Crikvenica

Every year our church goes on a retreat to the coast of Croatia in the town of Crikvenica. The ocean is literally across the street! Our first year there was about 4 or 5 years ago. And every year it is one of my favorite things we do! These people just become more and more dear. And I love the non-stop time we all spend together. Plus it's great practice for me in Slovene!
We left Friday afternoon and that was quite the turn around since I'd just flown in on Wednesday morning. But that meant I didn't have to try and be super mom. I just unloaded the peanut butter and oreos and loaded up supplies for the family and we hit the road!

This year Josh and I got to share on Saturday morning. He spoke with the men and I spoke with the women. The theme was challenging times this weekend. So he addressed what it means to be courageous men and I talked about remaining soft and not giving way to fear. Later we had discussion groups where they talked about application. It's always exciting to hear how the Lord can tailor his word to our own individual situations!

The pictures I'm posting are from Sunday morning. As a sunday school teacher I took a turn leading the children's program. Our dear friend Miso helped me. He dressed up as Peter and we "ran" into him on the beach cooking some fish just like Jesus had done in the last chapter of John. He told the kids how he was just remembering how Jesus had challenged him to feed his sheep. And when Peter asked "What about John", Jesus said, "What is that to you? You follow me." Then we talked some about how it doesn't matter what our friends are doing or not doing. It's important that we focus on what has Jesus asked us to do. Then we ate fish (stuff Josh had smoked earlier) and bread and threw rocks in the water.

The ocean and the great outdoors was a bit distracting. But some of the conversations which followed showed that kids were listening! and that's always a thrill for me! Thanks Miso! I mean Peter!