{"id":19761,"date":"2024-08-09T08:36:27","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T08:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/?p=19761"},"modified":"2024-08-20T09:15:23","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T09:15:23","slug":"rise-up-2024-youth-congress-meets-at-marusevec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/rise-up-2024-youth-congress-meets-at-marusevec\/","title":{"rendered":"Rise UP 2024 Youth Congress Meets at Maru\u0161evec"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>8 August 2024| Maru\u0161evec, Croatia [David Neal and Vanesa Pizzuto]<\/p>\n<p>Nestled 56 miles (90km) northwest of Zagreb, Croatia, Maru\u0161evec is a picturesque rural village in Vara\u017edin County. This serene location is characterised by its surrounding mountains, forests, meadows, streams, and fertile Maru\u0161evec\u00a0farmland. For those wanting to find the ideal venue to retreat and reflect on life&#8217;s deeper meanings, to worship, grow and learn, you would be hard-pressed to find a more idyllic setting.<\/p>\n<p>From Tuesday to Saturday, 6-10 August, that\u2019s exactly what happened when 400 young people and 100 leaders gathered on the campus of Maru\u0161evec Secondary School (Srednja \u0161kola u Maru\u0161evcu s pravom javnosti) and Adriatic Union College (Adventisti\u010dko teolo\u0161ko visoko u\u010dili\u0161te) for their 2024 Youth Congress with the theme \u201cWithstand.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_66709\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"  data-origwidth=\"800\" data-origheight=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5vlmPYMY-eY?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/ted.adventist.org&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&rel=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Rise UP 2024 Youth Congress Meets at Maru\u0161evec\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure>\n<p>The event marked the second Trans-European Division (TED) Regional Youth Congress, the first taking place in the Netherlands a few weeks earlier. Youth at this congress represented five TED Unions (Adriatic, Baltic, Hungarian, Polish, South-East European), the Greek Mission, and the Cyprus Region. In addition, special guests from Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the USA were also present.<\/p>\n<p>The Maru\u0161evec campus has historical significance not only for the church in Croatia but for all the countries of the former Yugoslavia. The first ministerial training school (Adventist Teoloska Skola) operated in Belgrade suburbs from 1931 to 1974. Still, due to \u2018the cutting of a motorway\u2019 through the property, the seminary transferred to Maru\u0161evec, widening the educational reach to children in the local community\u2014a new missional step for Adventism at that time and which continues to this day.<\/p>\n<p>Neven Kla\u010dmer, Communication director for the Adriatic Union Conference, reports that during the conflict resulting from the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia, the Maru\u0161evac Secondary School transitioned to serve refugee children fleeing the theatre of war. As an 11-year-old child, Kla\u010dmer was forced to move from the place where he was born with his family to the northwest of Croatia, free from armed conflict and settled in the safer environment of Maru\u0161evec. At the time, he had no idea that he would later go on to study at the theological seminary.<\/p>\n<p>Today, Maru\u0161evec Secondary School, is comprised of\u00a0 200 students &#8220;mostly from the community with some Adventists,&#8221; according to Elizabeta Skobe Barbi, headteacher, who regards this as &#8220;a special mission opportunity.&#8221; As she welcomes the visiting energetic and inspiring young adult Adventists from across Europe retreating on the school campus, Barbir continued, &#8220;When students come to Maru\u0161evec, they make new friends and enjoy the surrounding environment, and as boarders, they begin to regard us as their second family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With the theological seminary also on campus, Barbir describes the relationship between the school and seminary as a &#8216;sisterhood&#8217;, including the local church community meeting on campus.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_19764\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19764\" style=\"width: 629px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19764 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Elizabeta-Skobe-Barbir.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Elizabeta-Skobe-Barbir.jpg 629w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Elizabeta-Skobe-Barbir-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Elizabeta-Skobe-Barbir-500x280.jpg 500w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Elizabeta-Skobe-Barbir-350x197.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-19764\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Elizabeta Skobe Barbi, the headteacher, regards leading Maru\u0161evac Secondary School as &#8220;a special mission opportunity&#8221;.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As the congress has guests and participants from many parts of the TED territory, it&#8217;s worth taking a few moments to remember those who serve here daily.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Featured image: Part of the Praise and Worship team. The full group comprised of: Andrija Kova\u010devi\u0107, Jakov Kova\u010devi\u0107, Karolina Kova\u010devi\u0107, Lana Tesin, Chanel Had\u017eiefendi\u0107, Lidija \u0110idara, Petar Crnogorac, Filip Stojanovi\u0107, and Davor Brati\u0107.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>400 young people retreat to this idylic setting of mountains, meadows and streams. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":19946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1580,1568,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-albania-croatia-slovenia","category-children-teens-young-adults","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19761"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19952,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19761\/revisions\/19952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}