My Hope

Just recently my hope was shaken.

A couple things I had hope in broke down before my eyes. Something I was hoping in and looking forward to for the last few months, something I didn't think could be taken from me ended up being taken from me. You know the feeling, 'I can't wait for this or that to happen, it's going to be so great, life is going to be perfect in that moment,' something like that. The next day, someone I love dearly gave me some news of having found a 'growth' in a routine check up. Life is precious, we only have one, and when it unexpectedly finishes for us all we will have eternity staring us in the face. So I sit here in what now feels like the middle of nowhere pondering what my hope is truly in. Is it in an event in the future or in a family members health or somewhere else?

I know God is patient; I am experiencing that fact now. If I were Him I would certainly have given up on someone like me, who continually needs to be reminded of what is truly the most important, by now. But God is patient; He patiently teaches me the same things over and over again.

Just recently my hope was shaken, when something is shaken it either falls apart or withstands the test. While the part of my hope that was in these things that have been and can so easily be taken from me has fallen, the hope that remains and continues to remain through any and all tests it is put through is my hope in Jesus and eternal life with Him. A couple quick notes on what the Bible has to say about these thoughts:

Luke 10:20: After the disciples have been sent out by Jesus, they come back to Him rejoicing that demons are subject to them...seems like a pretty legit thing to rejoice in, but Jesus answers them in Luke 10:20, "Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Jesus clears up what my hope should really be in, that my eternal home is heaven, not some type of uncertainty, not 'i don't know what will happen when I die, i guess i'll see', but because of knowing Jesus and turning my life over to him, my hope should fully be in something that cannot be taken away, eternal life with Him.

Everything else can be taken from me: family, friends, girlfriends, money, fame, health, etc, everything the world tells me will make me happy (but never actually does). But the one thing that cannot be taken is eternal life with God, because it is based on the promise of an unchanging, all-powerful God who said in Luke 9:24, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" I have lost my life for His sake; my hope is secure in Him. I pray all reading this have considered Christ. Considered giving up their life to Him, 'for what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?.' Eternity is at stake, it's either spent with Him or without Him, I beg you to consider Christ, today, right now.

Revelation 21:4-7: John writes down the last of what God is revealing to him of what eternity will look like. This is the picture of what I pray my complete hope is in. Rev. 21:4-7, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son."

Tri-lingual??

So we were hanging out after bible study at this place called the river pub listing to some live jazz music. it was pretty cool. well all of a sudden a guy from the crowd came up on stage and started singing with the band. He was Croatian but the songs they were playing were American songs. He started with 'isn't she lovely' which made me first think of Anne, my beautiful girlfriend, and then think of Matt Kirby, not because of his dashing good looks, or because he is lovely, although both are certainly true, but because we had fun singing that song this summer about our amazing girlfriends....anywho, that was a tangent, sorry. the real reason for this post was this. A Croatian man singing American jazz music with a Croatian accent, of course, then to top it off he finishes and say, 'muchas gracious,' to complete the tri-lingual trifecta....i say well done to him.
ps, i didn't have my camera much to my regret or i would have given you proff that he was indeed a Croatian guy singing at a bar, all other things in this story you would have had to take by faith, sorry about the lack of a picture, but you know what Jesus said, 'blessed are those who don't see and still believe!' consider yourself blessed, i guess.

Prayer Requests

Hey all,
I just wanted to quickly let you know about some prayer requests here in Rijeka.
First, we got clearance to hand out our 'everystudent' day planners at the student restaurant and at the dorms. We'll be doing that tomorrow (Thursday) and on Friday. Please pray for those planners as they go out. Pray the Lord would use them to help us get into some good conversations with students, also pray that the Lord would generate genuine interest in what we have to offer among the students.
Second, we are in the midst of doing our strategic planning for the year. This is a very important and long process. please pray for our team and that the Lord would put what He wants to see in the coming years in Rijeka on our hearts. Pray for patience and perseverance for our whole team also.

Things are going well here in Rijeka. We are all excited that students are back in town and getting ready for school once again. It has been great to see how the Lord has been working in the ministry here in the past year and i am hopeful that He will do even more this year. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. i appreciate you all.
pete

Chillaxin In Denver International Airport

Yep thats about it...waitin to get on the plane.
We arrive in Frankfurt at 11am their time (4am mountian time), then take off for Zagreb, Croatia at 12:30pm and arrive in Rijeka about 5pm, and then i sleep!
Well just wanted to keep all three of you who read my blog up to date. talk to ya soon.
peace

We have a full team!!!

Hey all, me again,
We have all gotten the ok to leave for Croatia tomorrow!!!! Jon's got the ok about 15 minutes ago and Allison finished her support 30 minutes ago, with only 9 hours to spare before she has to be to the airport!! so we have a full team, here is how it shakes out.
From Zagreb, Croatia--Hrvoje and Petra Malovic and family
From the University of Montana--Kevin and Kristi Kneeshaw and family
From the University of Idaho--Allison Stephens
From the University of Utah--Kali Waterfall
From Montana State University--Jonathan Oset
And may i say, its a pretty darn good lookin team too.
Thanks so much for your prayers and praise God for His constant provision!
in HIM,
pete

Almost Fully Funded!!!!

Hey all,
The blog is officially back up and running!!! you may cheer if you feel compelled to....
So I just wanted to give you all an update on how the crazy summer has ended. so here it is....
After returning from an awesome time in Austin TX and hanging out with a lovely girl named Anne, it was back on the support raising trail. Well in the week before i left i saw the Lord bring in the remaining $275 of monthly support i needed and earlier today i received my clearance to get on the plane and serve in Croatia. PRAISE THE LORD!!!

now you may be asking yourself, 'but pete your title says 'almost fully funded'' well allow me to explain. We have a team of 2 single men, 2 single women, and 2 married couples. there is a single man, we will called him 'Jon' and a single woman, lets use 'Allison' who are members of my team. these two have $150 and $67 in monthly support that they are still trusting the Lord for. I just wanted to ask for prayer for them as they trust the Lord in these final hours before we get on the plane.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support and please check back as i promise this blog will be full of totally awesome updates throughout the year. God Bless.
pete

New Staff Training

Hey all,
This is just a quick post to let you know how my summer has been. To begin the summer i began raising support to go on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. Just recently, yesterday, i arrived at New Staff Training for CCC in Fort Collins, CO. I've already meet all kinds of sweet people and am excited for these new friendships to grow. We start tonight and start classes on Monday. We are taking Doctrine Survey and Bible Study Methods, probably one of the parts i am most stoked about; however, i did just find out i have about 10+ chapters of reading to be done by tuesday and i'm not much for reading!!!! i also signed up for intramurals, which i am excited for! all in all, really sweet! Thanks for your prayers, i'll try to keep you updated on how life is here, it's really busy so far.
Love you all,
pete

It has been a long long time.....

wow, almost made it a year, that takes talent, but now i'm back, attempting once again to be a blogger. truth is i will be heading out of the country again and i figured i'd get a head start on the blog thing, because when i move back to croatia, i will turn to blogging yet again.

as you may have heard in my last sentence i will be going back to croatia next year!!! i apologise if you are a good friend and i haven't told you yet and you are finding out on my blog that i haven't posted on for almost a year, that would be really sad, but if you are, i know you are a good friend because you are still clinging to the hope that i might have a new blog post by some miracle...if that is the case, know i especially did this one for you, because i knew you were the friend who didn't give up on me when i wasn't posting for so long....you, my friend, are a true friend. that is all.

here is a picture of the team that will be my new best friends and worst enemies (but only for a short time while in croatia), mostly best friends.

In case you were wondering where I was Friday night....

sorry i didn't post this, i don't have the pics on my computer yet, but someone, matt mccomas, doesnt' have patience, so here you are....

So as I began to plan and brainstorm what Jessica and I would do for our first real date, I realized that Bozeman doesn't offer a lot of fun night activities. Just as I was going to settle for something less, my good buddy Mike Kindsfater called and told me about a free concert in Great Falls called 'Downpour' This free concert included bands you may have heard of: Pivitplex, and Skillet, and Dysifer Down (don't know the spelling on that), amoung others. I was pretty stoked and called Jess and told her she would need warm clothes on, and a change of clothes and that i'd have her back home at 10 the next morning, i think she was scared.
As we drove to Helena, where we were meeting Mike and his wife Aileen, to then go to GF for the big concert, Jessica's brother Drew called, and when he asked where she was going, she explained, she had no clue, which understandably freaked out her older brother, thinking she was being kidnapped.
It was then i informed my lovely girlfriend that we would be rockin out all night and staying with mike and aileen that night. she was pumped, i think.
Anywho, it was sweet. it was great to get to hang with Mike and Aileen before they take off to Bolivia next month on a mission trip for a year, and as always it was sweet to get to spend some quality time with Jessica. Please enjoy these pictures, and know that Skillet is now one of my new favorite bands:

Kickin it wit the team

Hey all. so i haven't been on for a while, i know, but i've had a crazy last 6 weeks...
After i stepped off the plane from Croatia, i took a few days to try to readjust to life in america. i'm not sure how that ended up yet...cause since then i've been non-stop, apart from a couple days of rest, raising up a ministry team to support me and send me to Montana State to minister to the students there.
well after a crazy last month plus, i sit here to tell you i am on lunch break, midway through our first week of preparation to go hard after the Great Commission at MSU. we have spent the past few days getting to know each other as a ministry team. there are 8 of us, 5 full time staff, 2 student staff men, and me, the lowly intern. It has been sweet, i enjoy the team, they are all super rad and i'm stoked for this year, i can see some amazing things on the horizon.
along with picking up some new teammates, i say new, not better or worse, different (i still miss my old team in croatia...), i've also picked up something or someone...Her name is Jessica Lee Killian, some may know her, some may not....if you do you know she is rad, if you don't know her, you need to know she is rad...so after much prayer we decided to call it official last night at about 7:45....so thats fun. i will quit embarrassing her now.
Ok so that is what is new with me. Praise God for providing the necessary funds for me to be here, He is always faithful and never late. ok peace out.

What I'll miss most about Croatia...

Well as time here is drawing to an end, less than one more full day in Rijeka, i have been thinking about what i am going to miss the most about Croatia....well, this actually wasn't too hard of a question, so here it is, i hope you enjoy. sorry blogger won't let me load any pictures. :(

The "Gottskulz"-Andrew and Marni
Andy and Marni are the two best pirates i know, and Andy has a wicked "jimmy." a jimmy if you are asking is a freestyle walking move that Andy and I co-authored. andy also made up the game 'brodie,' also a quality game. he is one of the top 4 players in the world too, so lets just say he's pretty good. Andy and Marni are also really solid Christians and have been such a joy to know this whole year. I look forward to having them in Bozeman next year, living next door to me (you guys really should consider it!). actually they will be somewhere where there are available jobs, so i guess bozeman is out of the question. The Gotts love coffee, i'd explain more, but it would be too much, just think of the person you know who loves coffee more than anyone should love anything and multiply it by 18.44, that is how much the Gotts love coffee. Luckily they love God more, and that is just rad. Andy, Marni, you never really read blogs, but if you are reading this, i will miss you both a lot, hopefully one day when little gottskulz are running ramped everywhere i will be around to babysit and make up fun games with them. oh yeah the Gotts cook some tasty food too.

The "Seriouslys"-Timothy and Sara
Tim and Sara love each other, so thats good cause they are married. tim has been my accountability partner this year and it has been rad to see an amazing example of a man striving to love and lead his wife. They love playing, mainly outdoors, but they also like a good movie indoors...maybe outdoors too, i'm not sure on that one. they too are good cooks, Sara makes some tastiness all the time and tim cooks a mean beer-butt-chicken and lemon chicken, yeah i guess he specializes in chicken, so tim whats for dinner tonight, chicken or a chicken...alright....oh yeah along with loving good movies, they love to quote good movies too. They too love God, something about being missionaries, i guess it must be a requirement or something. It has been great to see them individually and together seek the Lord in their lives. Serys you will be missed dearly and i cant wait to see your kids and the gotts kids playing together, what an amazing sight that will be.

Johnny Hrvatski-John Rozzelle
John is good.

Michelle me belle-Michelle Clinton
Michelle loves people, she loves to love people too. it has been awesome to hang out with michelle this year. she always hung out with her brother and i like hanging with my sisters, so each of us took the place of each other's siblings this year. She is a mad pinochle player and if you are playing two handed with her she will always get the 9 of trump, never fails....if you are playing 500 with her two handed, she will always get the joker, that too never fails. i think she must know some card tricks, cause no one is that lucky! apart from whipping me at cards, it has been great to get to know Michelle this year. Michelle is going on staff this summer with Campus Crusade for Christ, and i am stoked for this. she is going to be an awesome staff women and i am excited to see the Lord continue to use her to impact women for His kingdom. and yes you guessed it Michelle loves God...Michelle, i will miss the coffees we go to together, talking about staff and God and you putting the beat down on me at cards.

Darth Taylor/Lay-tor-Taylor Wilson
Taylor is strong like an ox, only she can't weigh over 100 lbs. to see her persevere this year has been amazing. she has kept me in line this year and whipped me into shape on occasion. taylor loves anything organic, whether its food, perfume, deodorant, or boys. she, sorry taylor, used to hope in sunday school as a little one that when she was sitting next to a cute boy that the teacher would ask them to pray and hold hands, i had to do it taylor. :) Taylor has such a passion for women to know the Lord and loves the Lord with all she has. It has been sweet to see her being used this year and grow closer to the Lord. Taylor will be back in Rijeka in September to continue the work the Lord has for her here....Taylor i don't know who i will tease like a little sister next year, maybe i'll just have to rack up a large phone bill...i am going to miss you acting like you don't like to be teased, when really you enjoy it, i know!!! :)

La La Lexicans-Alexis 'my real name isn't lexi' Youngs
Alexis would have been very popular in school had she not been home schooled. and even though she was home schooled you would never know. She has a great taste in music, especially the indie rock seattle music. she will turn red at the mention of it....or if you ask her to show off her ballet skills, yeah thats right she used to be a professional ballerina. Lexi has been the assistant team leader, not the assistant to the team leader, this year and has done an amazing job. She has genuinely love this team as a mother loves her children. Her heart for us and for the women in Rijeka who don't know Christ is awesome. I like alexis, probably cause we may be one in the same in terms of personality, so that give you an idea of why she would have been popular in school. :) oh yeah, she loves the Lord too, and even more amazing, she loves to do dishes! Lexi, you will be missed for lots of things...i don't know who will chose the music i listen to this next year, i will be lost with out you..

Back to John, i wonder if he read this far.....
John is not only good as i said before, he is amazing. His heart for the Lord and His truth is inspirational and could be unmatched. He is our team leader and i can't imagine how any other stint team could function with out him leading, it doesn't seem possible. He makes the best Civapi this side of Kansas, where he is from. probably that side of Kansas too, since the world doesn't know about civapi yet....what a shame. John can eat pasta 7 days a week for months on end and lose weight and not get bored, truly a God given talent. It has been a joy to hang with John this year, to be his roommate, to have ups and downs and learn with him. It will be weird to not have John next year as i feel we could legally be married in 34 states, that is if one of us were female....never mind that one...i just wanted to say we've spent a lot of time together this year, its been great. John is coming back to Croatia and will be leading the team next year. i am stoked to see what God does through him and his team next year. John also plans to start a church with a good friend in the future....it should be a pretty crazy church, i'm excited to attend. John i will miss too many things to mention, thank you for your friendship...

I Love You all dearly and will miss you all more than you know, yes even you Taylor. It has been an awesome ride this year, i'm sad to see it come to a close, but i am stoked to see the Lord use each of you in the future. Take care, God bless you, and i am praying for you...and if you don't call me when you are in Bozeman, forget all these nice things i said about you! :) just kidding, but seriously, call me if you are in Bozeman. Love You...Bye now.

World Cup in Croatia...

as most of you probably don't know, it is world cup time all around the world. It has been really cool to be in a country where almost everyone drops everything to watch the world cup games. As you may have heard, the US team got ran over in their first game 3-0. it was pretty ugly. as you may not have heard, the Croatian team put up a good fight against the defending champs the Brazilians, they lost 1-0 in a very close game in which they played much better than Brazil. They couldn't make any shots, they'd get it right in front of the goal and either spray it 10 feet over or right at the goalie. The Croatian fans were proud of their team though, so that is good. they really are a good team and i look forward to routing for them in the future.
Since everyone and their brother here loves soccer or football, a local church decided to do an outreach for the world cup. We joined up with them and handed out 'gospel of John' books that were specially made for the world cup. one of the Brazilian players is a Believer, so he gave his testimony and they included that in the read, it was pretty sweet. people were excited to get the Word and most everyone opened it up and began to read it. Please pray they would find the real Jesus as they read.
As we handed them out, Milan, the pastor, sent some of the summer project people into an alley way thing where there were tons of highschooler just hanging around, probably drinking and smoking. Jason, who sharply resembles Tiger Woods, check his picture out a couple of posts ago, began to talk to, as he called him 'the ring leader of the group.' He then asked him if he could buy him some food and they hung out for a little bit. 'the ringleader' was then connected with Milan and they all talked for a while. It was cool to see how God could use something like a big soccer tourney to reach out to the city.
We time here in almost finished, it will be sad to good, but i am excited for what the Lord has next for me. please pray for me as i am beginning to wrap up everything here. please pray for my last meetings with students, that the Lord would open doors for His saving message. that is all for now, thank you. :)

the Amazing Race

a lot of my teammates will think i am posting about how our english workshop posters for the summer say 'amazing race' on them and were mistaken by one teacher to be white supremacy propaganda, but that is not why i am writing....
the real reason why this blog is entitled 'the amazing race' is because today in Rijeka we held, for the new summer projecters, our own version of the amazing race. here are the team, and intros of the summer projecters:




















Lisa Lee and Nate





















Stacy and Sara (sorry about spelling)





















Judy and Amanda
















and Jason and Anna
Not pictured is Dane, he was busy for amazing racing.

So the amazing race started off like any other day should, with breakfast, so i ran by the store and grabbed some good breakfasting materials for the SPers: yoghurt, bananas, corny bars, pretzels, and pez for dessert. unfortunatly, since the amazing race is not only amazing but a race, these SPers had to race to see who would get to start first and may i just say that Nate absolutly stole the show here, considering they won the eating contest and his petite partner only ate the corny bar. proud of you Nate, proud of you. here they are enjoying breakfast.
















after breakfast our new friends raced throughout the city, learning where things were and how to ask for help and how to use the bus and all kinds of other good things.....one being how to do well in a 3 legged race, which none were too excited about. at least it was down hill and only about a half mile......here are Lisa and Nater truckin along....





















overall they seemed to enjoy their time, so that is good...oh and all the racing was for classy croatian boat flags....so congrats to Sara and Stacy our winning team....winning by a good 20 minutes even! ok, all for now....i hope you enjoyed some real posts for now. laters.

Tiger Woods

So on wednesday i went to Zagreb to pick up the Summer Project peeps. There are 9 here (3men, 6women) to help out with the ministry for the next 4 weeks. It was rad to get to hang out with them and hear about where they are from and whatnot. their fearless leader Jason. Jason is on staff at OSU. so as we were eating dinner back at home in Rijeka on wednesday night, one of his students pointed out that he is the exact clone of none other than Tiger Woods....please feel free to decided for yourself:




















Jason is rad and i am was excited, as i got to enjoy dinner with him last night too, to see his passion for the Lord and for Croatian students rub off on his team here.
in the same news, today as he was waiting for the bus to come, he looked into the glass which acted as a mirror and being the multi-tasker that he is decided not to just wait for his bus but also practice his back stroke (the golf shot, not the swimming technique)....if only Tiger Woods used public transportation he probably could have gotten away with it!

sorry been a while, i have two things for ya.

first i need to give a shout out to my boy Mark Wagner and his rad music......Check it out. He is touring the Westnorth right now, so maybe go check him out if you are near. he also is doing an online video journal, check those out they're cool like that.

onword, next thing is telling you about our last staff meeting last friday....if i could do half as good of a job expaining this i'd try, but lexi has done it all already, so here ya go.....this truly is a must read.....amazing.

this sadly is all i have for now.....ministry has been good this past week. We had a chance to hook some people who just got done seeing the Da Vinci Code with some magizines that explain the historical facts....just incase there are people who actually believe that the author was presenting a factual arguement....so that was good, and was recieved well, people really liked them and some read most of it right there in front of us.

other then that and getting to finally sit down with some guys i've been hoping to see the last few weeks, life is all about begining to begin to develope a ministry team for next year at MSU. Please continue to be praying for this summer to go smoothly and for the Lord to provide all that is needed to begin work at MSU. ok, now that is all i have. take care all, check out mark and our staff meeting, you wont regret it.....peace.