Hello Croatia!

       Off to West Palm Beach for Orientation

         Hello to all of our supporters and prayer warriors! Thank you so much for all of your prayers so far, they have definitely been felt. After our 13 hour layover in Germany we were ready to turn around and come back home. We finally made it to Croatia and have been nonstop ever since.

        

      We got in late Friday night and our leader had our apartment ready for us. This is our apartment building for the summer. As you can tell their apartment buildings are pretty plain from their time as a communist country, but they are all very nice inside with a lot of room.

     

      Saturday we met with our team here to discuss plans and details for our trip. We also got a small tour of the town we are in so that we are able to get around and go to the market. Sunday we were able to go to a Croatian baseball game, because our leader is an umpire for the league. After we got back from the game we went to a village just outside of our town where the Roma people live. Roma are what we would call gypsies. They are very poor and their houses are in pretty bad condition. They get most of their things by going through the garbage and or asking for money. Very dark community in desperate need for hope. We got to be a part of a kids club that they do on a weekly basis. The kids seem to love the club, but mainly the attention and love they get from the leaders. Their goal and ours while we get to participate is to love on these kids and be able to share Bible stories with them so that one day they may receive Jesus. Then also to be able to reach the parents through this. A long process ahead, but God is good and anything is possible. We also got to go to the center court in town to watch Croatia play in the first rounds of the Euro Cup. This was lots of fun and definitely an experience to see all the dedicated fans, as you can see in the picture we dressed for the occasion also.

        From Monday until Wednesday we have been working at the church that they have started. They have just bought a new house so that they do not have to rent out a building. They are doing a lot of construction and so we have been transporting bricks, scraping bricks, working on the house, and saving as many bricks as we can for future use. I've had the opportunity to help in the kitchen and learn how to make some Croatian dishes, while most of the men do all of the hard work.

       This week has been fun so far, we will hopefully start language classes in the next couple of days. We are excited and ready for these classes because the communication barrier has probably been one of the hardest things. Please continue to pray for us as we get to minister to the Roma children and for strength as we work at the church. Also for us to form relationships with the locals around us so that we may be able to share the gospel and invite people to church. We are only here for a short time, but would really like to use all of our opportunities to glorify God.

       We got to celebrate our 2nd anniversary at a local restaurant, which was beautiful and delicious. They also had an English menu which was a plus :)
       Disasters thus far, is that I can't use my hair dryer or straightener because I didn't realize I needed a converter instead of an adapter. But before I realized all of this I tried to use my adapter and blew the fuse. So now we have no adapter to the European sockets. Secondly, I almost broke our washer, and we wouldn't have been able to wash clothes, but luckily I stopped it before that occurred. Lastly, our landlord forgot to inform us that we are supposed to drain the water in our shower very slowly, or else it will leak into our neighbors below us! So we had a Croatian man come out of his apartment and try to explain the problem to us with little ability to speak English.
 

To God Be the Glory

In 33 days we will be getting on the plane to fly down to West Palm Beach. There we will be meeting the people we will be working with all summer and going through a couple days of training. We then fly to Croatia, where we will be thrown into a culture which we have never experienced before. Nervous? Yes! But I have a peace that only God can give, because I know that this is what He has called us to do! We will then attend language classes for the first few weeks. After "You-Tubing" the language, it may be quite the task for us Southerners to learn this language. Please pray that we will succeed! Pray that God will allow us to know how to serve the people of Croatia in such a way that He is glorified. Pray that the language barrier is not an issue and that God will just use us as vessels for HIS GLORY.

Thanks to all who have given to allow us to go on this trip. We are so close to reaching our goal! If you haven't given and would like to partner with us on our trip, you can give online by clicking here and entering our names (Guy and Holly Howard) along with our account number (175204).

For all that are partnering with us on this trip, I also wanted to let you know that my plan is to keep you updated on all that God is doing through this blog. So be on the outlook for pictures and updates!

We are so blessed to have all of you in our lives!
Holly & Guy

No turning back :)

This is really happening! God is already blessing us financially, and we are so excited (and nervous :)). Here is a copy of our prayer letter that we sent out. And we will keep you all updated through this blog & facebook with pictures and posting after the summer! We need lots of prayers as we begin to prepare our hearts and minds for this trip. Thanks so much for all your support!

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. We wanted to write all of you with an update on our journey to go overseas. After going to orientation with Pioneers and getting accepted into their organization in August, we thought that we would be going overseas by the end of 2011. Well, here we are, still in South Carolina. There have been some doors shut in the process of getting overseas for long term, but there is light at the end of the tunnel!
We have an opportunity to spend the summer in Croatia with Pioneers, through their summer program called The Edge. Croatia is between central and eastern Europe and lies along side the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Many of the Croatian people would probably claim to be Christians, but it is more of a status symbol and closely tied with their ethnicity. Some might even say, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t believe in God.” Pioneers’ goal over there is to introduce them to a real relationship with Jesus Christ.
While we are in Croatia, Guy will get to be involved in baseball camps that they put on for the children and youth. They use these camps as a witnessing tool and are able to share the gospel through the sport of baseball. The women that are working over there have many different ministries that I can get involved in. One lady works with young children and runs an internet café. Others have a music ministry and disciple Croatian women. We will basically be living with the missionaries that live over there and minister to these people day in and day out, so we will just plug in and help in whatever way we can. We are excited to see what all they are doing and how the gospel is being shared to the Croatian people.
We would like for you to partner with us on this journey. First of all through prayer, please pray for safe travel, for God to soften hearts of the Croatian people, and for boldness as we minister to these people. Secondly, we need financial supporters. We need to raise $5,000, which we know that God will provide. If we can get 100 people to give $50 then we will have met our goal. If you would like to partner with us on this journey, please fill out the response slip and send it in the included envelope.
We are so excited about this trip, how God is going to change us and the Croatian people. We look forward to letting you all know how God is working in Croatia.

Sincerely,
Guy and Holly Howard

WHAT NOW?

After a long week of orientation in Orlando, we actually came back more discouraged than encouraged. We were so ready to be sent off into the unknown world of another country, that I guess we did not realize all of the preparation that we would need to do.
We have since considered maybe doing a 10 week summer trip to Croatia. So that we can just put our feet in the water, instead of jumping head first into something that we know nothing about. Our other option is taking a 10 day vision tour next month in order to then in turn come back and raise financial support to go long term (2 years).
At this moment, we are just begging God to close doors that He wants closed and swing the doors He would have us to take WIDE OPEN. Please pray for guidance as we make these huge decisions. Pray that we will continue to seek God's will and not our own. Pray that Satan does not deter us from God's Plan.

It's almost here!!!

5 days til we are in Orlando for our orientation with Pioneers! We are so excited to see what God is going to show us. We are hoping to get so many questions answered from the organization and from God. Praying that God will show us exactly where He wants us to go and what exactly He wants us to be involved in.

Once we find out the answer to these questions we will then know exactly how much money we will need to raise and will begin our support raising process. Praying for amazing things to happen here so that we can go overseas by the end of the year! So be looking for letters in the mail, and begin to pray and ask God if He wants you to be a part of this journey with us!

Pray for safe travel down to Orlando and that we will have open minds and hearts to what God is going to teach us! Thanks for all your support already, can't wait to update you all on what God does in Orlando!

Thought of the Day...

"The cost of nondiscipleship is profoundly greater for us than the cost of discipleship. For when we abandon the trinkets of this world and respond to the radical invitation of Jesus, we discover the treasure of knowing and experiencing Him." -from "Radical" by David Platt

Are you willing to abandon everything and follow Him?

Mark 10:21
"Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go and sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.""

Although scary on this side of eternity, I bet the treasure that God has for us in heaven, if we are willing to live this way, will be far greater than anything we can imagine.

Revelation = Responsibility

God really convicted me today in church, that he has given me a calling in life but I just keep putting it off. Guy and I have both been called to go overseas and tell people how God can change their lives, but yet we are still here. We are trying to get Guys loans paid off before we go, but that won't happen for another year. But what has really been set on my heart today is that if God has given us this calling, that he will provide. He doesn't want us to wait til we are comfortable going. The revelation that God gave me about going overseas was the clearest revelation that I have ever gotten from God, but yet the one I'm so nervous and hesitant about following. Perry said in church today that if God has given you a revelation, but yet you do not obey the calling that your relationship with Jesus will not move to the next level. I am so ready for my relationship to move to the next level. I'm so ready to follow God's calling on my life, no matter what the cost.

My prayer is that we will be obedient to God's calling and that a way will be provided for us to start our overseas journey right after our orientation in August. Please continue to pray that God will continue to burn this fire within us. Also that we will be obedient and willing to go and do whatever God has for us, WHENEVER it may be.

Has God called you to do something in your life that you don't think that you are capable of doing? Or that you think will be extremely uncomfortable? It may be something small or something huge, but I encourage you today to take that leap of faith.