HOLY TRINITY KAPELNA
For seven years Rev. Dr. Bob Hitching served the Roma, Croatian and Serbian familes of the Kapelna village at the Holy Trinity Reformed Christian Church in Kapelna, Croatia. At the start he served as their Lay Reader conducting Morning and Evening Prayer Services. Later, after his ordination by Bishop Jasmin Milić, he served as the Deacon where he continued to grow the ministries of the church and disciple its members. At the time of his death in July 2024, Rev. Hitching had been the the priest of Holy Trinity Kapelna Protestanska Reformirana Kršćanska Crkva for three years.
Rev. Hitching's Morning Services were always followed by a meal and fellowship with the UNA KID'S CLUB for the children when resources allowed. Over the years, the Kapelna Protestanska Reformirana Kršćanska Crkva ministries included a Ladies Craft Club, the KASKADA photo guild and KASKADA Magazine, Puppets, UNA KID'S CLUB, Pastoral Counseling, Family Discipleship House-meetings, the Yearly Sveti Kuča House & Family Blessing, New Groundwater Well Instilation, and a Coorperative Pig Farm project along side several Humanitarain Aid Rehousing Projects which aided at-risk Roma families to be safely housed in properties within walking distance of the Kapelna village church. Over time, these families were able to take full ownership of the properties purchased for them by the Roma Bible Union. Below are some of these many ministries and services which Rev. Hitching performed for the church and which were sponsored by The Roma Bible Union.
The Kapelna Protestansk Reformirana Kršćanska Crkva continues under the leadership of REC Bishop Jasmin Milić and Presbyter Damir Satir.
Below is an archive of ministries and services which Rev. Bob Hitching, alongside his mission, The Roma Bible Union, engaged during his tenure as REC Lay Reader, Deacon, and Priest of the Kapelna Protestant Reformed Christian Church.
SUNDAY SERVICES - MORNING OR EVENING PRAYER
FEEDING THE HUNGARY
UNA KID'S CLUB
KAPELNA COOPERATIVE MICRO PIG FARM
LADIES CRAFT CLUB
AND TEAS
GROUNDWATER WELL INSTILLATION
Water in Roma villages can be a very unstable resource. Some Roma communities in Central and Southern Europe lack either city water or groundwater wells. Over the years RBU missionaries and short-term teams have in the name of Christ brought fresh water to villages who lacked safe drinking water in order to, for a season at least, lessen the stress on families who must haul their water from safe sources.
In the Summer of 2022 in the Kapelna REC Parish for which Bob was pastor to the Roma and Serbian community, two seasons of minimal rain caused the private property groundwater wells to go dry. Families were forced to obtain and carry water from the Kapelna REC Church which had previously been connected to the city water. For months families hauled, stored, cooked and washed with the church's water for in their own homes. RBU funded this extra water expense for a season until a solution was found. RBU funds allowed Bob and Nancy to secure from a local firm the drilling of a very deep well on an unoccupied property they had been given permission to occupy and renovate by one of the Roma families. The well was dug; The water flowed. A year later that property and its well were gifted by Bob and the previous owner (who RBU had also rehoused) to a young homeless Roma family connected to the Kapelna congregation. It is amazing how water, once secure, can grow a family, a home, a community.
KASKADA GUILDS – PHOTO GUILD – KASKADA MAGAZINES
HUMANITARIAN REHOUSING PROJECTS
