Roofs, jobs and reconciliation are our response to what the region of Lika needs, said Dragutin Matak, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Croatia.
Roofs, jobs and reconciliation are our response to what the region of Lika needs, said Dragutin Matak, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Croatia. Torn by the recent war in this Balkan state, Lika is an example of acute needs where Seventh-day Adventists are intentional in making a change and responding to the country’s call to rebuild the society.
Addressing a gathering to launch the project “Lika in Focus,” undertaken by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency and the Adventist Church, Matak explained what drives his church to “be involved and make a difference.”
“Reconciliation is our personal responsibility,” he said. “Organizations or institutions alone, may they be of humanitarian, social, political or even religious character, cannot succeed in creating reconciliation among the population of Lika, with so many nationalities living here. It is I who has to forgive. I have to be honest and truthful. It is I who have to sow good seed and then hope to reap good fruit, says the biblical wisdom. The institutions and organizations should only stimulate us for such a change.”
Croatian president, Stjepan Mesic, who attended the launch of “Lika in Focus,” commented on the Adventist Church’s work in the country. Referring to “our Adventist brothers,” Mesic commended the church’s unbiased approach as to “who is in need.” The Lika area is an ethnically-mixed community of Croats and Serbs.
“Adventists offer their help unconditionally,” Mesic said. “Their wish is to help, with the message that there is always room for those in need.” The president also spoke about the importance of the proposed project in light of the country’s entire development program.
“Just as a marathon starts with the first step, such is the development of Lika,” Mesic said. “Lika has experienced a setback as a result of war. Its potential lies both in its people and its economy. It is important to rebuild the infrastructure first, in order to enable a return to Lika and for those people to fulfil their potential.”
“ADRA is helping people to return and to fulfill their potential to the maximum,” said Mesic. “It is for this reason that this enterprise is worthy of praise.”
According to Tihomir Lipohar, director of ADRA-Croatia, the project consists of a development program for the poorer region of Lika, in western Croatia, and includes reconstruction of buildings, job opportunities for home businesses, education courses in agriculture, food production and crafts.
Explaining that “Lika in Focus” is ADRA’s first in regional development advocacy, Roy Richardson, ADRA regional director for the Trans-European region, emphasized ADRA’s “role in helping to develop communities and change people’s lives. In Croatia, the ‘Lika in Focus’ launch is a start. We hope that it will be the catalyst for greater funding and more donor support, so that the region can realize its full potential,” he said. In the past two years ADRA has been involved in rebuilding or constructing nearly 460 buildings in Croatia and has attracted interest and support for its development initiatives.
Commenting about the Lika initiative, Matak explained that “Lika in Focus” is offering the church an “experience in what it actually means to be ‘the salt and the light of the world.’
“We are eager to repeat the same experience in the area of the health ministries and in human rights, since we see Jesus doing just that,” he said. “What the Bible says, as result, will become more meaningful to us and to others.”
More than 200 people from some 30 organizations attended the event, including representatives from government ministries, regional officials, non governmental organizations, as well as local business and community groups. According to church sources, the media’s attention to the initiative and the event was the biggest yet for the church and ADRA in Croatia. The Adventist Church in Croatia is part of the church’s Adriatic Union, which also includes Slovenia and Albania, with a combined membership of 10,000.
