If you saw our newsletter in April (hint, join our Facebook group), you saw that I started writing about the people that we meet through our life and ministry in the UK and Eurasia Region.
This week, we met two wonderful women from Croatia.
Our good friend Betsy Scott (left), a Nazarene missionary in Croatia with her husband Dave, and two children, J.J. and Emma, brought two of her good friends and fellow church planters to Nazarene Theological College this week for what NTC calls an "intensive class."
Background: Intensive classes meet four or five days in one week, all day, and squeeze a semester worth of material into that week. Then a follow-up essay is due later, which is the entirety of the grade in the class. Some of the students from this past year have stayed in town for the intensive classes, and other people, like our Croatian friends, have traveled in specifically for this educational opportunity.
I had the unexpected pleasure of being able to spend some time with these women -- Sanja and Dalia -- and hear more about their stories over meals and an interview.
Sanja (right in photo) is an entrepreneur, selling natural food cakes in Croatia, and is passionate about holistic health and clean eating. She met Christ about 20 years ago and, as a natural extrovert, she is also passionate about sharing Jesus with others, but has struggled to know how to do this appropriately in the Croatian context. Early on, she and others would go door to door and knock, or stand on street corners preaching. When this did not work, she became discouraged.
About a year or two ago, Sanja met Betsy because their sons were in the same class. She learned that Betsy was starting a Bible study for women, and Sanja enthusiastically joined. She fell in love with the doctrines and biblical beliefs of the Church of the Nazarene, which is a new church in Croatia. Although Sanja had been a committed Christian for many years, she felt that she was simply floating in her faith, without a firm foundation, and didn't know how to grow deeper than she had already grown. But what she was learning in the Bible study took her deeper while giving her a more firm foundation in her faith
Sanja joined the Scotts' church planting team, and is one of the leaders of The Valuing Life ministry, which the group created to meet once a month, giving women from Zagreb a place where they can share about their crafts and creations and sell them to others. As Croatia is struggling economically, and women don't always have work opportunities, Valuing Life allows them to showcase their creative work and also earn some income. It is also a time to discuss faith and get to know other women, whether they're Christian or non Christian.
When Sanja learned that there was the opportunity for her to study theology in a deeper and more focused way through two of our Nazarene educational institutions in Europe, she leapt at the chance to study. She took the evangelism intensive this week, which gave her many new ideas about how she could share her faith in more culturally appropriate ways for Croatia.
Dalia is completing her PhD in environmental management, and is passionate about science and creation and how this intersects with theology and Christian practice. She learned about the Nazarene Bible study from Sanja. Dalia had been feeling a deep need to understand God more and to grow deeper in her faith, so she felt the Bible study was the answer to her need.
Dalia has become captivated by Wesleyan theology, which is the source of the distinctive doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene, particularly the understanding of holiness in Christian living and relationship with God. She has read numerous books on Wesley and translated a booklet called Nazarene Essentials into Croatian. Dalia is very interested in pursuing a master's degree in theology.
Sanja and Dalia are part of the core team which is planting the Church of the Nazarene in Croatia. Dave and Betsy have been working there with a variety of volunteers for about five years, and after all the team's hard work in networking, developing relationships, and creating spaces for informal spiritual discussion, there is now the first Nazarene church in Zagreb -- a God-thing in a culture where Protestants make up less than 1 percent of the population.
I had a great time showing the three women around Didsbury where we live. Andrew and I took Betsy to the Curry Mile for dinner and conversation one evening. On Thursday evening, I took all three on our standard double-decker buses (their first time to ride in a bus with a second level) into the city center for Mexican food (think Chipotle knock-off) and a bit of shopping.
These beautiful ladies are smart, ambitious, and loads of fun, and it brought some unexpected pleasure into the week to have them here and to be able to share our current home with new people and talk about how God has been working in all our lives.
This week, we met two wonderful women from Croatia.
Background: Intensive classes meet four or five days in one week, all day, and squeeze a semester worth of material into that week. Then a follow-up essay is due later, which is the entirety of the grade in the class. Some of the students from this past year have stayed in town for the intensive classes, and other people, like our Croatian friends, have traveled in specifically for this educational opportunity.
I had the unexpected pleasure of being able to spend some time with these women -- Sanja and Dalia -- and hear more about their stories over meals and an interview.Sanja (right in photo) is an entrepreneur, selling natural food cakes in Croatia, and is passionate about holistic health and clean eating. She met Christ about 20 years ago and, as a natural extrovert, she is also passionate about sharing Jesus with others, but has struggled to know how to do this appropriately in the Croatian context. Early on, she and others would go door to door and knock, or stand on street corners preaching. When this did not work, she became discouraged.
About a year or two ago, Sanja met Betsy because their sons were in the same class. She learned that Betsy was starting a Bible study for women, and Sanja enthusiastically joined. She fell in love with the doctrines and biblical beliefs of the Church of the Nazarene, which is a new church in Croatia. Although Sanja had been a committed Christian for many years, she felt that she was simply floating in her faith, without a firm foundation, and didn't know how to grow deeper than she had already grown. But what she was learning in the Bible study took her deeper while giving her a more firm foundation in her faith
Sanja joined the Scotts' church planting team, and is one of the leaders of The Valuing Life ministry, which the group created to meet once a month, giving women from Zagreb a place where they can share about their crafts and creations and sell them to others. As Croatia is struggling economically, and women don't always have work opportunities, Valuing Life allows them to showcase their creative work and also earn some income. It is also a time to discuss faith and get to know other women, whether they're Christian or non Christian.
When Sanja learned that there was the opportunity for her to study theology in a deeper and more focused way through two of our Nazarene educational institutions in Europe, she leapt at the chance to study. She took the evangelism intensive this week, which gave her many new ideas about how she could share her faith in more culturally appropriate ways for Croatia.
Dalia is completing her PhD in environmental management, and is passionate about science and creation and how this intersects with theology and Christian practice. She learned about the Nazarene Bible study from Sanja. Dalia had been feeling a deep need to understand God more and to grow deeper in her faith, so she felt the Bible study was the answer to her need.Dalia has become captivated by Wesleyan theology, which is the source of the distinctive doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene, particularly the understanding of holiness in Christian living and relationship with God. She has read numerous books on Wesley and translated a booklet called Nazarene Essentials into Croatian. Dalia is very interested in pursuing a master's degree in theology.
Sanja and Dalia are part of the core team which is planting the Church of the Nazarene in Croatia. Dave and Betsy have been working there with a variety of volunteers for about five years, and after all the team's hard work in networking, developing relationships, and creating spaces for informal spiritual discussion, there is now the first Nazarene church in Zagreb -- a God-thing in a culture where Protestants make up less than 1 percent of the population.
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| Riding a double decker bus for the first time. |
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| Selfies with Mexican food. |
These beautiful ladies are smart, ambitious, and loads of fun, and it brought some unexpected pleasure into the week to have them here and to be able to share our current home with new people and talk about how God has been working in all our lives.
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