Leon was seven years old the first time he went to Bible camp at Maruševec. His parents had gone to the same camp when they were children. It had been running since 1972—a summer tradition for Adventist families across Croatia.

For Leon, the first week changed everything.

“There were 50 to 100 children,” he remembers. “We had Bible school every day, workshops, singing, photography, and sports, and every evening after dinner we had worship.”

But what he remembers most is baseball.

Not American baseball exactly—their own version. Tennis balls. Improvised bases. A field filled with laughter. And a tradition more than fifty years old.

“We played every evening until nine,” Leon says. “That was the biggest thing of the camp!”

Each week ended with a Sabbath program prepared by the children: songs, dramas, and worship presentations for parents who came to see what their children had learned. And every year, children brought their non-Adventist friends.

Last year, three young people were baptized at camp—two Adventists and one who had come as a guest. Camp was more than games. It was faith in action. And it planted something in Leon’s heart.

When Leon entered high school at Maruševec in 2018 to study physical therapy technology, something else had changed.

A brand-new boys’ dormitory had just opened—funded by a previous Thirteenth Sabbath Offering.

“It was special,” Leon says. “We didn’t have keys. We had cards. It was like a hotel.”

The old dormitory had four students per room. The new one had two. The new rooms also had air-conditioning, modern furniture, and shared bathrooms between two rooms.

“It was modern. Clean. Comfortable. And the student club was connected to the dorm.”

Nearby were basketball and volleyball courts—spaces where friendships formed naturally. For Leon’s generation, the new dormitory wasn’t just a building. It was home.

Some older students felt nostalgic for the old dorm. But for those who grew up in the new one, it became the center of student life: a place to study, laugh, talk about faith, and build community.

Students who came for vocational training also found something deeper—belonging.

As a child, Leon had once told his elementary school headmaster, “During the week I want to be a stonemason. On Sabbath I want to be a pastor.”

But in high school, he fell in love with sports, anatomy, and the human body. Physical therapy seemed like the obvious path. He completed his studies and was well prepared for further education.

Yet, during Leon’s final year of high school, a thought returned, quietly at first.

“I don’t know when,” he says, “but I started again to think about pastoral ministry.”

The thought did not leave. It grew.

Leon began talking with professors. With his girlfriend. With his parents. He prayed. He reflected. The sense of calling became clearer.

He enrolled in theology at Maruševec and completed his B.A. Today, at 24 years old and newly married, he is serving as a pastoral intern.

And he hasn’t forgotten Bible camp.

Over the years, he returned—first as a counselor caring for younger children, then as a Bible teacher, then as a lecturer.

He also helped launch and lead “Teen Connect,” a weekend spiritual retreat for teenagers across Croatia and Slovenia, because he noticed that although many programs existed for children, there were few specifically for teens.

“We always include mission activities,” he says. “Visiting elderly homes. Cleaning the campus. Distributing literature.”

He understands something important: the faith that shaped him was formed in community—in camps, dormitories, worship, and service.

When the new dormitory opened, no one could predict which boys would sleep there, or what God might call them to become. But the investment created space to grow, to belong, and to hear God’s voice.

Today, Leon ministers in Zagreb, helping lead Bible studies and youth programs—part of a new generation of Croatian leaders shaped by Adventist education and community life.

The Thirteenth Sabbath Offering of the First Quarter of 2017 helped build the Maruševec dormitory, and students like Leon were shaped by that gift.

Now, in Zagreb, a church community displaced by earthquake damage is seeking to rebuild a place where youth, families, and seekers can gather in worship and ministry. Your offering helps create spaces where faith can grow and where God can call the next generation.