer of 2024. Both they and the community had enjoyed and appreciated what God had led us to organize. God is awesome! While we initially felt our ideas had been stolen, we then realized that we had accomplished part of our goal; we had impacted our community.

God knew that we would need reinforcements to continue our community activities. We trust that the Lord is making our connections, and we know the Holy Spirit goes before us as we reflect Christ in our lives.

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