On Friday, November 16, sixteen girls and five adults headed up to the DPB House in Severin for a junior high girl's retreat.  Many were making the trip for the first time. The idea and planning behind the retreat came from Ema and Miriam Kreko, daughters of our pastor from the Malesnica church. 

Miriam and Ema

The focus of the weekend was on self image and relationships with boys.  Ema and Miriam had noticed that these two areas of struggle often came up during their time together with the girls.  Here is what Miriam had to say about the weekend.
"We had a small retreat for girls from 16-18th of November in Severin.  For quite some time now, we've been thinking about ways to connect all the girls from our different small groups.  We saw a great need to open the subject of self esteem so we decided to join two groups from Zagreb, a group from Rijeka and Cakovec.  Our goal that weekend was for every girl to feel special, smart, pretty and above all to become aware of how much God loves her.  The verse that we based our talks and discussions on was Psalm 139:14.  It was so amazing to see how the girls connected and opened up to us.  We want to continue with our small groups and hopefully have many oportunities to bring girls together and closer to God.  We see how important it is to invest in the next generation, so please pray for persistance, patience and love in our ministry.  We would like to thank Sarah, Bonnie and Jenny who helped make this retreat possible."

Listening

Smores over candle light

Celebrating Christmas in Croatia, *as told to me by my teacher at the Filosofski Fakultet

Merry Christmas!

Sveti Nikola - Saint Nicholas Day
*December 6th is the Day of Saint Nicholas.  It is a big holiday for Croatian children.  Some days before the 6th, children write a letter to Saint Nicholas telling him what they want for a present.  If they are good, Saint Nicholas fulfills their wishes.  The night before Saint Nicholas Day, children clean their shoes and put them by the window.  While the children sleep, Saint Nicholas comes and puts sweets and toys in the shoes.  When they awake, the children find gifts in their shoes and are very happy and cheerful.  Lydia and Ellie Beth wanted to celebrate this custom – I wonder why?  We had a bit of misinformation and they put their shoes by the door instead of the window.  Saint Nicholas still found them and filled them with some chocolate and a toy.  They also got a nicely decorated switch since we heard that all the children get at least one switch in their shoe to remind them that they can always do better.

Sveti Lucija – Saint Lucia’s Day
December 13th is the Day of Saint Lucia.  Wheat seeds are planted in a shallow dish of water and left to germinate.  On Christmas Eve, the wheat is tied with a red, white and blue ribbon, the Croatian trobojnica.  Sometimes a candle is put in the center of the wheat since Saint Lucia is the patron saint of eyes and eyesight.  If the wheat has grown well and is tall and green, it is believed that the next year will be fruitful and good.  Many people now just buy a dish of wheat planted in soil from the store or market since the wheat in water often smells bad.

Badnjak - Christmas Eve 

Walking to church

*Christmas Eve is the 24th of December.  It is a fast, usually from meat and sweets.  The family decorates the Christmas tree together.  Some families put presents under the tree on badnjak and open them after the Christmas Eve mass, others wait for Christmas morning.  Croatian families eat dried cod fish and doughnuts late in the evening and then some go to midnight mass – a very holy and solemn mass.  People pray and sing Christmas songs.  Afterwards they congratulate one another and wish each other a happy Christmas. 
 It started snowing on Christmas Eve Day and it was beautiful!    We walked to our church in the falling snow.  The tree branches glistened with ice in the streetlights and the ice under the fresh snow, crunched under our feet.  It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful.  It reminded me of Norman Rockwell paintings – except for the graffiti and Croatian signs.  We did not understand much of the sermon but we joined in singing of Croatian Christmas songs, and recognized most of them.   Lydia and Ellie Beth were in the children’s Christmas story play.  They were part of the heavenly host and got to say, “Slava Bogu na visini a na zemlji ljudima koji ljubi” translated “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to all the people whom he loves.”  After the service, we hung out and ate Christmas cookies, drank juice and visited.  We even managed to get a late night conversation in with family from the States before we fell into bed.