When International Mission Board (IMB) representative Robert Jordan began planning the Project MOST ministry two years ago with national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU), he hoped to raise $5,000 to provide goats for a few families in Croatia.
But when Southern Baptist children and groups raised more than $250,000 in five months, Jordan and other IMB representatives “got busy” finding larger projects to help residents of this country in Southeastern Europe get back to work.
After 50 years of communism, local government-subsidized businesses failed and closed, leaving tens of thousands of Croatians unemployed and struggling to survive with little hope for the future. The following five-year war left many extended families and former refugees living in homes with roofs covering only one room.
“In these areas, there really is no other option — they can either leave their home or they can do agriculture,” Jordan said.
“Project MOST has helped over a hundred families, many of whom are making significant progress in developing a profitable agricultural business.”
He is grateful for the support of Southern Baptists, whose ministry donations comprised one-fourth of the project’s total budget. Alabama Baptists gave more than $10,000 through Project MOST.
“We actually set up some projects that put them to work,” Jordan said of the Croatians. “We took 15 families, provided them each with two dairy cows and went through a complete training course on breeding, delivering calves (and) marketing.
“We were able to put some families into business,” he noted. “Today they are selling milk and before this project, they weren’t doing anything.”
Jordan and other volunteers also purchased a water tank for an outlying town with no water system. Jean Cullen, a WMU missions involvement specialist, said Southern Baptists were greatly impacted by this project when they learned about the needs in Croatia and WMU provided the vehicle for them to give.
“We had hundreds of letters from all over the United States about how children’s groups led churches in projects,” Cullen said. “A number of pastors wrote and said that the entire church became involved around the issue. It also demonstrated how missions education does lead children/people to be active in transforming the world for Christ.”
Yet the main goal of reaching Croatians with the good news is a “slow process,” Jordan said, noting that the gospel is being sown in areas that Baptists and other evangelicals have never worked. The typical initial response is suspicion, he said. “They have no frame of reference for our volunteers. They are used to the United Nations types, who are in and out and not personal.”
According to him, Croatians don’t have a word in their language for “volunteer” since there has been no volunteer movement in their history.
“After having met several (volunteers), they are confronted with a form of Christianity which is truly radical and, I believe, ultimately attractive,” Jordan said. “We look forward to the day when God moves in an amazing way among these people.”
While Project MOST has ended, he plans to continue helping families in Croatia rebuild their farms and lives.
“We’ve seen some people who have the ability,” Jordan added. “They just need the motivation and encouragement and financial assistance, and that’s what we’ve given them.
And that “has made a difference in the lives of people in Croatia. It has made their lives easier and better,” he said.
For information on how to help in this situation and other similar ones, contact Cullen at jcullen@wmu.org or 205-991-4096.
EDITOR’S NOTE — IMB representative’s name changed for security reasons.
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