Gospel Work Provision In Croatia
An update from Mario Vucenovic, Pastor of Church of God’s Grace in Zapresic, Croatia…
In February of this year, our building landlord contacted us to let us know that he needed the space back that we were renting due to his own business expanding and that we would have 30 days to move out.
We meet twice a week to hear God’s word preached, and for prayer, bible study, to have fellowship together and encourage one another. We had previously been praying and looking for a new space for our church to meet for about a year. Our space was small, approximately 43 meters squared, and it was challenging to invite guests as we tightly packed the entire space. In addition, because of covid distancing restrictions, only about half of the church could attend on a Sunday morning. We had previously looked at about 15 places, to no avail, because they were either too small, too expensive, or the landlord’s didn't like our work and so we were not welcome there. However we now had no choice, and so we started looking again right away, and of course praying.
Two days later I remembered passing by a "space for rent" sign recently, and so decided to stop by. The space was 130 square meters, three times our current rental space, and was a new modern and clean gymnasium size space on a main street near the center of town, with men's and women's bathrooms, and on the other side of the building, two separate rooms for children's ministry. Our whole church would be able to meet there with the appropriate distancing and we would be able to invite people to join us!
Before I got too excited about the possibility, because of the rental costs being so high, I asked how much they would charge. Meanwhile, my wife was outside in the parking lot praying that they could offer it to us "by the hour", as it would reduce the costs, and allow it to be within our budget.
They told me that they only actually rent the space by the hour, and so at the end of the month, the cost would end up being the same amount in rent that we are currently paying! In addition, a free parking lot is included, no utilities fees, and they do the cleaning and upkeep.
I shared with the landlord couple that we are a new church in town with a small group of believers who follow Jesus Christ, and that we teach from the bible. In response to this they said that they met missionaries in Zaprešić many years ago who were reading the bible with them, and that they are also Christians, and that it would be a joy for them to rent their space to us, and that this is what Croatia needs right now!
Because of the generosity of funds through Emerging Nations, our church was able to purchase church chairs, a projector, a projector screen, and a pulpit. This blessing has taken our church to a new level, where it just feels surreal to be in what feels like a proper church space where we can open our doors to people, and have the necessary equipment to serve them well. Thank you to the Emerging Nations team for making this possible!
We have been enjoying our new space for 4 months, and we continue to rejoice in how the Lord provided for us, in His timing. We as a church finally get to meet together again with appropriate distancing, and also can invite people to join us safely, even in the midst of the pandemic . We regularly have new guests, and we are eager to see how the Lord will use us and our new space to be a refuge, a city on a hill, to people during very difficult times.
After a year of many earthquakes, strict lockdowns, and job loss, the general feeling for many people is depression and fear, hopelessness. But in our hearts of hearts we know in spite of everything happening around us and in our lives, we know only hope and joy is in Jesus Christ.
We have a lot of gospel work ahead of us and need much wisdom, prayer, patience, protection and support. Please pray that the Lord will guide us to the people who need Jesus right now the most, who are lost and seeking, whose hearts are soft and prepared to hear the message of salvation. Also pray for the relationship with our new landlords, and that our presence in this new space will be a blessing to them, to the church, and to our city.
