Smiles and waves greet us as we drive into the Roma village near Sisak. About 100 children converge on the open field at the back of the village and after we set up the sun shades and tarps for them to sit on, the kids join us in singing:
“Our God is so big, He cares for me
Our God is so big, I’m not alone, I’m not alone”
Kansas City team leading the group singing
Then we don costumes and line up by the cardboard cut-out of a boat. As the story of Jesus calming the storm is read in Croatian over the PA system, we act out the story, stressing that Jesus is our refuge and can save us! He is the One sent from God to turn us from our sins and bring us Good News.
We then divide the children into 5 groups of about 20. Each child gets a club t-shirt with the logo “Mladice” which means “branches” and reminds us of our theme from John 15, “Jesus is the vine; we are the branches.”
Pam explains the activity page to our group
The kids make crafts with a picture of Jesus calming the sea, and later color an activity page for the story as well. Our prayer is that God’s Word will impact each of their lives.
So, “our brothers and sisters, pray for us, that the Lord’s message may continue to spread rapidly and be received with honor, just as it was among you” (Thess 3:1-2).
This is primarily a Ludari-speaking village. There are no Scriptures in this language so please pray that we will be able to find Ludari speakers who are willing and able to be translators and that we will be able to begin drafting an initial translation of Bible stories sometime in 2018. Thank you for praying!
Gratefully in Christ,
Todd & Pamala Price
(Kirsten, Daniel, Ariela)