Did you know that our church sponsors a missionary family?
Eric & Nancy Titus, along with their 3 children, Samuel, 15, Valerie, 12, and Penny, 10,
have embarked upon a mission to serve God in Croatia.
They work at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia,
and with the Reformed Christian Church in Croatia.








Please click HERE
to read more about the Titus Family
at the Reformed Church in America website.





September, 2010

Dear Friends:

Attached is the September issue of our monthly column, Croatia Update. In it we announce that Eric has been named head of the doctoral program at the Evangelical Theological Seminary, where we work. He also will be traveling to Prague in September to defend his dissertation. For those of you really interested, the title of the dissertation is: The Myth of the Analogia Entis: Karl Barth's Doctrine of Secular Misery in Weimar Context. Please keep him in your prayers for this important component of his degree, which is understandably nerve-wracking, as I stated in the column. We don't yet have an exact date for the defense but expect it to be in September before the beginning of the new school year around Sept. 20.

Also, our seminary doesn't begin classes until Oct. 4, but September is an important time when the faculty get together and finalize plans for the year. Please pray for us as we get our homeschool underway and begin the work of the seminary year. And thank you always for your constant support -- both in prayers and financially. We are proud to be part of your ministry here in Croatia!

Blessings!

Nancy Titus
RCA Missionary in Croatia


New school year offers new degree of service
By Nancy Titus

Even before the ink dries on Eric’s doctorate in theology degree, he has been named head of the doctoral program at the Evangelical Theological Seminary, where we work. He fills a vacancy left after the departure of an American missionary in May followed by the sudden death in June of the resident professor named to replace him.

The timing of this appointment indicates just how important Eric’s degree progress has been to the seminary, where last year three professors were working on doctorates and another just left Croatia for a three-year residency in the States to complete his.

Eric expects to finalize his degree from Charles University in Prague later this month. He will defend his dissertation, completed in June, before an audience of “opponents,” who will question him on its content. We appreciate your prayers as he prepares for this important and nerve-wracking event.

Eric has been working intensively on the degree since we arrived in Croatia in 2006, doing a six-year part-time program in just four years, saving thousands of dollars.

The degree required Eric to travel to Prague two or three times a year and pass comprehensive exams in four major areas of theology: Old Testament/Hebrew, New Testament/Greek, German, and church history. For the past year, he has been researching and writing his dissertation, a 330-page work on the influence of the context of pre-Nazi Germany on Karl Barth’s rejection of the analogia entis, or analogy of being.

“Simply stated, the analogy of being is an attempt to equate culture, narrative, or instance of being on the human side with that of God, creating a blurring of the distinction between God and humanity,” he said.

“I see that much of the theological thinking of Barth’s time is having a resurgence in our contemporary approaches to theology.”

ETF’s doctoral program, still under development, is important to the future of the school as it focuses more and more on offering advanced degrees.

“While there are many undergraduate and Bible school programs in the region, there are very few that can offer quality graduate and post graduate studies in Protestant theology.”

This year, Eric will work primarily to get accreditation and to construct a doctorate of ministry component for the program.

September also brings a new school year for our children and with it a new way of doing school. Many of you have joined us in prayer to find a school option more appropriate for our son, Samuel. We believe we have found an answer to those prayers in a U.S. high school diploma program that offers a classical education from a Reformed perspective.

Samuel, who is in tenth grade, will attend virtual on-line classes in which he can listen to the teacher, view visuals, ask and answer questions and interact with other students in the same class. Classes are twice a week for 90 minutes each and convene at a particular time of day. He will log on to the classroom and participate fully along with other students logging on from across the US and possibly other countries.

He will take three such classes, and Valerie, who is in seventh grade, will take one. They, along with fifth-grade Penny, are also enrolled in independent self-paced on-line classes from another source that offer feedback from teachers but can be done at their convenience.

We are thrilled to have found a combination of schooling options, including home courses which they all will have, that meets the particular needs of each of our children in a cost-effective manner. I am excited for the breadth of opportunity these provide and ask your continued prayer as we enter this new school year both at home and at the seminary – for the glory of God.




Please click HERE
to access archive of previous updates