The man made a beeline straight in my direction and sat next to me. I had noticed him come in, but I was busy on my laptop, so I kept working. However, I could not shake the feeling that he was staring at me, so I turned to him and asked, “Do I know you?”
The man looked at me and responded, “No, but I know you.” He then told me he had been following me on social media since we arrived. He had seen our progress in acclimating to the culture here, in building the community center, and in starting our children’s church service. He had seen us struggle with the language and the school system here. He really knew a lot about our lives, but still wanted to know more. He asked me to tell him my story from the beginning.
“How far back do you want me to start?” I asked.
“As far back as you want. I want to hear it all.”
We sat for an hour talking about my life, about God and about how we ended up in Croatia. He shared how he was Catholic, but then began reading the Bible on his own and realized many things did not align. He and his wife are now Bible-believing Christians and have been disconnected from much of their family as a result. Their family does not understand why they would ever leave the Catholic faith, and this has caused some tension. Before parting ways, we exchanged contact information.
He was extremely interested in studying the Bible together, so we met up again about a week later to dive into the Word. I could tell he had really been reading and studying his Bible and was eager to learn more.
On the same day I met the gentleman, I received a message on Instagram. It started with, “So this is going to be so random.” The person said they lived in England and had seen our videos online. She is a Christian mom homeschooling her young children, and they all enjoy watching our journey. She is the daughter of our landlord and expressed her happiness to see a family doing the Lord’s work in her family’s home. Her father is agnostic and has never been very open to conversations about God, so it was a real shock to hear from his daughter, whom we had never met, because she has never visited Croatia since we moved in.
The Lord really does hold the world in His hands, because in His hands, it is so small. He can set up divine appointments for people, no matter where they are located. We were encouraged by these two encounters all in one day and were reminded to continue living for Jesus. Jesus will make the final connection when we are not able to do so ourselves.
