Speaking of hardship in the ministry...???
Thursday as I was preparing for my teaching I got a call: "Vlado is dead". He was an 73 years old man from our church who lived alone, survived World war 2, and the Siege of Vukovar, The concentration camp etc... Every time he came to the church service he was smiling and always told me with a huge smile on his face: "Pastor Laci, today I was reading this and that in my BIble..."
He was one of the Muppet shows...(you know the two guys on the balcony.. :) ) Well his buddy Lepen and him always walked together to church and simply just reminded us of them...
After the phone call I went streight to his apartment. His dead body was still in the bathroom. The doctor came, have filled the papers and left. I was left there in a foreign land, with a corp in an apartmant...waiting for the funeral company to come...When they arrived I had to help carry out the dead body of Vlado... I had to grab a hold of a dead body...It was not easy... We have carried him out and put him into a cascet...
No family(at this time, who would be willing to take care of funeral and etc) so I started organizing the funeral... Later an aunt showed up and was willing to take care of the details...
That night I had to teach on Joshua 5, circumsizing the heart... Half of the church was crying...
Friday I spent taking care of the rest of the funeral, buying the grave(YES, the Agape Church has an official grave site, if a widow or someone dies who has no grave we will be able to help again...so we are more ready for the next funeral...), and preparing for the saturday funeral...
Saturday:
GOD really blessed it. It was a special time for our church. Since this was my first every funeral, I have to say thanks to Tomo Mogus, Tom Foley, and Damir Spoljaric...THANK YOU.
After this I came home and I slept. I was so exhausted. Spiritually, emotionally...Menthaly.
Today I am teaching on Mark 15:1-20. So I better go and finish my preparation... :)
But tomorrow I am in Subotica...I was not abe to go for 18 months now, because of my army issues and papers...Now all got cleared out... So I am going to visit family, friends and lots of BUREK's... :) I will post hopefully from there...
GOD bless you guys
2 comments:
Laci and Keri,
I was reading thru Galatians today and I felt the Lord gave me this scripture:
So don't get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time. Galatians 6:9.
Funny thing is I felt it was for me... and as I thought more about it and reading your updates lately I felt it was for you guys as well. Then I logged on to your site later today and saw your update about Vlado. Then I knew it was for you guys and needed to share it.
Tony
Thank you guys for the encouregement...GOD is healing me...
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