At the crack of 9:30 AM, Ivan Špoljarić, the pastor’s son, met us at church for our trip to the psychiatric hospital. Dom Turnić is like a nursing home for the physically and mentally disabled, also overlooking the Adriatic Sea. Morning activities today were preparing lunch, watching the Barbie movie, or coloring Easter eggs with some Americans. 

There were about 10 people who joined us, rotating in and out as interested. We’d forgotten that European eggs were mostly brown and had to make a mad dash to the store last night, swapping them out from lots of cartons with Karlo and Lorena’s help. Apparently Croatia also colors eggs for Easter by adding paint powder while boiling. 

The bright colors with cute speckles were a hit. Everyone jumped right in as we walked them through how an egg represented the gospel. They had so much fun coloring more eggs for their friend that they almost forgot to hunt for the chocolate ones. Gina the intern was helping all the patients, including a blind man to put on stickers. One gentleman who told a salad joke in English asked when they’ll be able to see us again. 

Please pray that Dom Turnić will continue to grant Ivan and the church access to visit and share God’s love with them.

A brief afternoon nap later, we returned to church for prayer meeting. Ivan lead with a few songs, two of which we knew. Then Ja talked about suffering and how the bible teaches us to depend on God and to rejoice in the Holy Spirit growing our faith. Then Pastor Milan ended with group prayer for the church and the nations.