Earlier this year, the Groton/New London church had a mutually encouraging time with Damir and Andrea Jandricek, leaders in the Zagreb, Croatia church … The next step was taken in May as two disciples from the Groton/New London church were able to go to Zagreb for a week to spend time with the church there.
Editor’s Note: This article was posted on the website of the Groton-New London (CT) International Church of Christ.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Earlier this year, the Groton/New London church had a mutually encouraging time with Damir and Andrea Jandricek, leaders in the Zagreb, Croatia church. For many years now, we have eagerly supported European missions, so upon learning that the Jandricek’s were traveling to the US, we jumped at the opportunity to have them come for a visit to Connecticut. The disciples here were so excited to have disciples from Eastern Europe visit for almost a week.
During their stay, they shared meals with a variety of disciples. This provided ample opportunity for great times of fellowship. Damir preached on Sunday and Andrea shared her conversion story at communion. The church really connected with them. That afternoon they attended our leader???s meeting. The leaders were asked to share their physical and spiritual age. The average physical age in the group was roughly 40 years. The average spiritual age was about 12 years as a disciple. The Zagreb church is similar in size to our congregation but it is much younger physically and spiritually. Groton???s strengths are in building family and our physical and spiritual maturity. We saw a great opportunity to share our life and spiritual experience with them.
The next evening, we had an open house in which anyone from the church could come over and meet the Jandriceks, and several disciples took advantage of the opportunity. We had a question and answer time where Damir and Andrea were asked about life in Croatia. While culture and customs were different, it became apparent that spiritually our lives are similar, and we share the same spiritual needs. The Jandricek???s visit did more for giving our church a heart for Europe than a myriad of pictures or second-hand accounts ever could. We saw great potential for our congregations to mutually encourage and build each other up. This visit was the first step.
The next step was taken in May as two disciples from the Groton/New London church were able to go to Zagreb for a week to spend time with the church there. Wilf Kalbach and I (Gary) made the long journey in order to continue building connections. We arrived on a Tuesday and spent the first day taking in some sights and learning as much as we could about Croatia by spending time in and around Zagreb.
Each day after that we spent quality time with many disciples from various walks of life. It was emotionally taxing, yet very refreshing to invest our hearts in person after person that we met and got close to in a relatively short time.
At their midweek service Wilf and I shared personally about our lives and about our congregation back home. Many, if not most of the disciples there spoke English, so communication was relatively easy.
On Saturday morning we were asked to participate in their Leader???s meeting. Then on Sunday, we shared a DVD that James Stanfield created introducing everyone to the Groton/New London church. Wilf shared powerfully for communion and I preached a lesson on spiritual maturity.
We gave out gifts to give each member of the congregation that they could remember the Groton/New London church by ??? key chains in the shape of fish. I shared that there were three reasons why we chose this particular gift: 1 ??? Groton/New London is on the coast in Connecticut, 2 ??? the fish was the symbol of Christianity from very early on in church history, and 3 ??? we are all called to be fishers of men.
Wilf and I had one last adventure before returning home. After church on Sunday, two of the disciples that live in Slovenia (just to the north and west) ??? Tomislav and Rosana Horvat ??? were kind enough to take us to Ljubljana where we spent the afternoon in that city and met and fellowshipped with some from that church. It was a very encouraging time.
