Split, Croatia

Split, Croatia

I went with the 10-day outreach team to the coastal town of Split, Croatia in October. Split is a city with 2000 or more years of history. The cobblestones – slick from rain and so many years of constant foot traffic – attest to the way that things don’t change as much as they do change. People still love to walk the Riva, or boardwalk, along the ocean. The palace of Roman emperor Diocletian is still there, somewhat. There are still buyers and sellers out on the streets with food, jewelry, and music. And people still need to hear about Jesus.

This area of Croatia is known as Dalmatia and as we walked through I wondered if when Titus was here he was doing the same thing (2 Timothy 4:10) – or whether he came for the beaches.

(we missed our bus stop and ended up here - "oops!")

Street witnessing in a nominally Catholic country is an interesting thing. To be Croatian is to be Catholic – so you might just as easily find yourself talking with a devout Catholic Croatian as a Catholic atheist or Catholic pantheist or a young Catholic desiring to be a priest – but who has no idea what the Bible actually says because his priest has assured him that there’s plenty of time later “to get to that.”

The message we came to share was that Jesus came to bring us into a relationship – that He is our high priest – who came to live and die for our sin and rise again - to bring us out of sin, which leads to death, and into resurrection and life, so that we might come boldly before the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Much of our time was spent either in the Global Café, a coffee shop ministry run by the Calvary Chapel in Split, or on the Riva doing street drama and talking with people.

Here are some pictures from two of our dramas (different people may be playing different parts each time) ~

"Everything" - playing the role of Love of Money with 8 year old Skylene

"Set Me Free" (my favorite)

I tried to post a video but blogspot wouldn't load it, so if I’m able to get a youtube link I will post that when I can. The videos are also on my facebook page – and they are worth seeing.

While there certainly weren’t thousands flocking to hear the gospel, the trip was an encouragement to the church, a stretching and strengthening experience for each of us on the team, and many people did watch the dramas and were interested in talking with us. Please pray for the people of Split, especially a couple of high school age guys who spent a lot of time with us, even coming early to the open mic night we had at the café and playing music with us. Please also pray for Travis, the intern who led our team - he will be moving to Split in January to serve at the church and coffee shop there.

(credit for the pictures belongs to Esther Han, Rachel Woodcock, and Mark & Katrina Ramos)