Croatia
Summary
The lands that today comprise Croatia were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the close of World War I. In 1918, the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a kingdom known after 1929 as Yugoslavia. Following World War II, Yugoslavia became a federal independent communist state consisting of six socialist republics under the strong hand of Marshal Josip Broz, aka TITO. Although Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, it took four years of sporadic, but often bitter, fighting before occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands, along with a majority of Croatia’s ethnic Serb population. Under UN supervision, the last Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia was returned to Croatia in 1998. The country joined NATO in April 2009 and the EU in July 2013. [1]
📷 : Wikipedia
Statistics
From the The Joshua Project [2]
In the News
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Prayer Guide
The less reached. Historically, minority groups were the main force among Protestants/Independents, but this is changing. There are still peoples and areas with very little evangelical presence:
a) Croatians. Novi Zagreb is a region of the capital with one-eighth of Croatia’s population – but as of 2007, it had no evangelical church. The Istrian Penninsula, the Dalmatian coast and Zagorje in the north are all frontiers for witnessing believers to move into.
b) Romani. These peoples are neglected by evangelicals, but prove very responsive to the gospel, especially the young people. Pray for culturally appropriate churches to emerge among the Romani.
c) Other minorities. Albanians, Slovenes, Italians, Germans and others who have little exposure to or interaction with the good news.
Specialist ministries for prayer:
a) Young people. High unemployment, little confidence in the future, functional godlessness and widespread drug use (80% of teens) show that hope is in short supply. Creative outreach and authentic love will see a response if believers are willing to stick it out. There is a strong focus by evangelicals on ministering to drug addicts.
b) Students. There is a witness among the 25,000 tertiary students through STEP(IFES) and CCCI. More staff and volunteers are needed to reach this searching generation.
c) Other sectors of society include families and business professionals. With both of these groups, CCCI is pioneering helpful means of sharing the gospel and having a positive redemptive effect on society in general.
d) Bibles. The Croatian Bible is available in print, online and in audio format, and an easy-to-read NT has recently been published. There is also a children’s version. Pray for widespread distribution and impact of God’s Word into many lives.
e) Christian publishing. Izvori Publishing House of the Evangelical Church publishes literature and three Christian magazines. Increasing numbers of Christian books, especially on discipleship, are being translated into Croatian. Pray that useful Christian resources will be developed to help disciple believers and to reach unbelievers.
f) Christian media. Radio has wide coverage – more than 30 hours per week in Croatian (IBRA, TWR) across all bandwidths. Internet radio in Croatian is another new and developing ministry. Izvori-Vjere radio ministry is broadcasting on over 52 stations in Croatia and Bosnia. Christian TV in Croatian is also available to more than 60% of the population via eight regional stations. [3]