eMatrimony.org

Supporting, Encouraging, and Challenging the WWME Community

  Resources - History

American Couple Takes WWME To The Land Of Their Birth, Yugoslavia

1988 Matrimony Magazine editorial staff

(Excerpted from the Summer 1988 Matrimony magazine.)

Frank & Nives Jelich, who took the encounter to Yugoslavia, are convinced it was all Our Lady's doing. She knew someday they'd be back, bringing American pilgrims with them to Medjugorje.

In 1973 a couple named Marijo & Darka Zivkovic visited the states and heard about Marriage Encounter. They couldn't make a weekend before going back but they wanted more information. Perhaps someday they could experience it and even bring it to their people.

They Had A Dream And A Plan
They had heard about the weekend at a Yugoslavian parish in New York. They called around to find out if anyone in the encounter spoke Croatian and were given Frank & Nives' names. The Jelichs lived in New York then. They got together and were given a talk by talk description of the weekend. Then Marijo & Darka returned to Yugoslavia. In October (Mary's month) of 1975, Frank & Nives were part of the Worldwide Encounter's pilgrimage to Lourdes and Rome. They had a plan. They would go from Rome to Yugoslavia, contact Marijo & Darka, and set things in motion for a weekend. The plan was approved and they called Marijo & Darka from Rome and said they were coming. They stayed two days in Zagreb, put on two recruiting nights, saw the bishop and received his approval to begin.

Two months later, in January of 1976, Marijo & Darka and their four children, Ura & Maria Keglevich, and Father Stephen Kusan of Zagreb, Yugoslavia, were flown to the United States to make a Weekend. Then they made a team training Weekend and started writing their talks. By now, Frank & Nives had moved to Wichita, Kansas. They housed their countrymen for 40 days, workshopped their talks, took them to experience community, and started translating their own talks into Croatian.

From Wichita - With Love
It was the encountered couples of Wichita who gave the money to fly the Yugoslavians here to the states and during those 40 days, the Wichita community supported them with food and money. "There was never a day that we didn’t find milk bread and envelopes of money outside our front door", Frank said. "And in the evenings couples would bring our entire meal. Every day was Christmas Day!"

The first Weekend in Yugoslavia was planned for May (Mary's month). Frank went to his boss and told him he was taking two months off, without pay of course. If this was not all right, he was quitting. His boss said he would have a job when he returned home. The encounter was paying Jelich's flight but they would be gone for two months from their small children and they would have no income to pay mortgages, car payments, utilities, etc. The neighboring states which formed one of the encounter districts contributed money to send the children along with their parents. And the Wichita community collected the money to pay all the bills while they were gone.

Love Behind Communist Borders
Bill & Joyce Montbriand met them at the airport in Chicago. They were in charge of international expansion at the time. They had booked them a flight to Europe. That was all they could do at that time, because Yugoslavia was a communist country. You weren't allowed to purchase a ticket there from the United States. Bill & Joyce could only give them money. They had to make all their own arrangements. The Montbriands were in tears later that day as they told friends about this incredible couple, who along with their children were ready to risk so much to spread the Good News of love behind communist borders.

They gave three weekends and a team training weekend in Yugoslavia. They stayed with a wonderful couple who were very kind and risked a great deal housing them. The police would come to the house and search it. As they were leaving the house to go to the first weekend on Friday afternoon, the police came again and took the host couple to the station to interrogate them. They were never charged, however. "It was their way of saying they knew what we were doing,” said Frank. This host couple was very poor and the husband had given up his job for two months so he could help them get the Weekends underway. There was very little to eat and Frank & Nives would go to see Father Stephen often at the Jesuit house because he would give them food to eat. When they went home they would say they weren't hungry, so the couple would have more for themselves.

Sowing The Seed
The first Weekend was held in a town called Opatija. Eighteen couples came from Zagreb to make the Weekend. The next two Weekends they found a facility in Zagreb. Nives said, "On that first weekend we walked into the conference room and there, on one wall was a huge mural of Jesus sowing the seed. The first Weekend in that country, and there was this mural! I just started to cry!"

They had left their children with Frank's sister who lived about a day and a half away. Frank's sister and family, however, spoke no English, and Jelich's children didn't speak Croatian. One day, just before the second Weekend started, the sister called to say things weren't going well. The children were not obeying. It was a difficult Weekend for Frank & Nives to give because they couldn't leave to work things out with their children. After the Weekend they journeyed the day and a half to spend some time with their children and explain to them what was expected of them. Then they returned to give the third Weekend. But it still didn't work out. The children were unhappy in such a situation also. So they drove to get them and brought them to Zagreb. Father Pat Malone had come from the states and he babysat while Frank & Nives gave the team training weekend. He and another priest from Yugoslavia took the kids sight-seeing and they all had a wonderful time!

The Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia was going on, along with the encounter's annual convention. Frank & Nives flew back directly to Philadelphia to attend the convention. There, couples attending from Wichita told them their home had been broken into three times and everything that could be carried off was gone. They stayed for the convention anyway. They found a terrible mess when they returned home. The robbers had broken through the roof.

They called the insurance adjuster who was also Yugoslavian. He immediately came and wrote them a check. The check covered all the bills that came the first of the month! "And there was even enough money left to fill up the refrigerator!” Nives laughed as she told us, "So we praised God. We wouldn't have had any money to pay the bills, you see. Now there was no problem. "

Another Call
They were tired though. They decided it was time to serve God in another capacity. They would no longer give Weekends for the encounter. They had made their Weekend on January 22, l970. It was now almost five years later. They were discussing it one night and had reached that decision when the phone rang. It was Father Charlie Quinn. He said, "Frank & Nives, we just heard that the two of you speak Italian. We want to start the Weekend in Italy next year. We need you for the team!"

[Editors note: if you want to read the saga of Jelichs’ and Italy, click on this link]

Today Frank & Nives take pilgrimages to Medjugorje. Nives goes more often than Frank because of his business. Nives seems to know everyone in Medjugorje. She knows all the visionaries, their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. She is like family. The encounter had touched Medjugorje before the apparitions began. Many pilgrims stay at the home of Marinko & Dragica Ivankovic, an uncle and aunt of two of the visionaries. Marinko & Dragica are encountered. Until they were called to make their home a shelter for pilgrims, they led the encounter community in Medjugorje. The Jelichs always stay with them, along with l8 other pilgrims.

The encounter does continue today in Yugoslavia. Weekends are still held in Zagreb.

Click here for a printable version (PDF, 16KB)