Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Ministry in Croatia

By Eva Gonzalez-Mrsic
September 2006

Transformed lives in Croatia

“How are we going to start the work here? We don’t know anybody!” I asked my husband as we drove into the city of Split with all our belongings in the back of a borrowed van. It was July 1991 and my husband Danijel and I were moving from Osijek, a city in northern Croatia, to Split, the second most populous city in the country with 360,000 inhabitants, to start a church. Croatia had just begun its journey to independence from ex-Yugoslavia with a war that lasted until the end of 1996.

Croatia is located in Southeast Europe and is part of the Balkan region. It is a beautiful country with a surface area of fifty-six thousand square meters, 1,200 kilometers of sea coast, 1,300 islands and 4.5 million inhabitants. Seventy-eight percent of the population is Roman Catholic, seventeen percent is Serbian Orthodox and the rest are Muslims, Protestants and others. The percentage of newborn Christians is 0.09%. Matthew 9:37 is a reality in this country: The harvest is great but the laborers are few.

Danijel’s answer to my worrying question was his typical response: “Trust in the Lord!” Indeed, there was no other way than to trust the Lord for his daily guidance. When we came to Split there were no evangelical churches and we only knew of one newborn Christian—the aunt of one of our friends from Bible school. We spent the first months looking for an apartment and getting to know the city and its people. We wanted to discover the key needs in this area so that we could minister effectively. Two groups of people stood out: drug addicts and war refugees.

Meeting Needs
The number of drug addicts was overwhelming. We kept running into young men and women enslaved to drugs or parents asking us to help their children. Even if we did not feel adequate for this kind of ministry (although we had both taken a Teen Challenge intensive course) and did not have a center where we could receive these youth, we decided to love them, show them there is hope and practically help them. It was not always easy; we were robbed, lied to and deceived. However, we started to see young people enter a Christian rehabilitation program and leave delivered from drugs. We started to see parents seeking the Lord and giving their lives to him. After some time we established a rehabilitation center in the north of Croatia which ran for several years. Today we still do prevention and re-entry programs for people with life-controlling problems.

From 1991 to 1997 there were more than twenty thousand refugees from Croatia and Bosnia in the Split county. With donations from churches and world organizations such as World Vision and Feed the Hungry, we were able to distribute nearly twenty-four thousand tons of relief aid to refugees not only in our area, but in several cities in Bosnia. Today we are still helping a group of seventy refugees placed at a camp thirty kilometers from Split. We are the only group visiting them and throughout the years we have earned their respect as well as sown the seeds of the gospel into their hearts.

In the summer of 1992 we started a home group at our apartment with the acquaintances we had made in town. D.L was a young student of theology whom we met at a flower shop. G.D. was a nurse who asked for help for her drug addict son. M.P. was a construction worker who took many books from the table we exhibited on in the main walking area downtown. They were all eager to hear the good news of the gospel, learn from the word of God and invite friends over. A year later our place was too small and we rented a public hall for our meetings. The number of visitors grew rapidly. People were convicted in their hearts, made a commitment to Christ and were water baptized. Being the first generation of Christians in a very traditionally religious place, many were rejected because of their faith; however, their love for Christ gave them courage and strength to persevere and grow.

Eva Gonzalez-Mrsic was born in Spain but now serves with her Croatian husband Danijel as leaders of Good News Evangelical Church in Split, Croatia. She is also a part of the Lausanne Young Women Leaders Mentoring Network.