Thank you for your prayers. Below are pictures from the first day of Vacation Bible School in the Roma village in Sisak, Croatia.

On Saturday, we prepared the crafts and practiced the songs and Bible story skit. Then in the evening, we went to the village to let people know that VBS would start the next day and to invite them to come. At about 7 pm, we left the village to go back to the ministry house. At about 8 pm, a man with a history of mental issues set two houses on fire and shot with a machine gun, in an area about a mile away from the Roma village. One person was killed and eight injured. The gunman was on the loose until captured around 1 am.

Many people in the Roma village were understandably afraid, so we were not sure what to expect the next day and were even unsure whether we would be able to hold VBS there, especially since VBS is held outside in a field in a very public place. To add to the complicated situation, unrelated to the shooting and arson, a woman in the village had died a couple of days before and according to their custom, the Roma do not play music for three days during the wake. Singing loud, fun, VBS songs is a big part of our program, so we weren’t sure what to do.

Thank you for praying. On Sunday morning we went for worship at a local Croatian Baptist Church, and enjoyed Croatian cuisine (ćevapi) for lunch. In the evening we went to the village and everything seemed normal. We held the VBS just as we had planned, except that we did not do the songs. Everything went very well. We had about 60 kids come. We acted out the story of Daniel in the lions’ den, played games, prayed and made handcrafts.

We’re thankful that the weather was not too hot and also that it did not rain. The summer teamers did a great job acting out the play, even though they don’t know the language, and playing and interacting with the kids.

Thank you for your prayers.

Todd & Pamala