It's been about nine years ago that we had the Sienkiewicz's with us. Now, I was not here. Terry and I were on vacation that particular weekend, so this is our opportunity to meet them for the first time. How much do you know about Croatia? And so I think it's going to be educational for all of us to learn about this part of the world and maybe hear of what God is doing there and some things that we can be praying for. So I'm going to invite Jeff Davis, the director of EMU International, their mission board, to come up and introduce our missionaries tonight. It's always a privilege to be back up here in East Flat Rock. And it's been a great six weeks that we've spent with the Strenkovich family. And I'm working on it, trying still to get it right. And he'll tell you how hard it is. I don't think any of his family members say it exactly right. They struggle too. But it is a joy to be here and it is a special privilege to be with Brother Mel for many years. He was EMU. If you went across the United States and talked about EMU, you would see his face out because he was the one repping us out there and appreciates your church's faithful support. I saw the Bixby's Prayer Card out there. I was with them back in December. Had a tremendous time with them over in France. And they're coming off of the Olympics. They're right now going through some major stuff just with his church. Good things, but also the struggles, and I hope you'll pray for them. But for the past six weeks, I've had the privilege of going off with his family, and I was with him back in December also, and the last time I was in Croatia was four years before that, and they were just getting into the building, and you're gonna get to see what God has done in just an amazing way, and what he's done through his people individually, where most of the work that you're gonna see, most of even the finances was provided by their church, And then we had some also that partnered with us to get this going. But one of the key things I thought about this, and I've just come to thinking about this as I travel and preach, I'm going to be flying up to Maryland on Thursday, actually up into Pennsylvania, to drive into Maryland for a pastor's conference that I'm speaking at. I'm actually going to be preaching on Psalm 46, which was what we just sang, be still and know that I am God. I don't know if you know the last part of that verse, we often skip over that. He says, I will be exalted among the heathen, or literally among the nations. And I don't realize, I don't know if you realize that there are missional implications behind our quitting, our striving, quitting our fighting, quitting our trying to make things work. Yeah, we're living in tough times. But let God be God, God's doing an amazing work. And even Brother Jeff being with us tonight, I wish I had time to tell you that the miracle, he's an angel unaware, I'm sure. We met him, he was a total stranger a couple weeks ago, and he's become like a best friend, and we appreciate him so much, and we were surprised he was able to come in tonight. But I want you to think with me before he comes up, just real quickly, what is the largest organism in the world? What's the largest organism, is it the blue whale? Blue whales are huge, weighing in at 109 tons, over 100 feet in length. I said the largest organism, not what's the largest mammal. Okay, so what's the largest organism? Giant sequoia. Maybe if you've been out west and seen the giant sequoias, those massive trees that stand 275 feet tall. Or what about maybe the Utah State tree, the quaking aspen, which stands at between 65 and 80 feet tall, one foot to two feet in diameter. That's about it. And you say, well, Jeff, how could that be the largest organism in the world? Well, according to the New York Times, there is a stand of quaking aspen trees that covers the side of a mountain. It's 47,000 trees covering 106 acres. But they're all rooted in one specific system, one plant that shot out all these roots over. So it's many, many, many, many years old, covering that whole mountainside. And they act and behave as one plant. and when one of them kinda dies off, others are coming up, but they're coming off of that one source, and I thought, what a beautiful illustration of the church. And before Cornell comes, I'm gonna ask you to stand with me for just a moment, because I want us to do this. I do this a lot of places where I go, and I want you to take your arms and link them next to somebody beside you if you're standing next to them, because I want you to visually feel what I'm saying right now. Now think about this, the quaking aspen sends out these, and what a picture, because the storms are gonna come, right? And when the storms come and blow, what happens when we're strengthened in the same root? And by the way, what's our root? It's Jesus, we're rooted in Jesus. And so we're strengthened together, and when the storms blow, we protect each other, and we're fed, and we're nourished together, and this is a picture, and not only of who we are right now, I think of what Paul said in Philippians chapter one, where he was thanking the Philippian church, and he was, which I think was one of his favorite churches, and he was praising them, and he says, I pray for you all the time, but I'm thanking you for your fellowship in the gospel, and that's that word, and the word partnership is literally what that means. partnership and so this church is partnered in missions so when you think about the church and who we are you can go ahead and let go first and then you can be seated unless you just want to keep arms with the guy next to you that's fine Bob Jones students aren't here so I think we're okay but The picture there is how we are strengthened together. And I want you to understand that we could not do what we do as a mission without the church, which is the body of Christ, those of us that have gathered here together, partnering together and working together for this. So when I say what is the largest organism in the world, is it the quaking aspen? According to New York Times, it is. I think according to the word of God, it's the church of Jesus Christ. And that's the church here in East Flat Rock. And that's the church in Greenville that's going to come up and help us. That's the church over in Clemson that we started when I was 10 years old. The church I started in Rock Hill when I was a little older. This is the church in Croatia working together. We're partners. We're in this thing together. And so, Cornell, I want you to come up and share with us a little bit about what God is doing and how our God is exalting himself among the nations and how we as a body, and you'll hear from him tonight as he opens the word of God, are not only united together, we're different from one another in many ways. But there is an interconnectedness and an interdependency that is rooted in who Jesus is, and that's what holds us all together. So Cornell, let's bless us tonight. Thank you. First, let's open the Bible on Galatians 5, 22 and 23. I will ask you if you please stand up in honor of God's word. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. Amen. Please be seated. I was asked many times to speak about love. When you speak, you say, you need to speak more about love. It's a so big word. Love. What love is. What comes to you when somebody asks you, what is love? What is love all about? God is love. Right? God is love. Well, we will say. Love is feeling. You like to feel good, right? Yeah, I love because I feel good when I love. And it is feeling. And lots of this fruit of the spirit is feeling. But I don't think so that what it's all about here. Who is the first person that comes to your mind that is full of love. Who? Jesus. Jesus. He loved us. You know when he loved us? When we yet all were sinners. He died on the cross for us. That's the gospel. And I usually say, I like three points. I am Baptist. I got three points. But I usually say, you know, the gospel has three points as well, right? But if you just make gospel in one point, what will it be? It's Jesus. He is the gospel, right? He is the gospel. He is love. He is the person that, uh, gave his life for sinners. And I was the second. If Paul was first, I am second in line. He died for me. And that's the message. That's the gospel message we are preaching to Croatians. You are going to hell if you don't repent. But God loves the world. as well, and He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever, whosoever believed in Him, I'm translating, sorry, my Croatian, English-Croatian verse, John 3, 16, will have eternal life. So, I don't know what is your thinking about love, but we have a saying, heart wants what heart wants, right? I love this. I cannot help it. I love. Really? What is the first command? Love God. Oh, really? Does that mean that I could control my feeling? I think it does. It does. It does mean what I will love or what I will not that much love. I love having Ferrari. So I should steal one. But I love Ferrari. It's good. I feel good when I love that fast car. I love some. My daughter said, I found one girl in my class. He's a musician. I'm a musician. He plays piano. I play piano. We have same interest. But he is not Christian. And she said. He asked me out. I said, no. Why? And she said, I like him. I really do like him. He was nice looking, tall, you know, musician. What for you need looking for? But he is not Christian and just stops there. I cannot love you. That's love. Why? Because she loved God. Right? If you love God, first and foremost, you love God, and everything else falls in the right place. And we have one family, new family, that came to the church. And I will show the picture on the panel. And just get saved reading the Bible. Catholics. And came to our church, came to me and asked me, I want to get baptized. I said, why? He said, well, you know why. I said, I know why, but I want you to tell me why. And he said, because I am born again. I believe Jesus Christ died for me on the cross. And my first obedience is to be baptized. I didn't tell him that. Somehow, in the church, I have to tell everybody who got saved that they need to be baptized. But I didn't have to tell this couple. They knew. And he came home and said to his dad, And his dad, they live together. In Croatia, there is a custom that especially the oldest son stays with the family, lives with the family. And he's the oldest. And he said that to his dad. And his dad said, you know, you have two weeks to baptize your little Samuel. So his Samuel was 9, 10 months old. And if you don't, you have two weeks to leave the house. You know what happened? He left the house. Why? He loved his parents. He honored them. He does. But he loves God more. And that's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. That's the love that is sacrificial, right? It costs. John 3,16 cast God. He gave His only, the most precious. That's why Jesus Christ's blood is more precious than anything else. His little breath is, as Isaiah says, is more precious than all mankind. All souls has more value. on the scale, right? That's what Isaiah says. And that's what Christ is. So what is love? What is love? Well, God is love. And he showed his love on the cross. And I call it crucified love. That love was crucified for you and me. So I'll show you a little bit about Croatia. So can you put the slides? Colonel and Tanja Cenkovic family, we were serving in split church planting situation for 15, 16 years. And then God closed the door for that. And we went to Koprivnica Church to join Pastor Nathaniel and Tanja's sister. They were struggling in the church planting situation. And we joined that. And I will show you the history of that. Croatia, what do you know about Croatia? What comes to you, Croatia? South Africa? Europe? Small country in Europe, that's right. And you see that chessboard on the middle? That's our recognition. You could see on the jerseys, especially on the soccer jerseys, the chessboard. That's our, I would call the middle part. And the Cenkovic family, Marco, Nathaniel, my wife, Tanya, and myself. Our oldest daughter, Andrea, she finished her master's degree in music theory, and she's working in a music school where she studied for her. And Christina, younger daughter, she is married to Jura Pintaric. as well Croatian, with this itch, that means we are Croatians. And they have a little Joshua, our first grandson, that we love. And if you want some more pictures, it's on grandma's phone. So Croatia, where is Croatia? Just across Italy, Adriatic Ocean between us, we have like two-thirds of the Adriatic Ocean, and we got all islands. Italy maybe has one or two. We got all the rest of it. And just below Hungary, and on the east, we have Bosnia and Serbia. And on the west, we have Slovenia, Austria, and then the rest of the European country. Croatia, it's a small country, smaller than South Carolina, as I know. But we have lots of sea because of the islands. So that kind of make our country bigger. Famous football player who is following the soccer. Luka Modrić, our famous one. We even cheer for Real Madrid because of that. And Dazhan Petrović, Mozart of basketball. And we didn't do good in Olympics, so don't ask me. Only two gold medals this time. History of Croatia, our first king was in the 7th century. King Tomislav united North and South Croatia, which was whole Bosnia was Croatia in that time. And we were part of, when we lost our dependency, through political marriage and stuff like that. There was a Hungarian, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Habsburg Empire. We all were part of that. Croatia was part of that empire. And then after the First World War, Yugoslavia was formed with Slovenian, Croatian, and Serbs together as like three nations together in first, and then second, and then even third Yugoslavia with Tito as a president. And Tito was Croatian. And I like to joke that Croatia was too small for Tito to rule. He wanted a bigger country, so he ruled over Yugoslavia. And he was a strong communist, really. But he went to the school when my wife died. Dad went to the same school, just my wife died. Dad went a couple of years later. He was younger. in town where he's there from. So, Croatia is now part of European Union. We are last member of European Union country, how you call it. So, I mentioned this. How many Emperors we were part of. Hungary and Austria and Yugoslavia. And all these emperors and Yugoslavia fell apart. You know why? Because Croatia joined. So you guess what will happen in Europe? We just joined. It will fall apart for sure. So religion of Croatia, 80% population Catholics. If you are Croat, you are Catholic. It's combined. If you are good Croat, you are Catholic. That's why I mentioned you baptize your kid. That's the first thing. You saved your kid. That's salvation for Catholics. You baptize them. If they don't believe in God later, doesn't matter. At least they are baptized. They are saved. So that's what Croatian believes. Serbs are Eastern Orthodox. So that's the vision as well between us. But we speak similar language. We understand each other perfectly. Some words different, some accents, but we understand. So Croatia. We have other religions and democratic freedom. We have democratic government, just elected. We are a free country and one of the safest country in Europe for tourism and for living. Crimes not high, really. We always have some bad people, right, everywhere. But we don't have gangs. Only when it's soccer played, OK? Then it's danger. If you are from north, you're going south, your car is in danger. If you're south going north, again, your car is in danger if the game is playing. So only then the crazy people are going. But we don't have gangs or stuff like that. So it's a pretty safe country to live in. And it's a very nice country to live in. So you could see how nice it is, nice beaches. We have 1,200 islands. I was shocked when I was in South Carolina beach. Where are the islands? I just see the sea. Where are the islands? We don't have that. We have islands. You can see. islands and there are beautiful oceans. The sea is nice, very clear. You could see the bottom from very deep. And one of the nicest and cleanest beaches in Europe that Croatia has. So it's a great country for holiday. When my wife put that, the middle and low, that's the island with big lake. around the island, in the island. It's very, very, very, very nice. And we have nice castles, old ones, middle, evil age, 16th, 15th centuries, and even some 13th century castles still standing. And eight national parks with lots of waterfalls, 100 lakes, 1,000 waterfalls, and especially one, Plitvice National Park. If you come, please visit them. Very nice place. And Mel just reminded me that last time we were there, we had some interesting actions in that park. Some cities of Croatia that some of the probably very well known is Dubrovnik, famous vacation for American, for cruisers that comes there, that has a China wall around. You walk a couple miles. or around the town, on the China Wall. And Pula is one of the famous, with amphitheater, one of the five still standing in the world. They're split with palm trees, and third century Romans built that. So my favorite is Dubrovnik. All other Romans built in the early centuries, but Dubrovnik was built in 14th century by Croats. And they're non-army, non-occupied city. Didn't go to that war, to that wars. So that's my favorite one. Some interesting facts about Croatia. I don't know if you know that necktie origin from Croatia. So you may need somebody to blame. Blame it to Croatian women, OK? They invented it. This was actually when the Croatian soldiers would go away from home. The woman would tie the skirt, it's like a neck. And then they fought in Napoleon army. The Croats were Napoleon's special guard that fought for him and won many good battles. And they were usually marching first in Paris. And the Paris people will ask them, who are they? Well, they were asking what they are wearing. But Croats thought they were asking, who are they? And they say, Croata. Croata. Answering on French, cravat. Cravat, that's how French call us. Croat. And you call us Croatian. We call ourselves hrvat. Because it's harder for you to say, right? So that's French collar. And from that, you got a tie, necktie, cravat. You could look at that in your dictionary. I read that there. I found it there. No, I'm kidding. Yeah, that's what they taught us in school as well. So some of the interesting fact that Nikola Tesla A big invention guy came from Croatia, was born in Croatia, and went to first school in Croatia, and then Graz, and Czech, Prague I think, and end up here in the state with lots of innovation. And Tesla car I see driving around, and he's really smart. He's a Serbian as well, wanted him to be his because he was Eastern Orthodox, his dad. But he found out that his grandpa changed his beliefs from Catholic to Eastern Orthodox. and back because there are no Croats who are Eastern Orthodox. And that's how they change. And then he became a Serb, finally. But originally, he is Croat. And he said, I am proud to be a Croat and Serb, as well. And Nikola Tesla is one of the famous. So Dalmatian dog. How many look at Dalmatian 101 Dalmatians? You have the little spots represent the islands of Croatia. So they are from Dalmatia. All these little black spots represent the islands of Croatia. Our region, Koprivnica, and Koprivnica is kind of capital of that region. And there are two other towns, no churches at all. Around 200,000 people lives in our region. with one small Baptist liberal church and us planting. One family is in a little town, Georgia, that's there last five years there trying to reach people, so it's planting, and only one lady got saved. And it's hard work. It is. And so really prayed for us, prayed for this region, north of Croatia. You could see pointing the arrow. So Croatia, remember, looks like a horseshoe. It's very unusual, and that's the Ottoman Empire attacked and did that, occupied this Bosnian, turned into the Muslims, and they became a Muslim. Serbs and Croats changed their religion and became a country, a Bosnian country. Koprinica has, as well, some old buildings. And one favorite one is 1700 restaurant that still operates, serve the food there. And Easter egg. is something that our town, Koprinica, is very well known. Our artists that have a special painting that they paint, it's really from that region, from our county. It's abstract, I don't know how they do it. But it's very well known in Croatia, and they paint it, and they give out. Every Croatian town center has at least one egg and represent of our town. But don't ask me why egg has to do with Easter, okay? I don't know. Maybe ask Hollywood. They know. So... Of course, every town has some games going on. And we have a Renaissance festival that's going on beginning of September, end of August, when we have tourists come and lots of Middle Eagle games going on and fighting and all that stuff. So if you like to visit, like that stuff, You're welcome to come. Croatia is my country. The tourist agency is a small country for a great holiday. And it is true. So this is a Baptist church. Baptist church established 1999. Pastor Nathaniel started. And we rent the buildings. And now we own the buildings on the bottom. And just to tell how it was. This building was not occupied. 25 years was empty. And it was home for lots of different things. I lived there. And when we bought it, we had a very good price for it because the roof was leaking everywhere. We had to change it from start. That was the first thing we did, change the whole roof. And yeah, we did. Usually what we did, we worked on some Saturdays when everybody's free from work, church members, young people gather and work all day from early morning to late night and doing job. And during the week, whoever could come to help the guy from church that was as well builder, that was building, we did and help him. And this is how it looked like inside. and two of us preaching. Nathaniel preached once a month. I preach the rest of it and I teach most discipleship in the church. And that's our families, Nathaniel's family with five kids and our family when we came to Kopernica to attend. This is how church looked like on the top when we came with Nathaniel's family and our family and only two, one couple and one sister and her brother now are members of the church. Everybody else left. He even left Croatia, left the Lord, went back to the old life. And on the bottom, that's the new church members that are now. And you could see how really God bless us, not double, 500% double. So. Sunday service, our first service in the church was still not finished. 2020 was COVID. It was just brick walls. But what is the church? People. People. We like nice church. I like nice church. Church needs to be nice, representable. because it represents God, his glory. But first and foremost, the people. And then we decorate inside of the church as well and make it very nice. I love baptism. I baptized in our church. I'm a Baptist. Many Croats say they are saved. And I personally met some of them who were baptized. They say they are saved. They said, I was baptized as a child. I take that. And they wrote even the Bible verse, one baptism. You know? Well, I don't believe that. Look, there is some Baptist in the Bible, not just Anabaptist. In Anabaptist too. In Acts, you could see people who were baptized by John and then baptized again. So I believe whoever really believed, first obedience is baptism. And that's what we have, 39 baptisms. Once, we had even 10 people baptized. I think that's the picture on the left bottom. different relatives. Only our kids and Nathaniel's family kids are the Sunday school kids who are baptized. Everybody else from the world, from Catholic background, everyone else are saved through that. And that's the couple on the bottom, Benedict and Thea with little Samuel. They'll be baptizing. I'll baptize them when I return. They are actually giving testimony this Sunday at the church. And we do it open. You can see that. Weddings. We love weddings. Who doesn't love weddings? Right? We love weddings. But somehow, we lost three girls from our church because of the weddings. I lost my daughter. She left. because of the weddings. But we have two couples who stayed, and we are blessed with them. And we have one widow, who's 16. Luka died from cancer at the age of 26. So she knew that she married him anyway, just to take care of him. Equipping men to serve God, that's my job. I do that. I disciple men and equipping men to preach in the church, at least to lead Bible study during the week. And that's what they do. Neven on the left, future, hopefully pray for me. Future elder and Goran on the bottom. And you even could see my son Marko. People in the church believes he should be in that position as well. But I don't know, he needs to find out for himself if God calls him to that or not. So please pray for that. We need elders. If Nathanael and I will leave, Nathanael is doing a lot of outreach. I'm helping other ministries and church planting situation. So we need somebody who will stay in the church and take care of the church. And that's the only two men I see right now that could do that. Discipleship, I disciple teenager boys and the brothers. My wife disciples ladies and Nathaniel's wife, Elizabeth, and her sister disciple teens, girls. And ladies' ministry, it's very well known in our church. Our ladies really study God's word, and they love fellowship. They make cakes for fellowship, and we stay long. And Brother Jeff knows that. Sometimes we stay 1.30, 2 o'clock afternoon in the church, just having a fellowship. And yeah, we use that a lot. And Bible study, prayer meeting, our home, encourage people to open their home for prayer, to pray together and study Bible in homes as well. And church fellowship, we organize outside or we organize upper room. We have upper room. that we call and then we have fellowship there, even cheering for Croatia. And we invite friends as well to come and cheer with us and use that as outreach. So, and on special occasions, birthday parties, we encourage young people in our church, young couples to organize birthday parties and invite their unsaved friends. It's hard to come for Christian, Croatian Catholics to enter through the door, church door. It's hard. But if you come for no church service, some fellowship, they will come. One, actually, the lady who's got husband, whose husband is not saved, he said, I will never come to your church, never. But he came for birthday party. to the door. He came. But he said, I will never come to your church. And we did. We prayed. We gave some message. We did everything what we do in the church, but in small sense. So he was in the church. So and he even came for his daughter's baptism in the church. So God is doing his work. And we use every opportunity how to reach others. And youth ministry is very important in our church. We believe that God used our youth. And we are a young church. Many times I'm the oldest in the church. I'm only 57, OK? I'm young, right? I'm not old. So that's. Really good. Young people are involved in the ministry, in serving the church, and even organizing the youth conference. They want to influence other youth, young people from the other churches to walk with the Lord and to be example. So, children ministry, we don't have many, just seven kids. They go to Sunday school as well, and we use them as well as outreach. And even the children clubs and outreach and especially occasions, Christmas, Easter, and Mother's Day, we use that as outreach with the kids and young people. And choir is one of good ministry. My wife and my daughter are involved with that. And we were even invited to other churches to sing. There are not many of us, but they said we are strong. So Jeff heard us. Are we or not? Maybe just Croatians. We think we are. Sports ministry, we like sports. We are music family. I'm the only one not playing any instruments, okay? We are a music family, but we love sports. And we use that as well, teach as well. We have our sport... how you call it, team called Emmanuel. So we use that as well, playing tournaments, Christian, non-Christian tournaments. We try to use that and invite our unsaved, even friends, to play with us as a member of our club. Camp ministries are big in our church, big influence. We encourage everybody to go to camp. And I read some survey that says that camp equals one week of the church. One week of the camp equals six months of the church. because you are bombarding on the camp 24 hours with the gospel, with the gospel living, with the gospel message, with the Christian way of living. So I encourage you. I know Wilds, it's a very good camp. It's worth it to send your kids there. It pays off for sure, 100%. So that's what we are doing, and we're using that as outreach. And many of our church members got saved at the camp as well. Liturgy distribution is something that Pastor Nathaniel is doing all over Croatia. He distributes for every home and travels a lot. And the church young people, he organizes. And even I go sometimes and help him in that ministry. And just recently, my brother started a church planting situation three hours away from our place in the middle of Croatia. Very strong Catholic town, 100 kilometers, no churches at all. And it's a very strong Catholic town with some service as well. And I preached there on the open air, on the open. They were sitting on the tables around, and there was like 10 Christians and then maybe 15 unbelievers. And we were praying. They were talking. We were singing. They were talking. We were more praying. There, non-believers were still talking, didn't care what's going on. It's like, what's happening? I stood up. I opened the Bible. I read the first John chapter. And there was quiet. They listened. So my brother said, please come and help. At least once a month, I will try to go and help that ministry. And oh. There's something happened. I hope I didn't kill it. Anyway, that was the last slide. And please pray for us. Pray with us. The elders I need to anoint, appoint, and deacons that the church could be taken care of. In Croatia, to plant a church, you need 25 years. And still, it's not independent. The church is not self-governed. We have to take care of. And it's hard to move on and start another church planting if the current church is not really established and self-governed. And that's my goal. But none of these men are no more than 10 years in Christ. So how you ordain? Young believer will have to. as Paul ordained Titus to do it, find some good believers. And please pray for me when I look for elders and deacons that I need to ordain in our church. And then our church members, many of them have their relatives, unsaved, Catholics, friends, neighbors, All unsaved. So they are praying. We are praying as a church. And please pray for us and with us for that. And for church growth. You saw what happened with the first, that Pastor Nathaniel started. Many fell apart. Even this 39 that I baptized, five of them went away from the Lord. You know? And happens. Happened to Jesus. Many went away. So discipleship is important. They need to grow as well in the Lord. We all need to grow. If you think you are standing, we had the message this morning, you are in slippery ground. You will fall for sure. So we all need to grow. Standing or going back is not option. We need to grow in love. We need to grow in understanding. We need to grow in our daily spiritual life. So pray for us. Pray for new opportunities. It's always some new opportunities. The internet is a great opportunity. We are making our church page. We don't have the internet church page. We need to have it. We need to be on the net. It's many terrible things happening on the net, on the internet, right? Many. Terrible. But we need to use that as a good tool. And God could use it. And actually, through Google, this couple find us and came to the church through internet. So it is a good tool. And some other new opportunities, bridge building that we need to do. I said to new believers, don't burn the bridges. Just keep them. Have a good fellowship. Be witness to your neighbors, to your friends, to your relatives. Don't hit them with the Bible. Don't attack them with the Bible. All the weapons that we have in the Ephesians is defensive. It's for defense. And God just give them gospel. It's good enough attack. Gospel, if they reject, they don't reject you. They reject the gospel. And that's what we believe we need to do. And pray for us while we are doing it. Thank you. Our Father, we thank you for this testimony tonight of what you're doing in the country of Croatia. We thank you for the power of the gospel, the power to save, the power to reach the lost of all the peoples of the world. And Lord, we thank you for the work that is going on there, and we pray your rich blessing upon it, that the church there would continue to grow. and that young Christians would grow in their faith and be firmly grounded in the truth, and that they would mature in the faith, and that there would even be some who would become biblically qualified to serve as elders in the church there. We pray, Lord, for many more to hear the gospel and to be saved. And I pray, Lord, that you would give us that same burden for the lost in our area and help us to reach out to them with the gospel, to share your love with them, to speak of your great love that you expressed through the giving of your son who died on the cross to pay for our sins. Dismiss us now with your blessings, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.