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If You Remain in Me and My Words Remain in You

I. God's Work in 2016

At the beginning of 2016 I chose Deuteronomy 6:5 for my key verse. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.“ I prayed to love the Lord. Throughout this year we learn about the love of God. Our love relationship with God has deepened.

    Through Luke's gospel we learned the gospel and God's love, and renewed our desire to learn from Jesus and follow him. Through the word, “You are witnesses of these things,“ We renewed our identity as his witnesses. The God’s word from Ephesians helped us to realize the spiritual blessing of being reconciled with God through the gospel. We realized that we had forgotten the blessing and neglected singing praises. By giving thanks and praises we could deepen our love relationship with God. We studied God's word one week earlier with other missionaries and thus prepared the worship service better. This helped me. And the exchange of our reflections gave us spiritual power.

The Lord helped us to serve his sheep with his word. S. Josipa studied God's word regularly in the first half of the year; but then she became sick. S. Matja stopped Bible study because she had to work in a company abroad. God helped us to keep praying for them and to invite new students on campus. M. Maria went to the campus before going to work. M. Joshep invited students during lunch break and after work. Through the Go players club at the university, he came to know many of them. M. Timothy studies the Croatian language after work. This year we had barbecue fellowship and held Bible schools twice. We invited Stancic, Domoko, Ivan's family, and S. Jana. In this way, God helped us to renew our mission as lay missionaries on campus. S. Jana is an employee in the company of M. Maria. And M. Joshep served as a brother with God's word when he came as a temporary helper.

    Mrs. Jasenka lacked resources and had health issues, yet still she grew in her trust in God and corrected the Sunday messages and the Daily Bread books. This year, we received great strength through fellowship with our coworkers. The Directors' Conference and the Easter Conference together with Serbia and Hungary and also the CBF Conference in the Czech Republic gave us great grace through God's word and fellowship. Our 2nd gens prepared presentations on their own and wrote their reflections voluntarily. Shepherdess Maria Oh and Heewon Ko came from Korea. Rebekka age 14 and Samuel age 12 grew in the knowledge of God's word. They overcame school studies. Rebekka couldn’t participate in an international piano contest since it was on a Sunday. But she still received the first prize at her music school and finished 7-year grammar school with the best grades. She overcame her shyness and began to testify God's word to her peers at school. Samuel repented of his secret compulsive gambling. He decided to live an honest life. One time, he had the worst grade in physics and realized that he had tried everything out of his own strength. Now he wants to do everything for God's glory and received the best final grade among all his fellow fifth graders at his school.

    He has been praying for his friend Karlo with a shepherds heart and invited him to Bible study and worship service while he stays in Zagreb. M. Timothy's daughter Harang age 4 was born prematurely and suffers from health issues. But when she stayed in Korea for a year she became healthy and learned Korean a lot. Through God's grace this family now has a healthy son, Hajoon.

    According to God's special will we sent Missionary Kaleb Yoon back to Korea after we had co-worked since August of last year. This year, I was able to apply for Croatian citizenship. My eternal citizenship is in heaven. I decided to live in Croatia as a pilgrim. I succeeded in the exams and wait for the decision. I already thanked the Lord.

II. The Year 2017

    For 2017 I have chosen John 15:7, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.“ In 2017, I want to remain in Jesus and learn Jesus' life. I also want to remain in his word through Daily Bread, prayer and meditate on the word. I pray that all our coworkers read the whole Bible through, write reflections from the Sunday messages and keep daily devotions.

Prayer topics for 2017:

• To remain in the word according to John 15:7.
• To keep up a basic spiritual life (Daily Bread, early morning prayer, reflection writing and Bible reading).
• Sunday messages from Ephesians and Jeremiah through M. Joshep; to receive citizenship.
• Mrs. Jasenka's coworking; to serve Jana, Irena, Matija, Josipa as well as the families of Ivan and of Stancic with God's word.
• To be good stewards at work; to keep inviting students faithfully and each to serve one student and hold four Bible schools this year.
• To find a Bible center close to the campus.
• For our second gens to be exemplary in school and to learn God's word well.
• For M. Hanna Suh's return with Harang and Hajoon in March.
• For M. Maria Bae to receive a teaching license to teach the Korean language.

 Joseph Bae