June 25

Monday, June 25 notes from David...

What an incredible day!  God answered so many prayers.  To see the response from the team was absolutely incredible.

When I first came to the field this year and walked around, I was struck by how well the Storks have been taking care of the inside of the field.  They use the lawnmower that we bought last year to keep it up.  There are no weeds in any of the bases or around the pitchers mound, and everything is taken care of.  But, the weeds along the fence outside of the field and behind home plate & around the batting cages are absolutely horrible.  I know they just don't have the means to take care of it, and the city doesn't give them any help to do so.  You see it everywhere - even downtown between the medians and around the river... they just don't maintain like we do in public areas.  

But, they responded this morning.  Janko and I went to the field early (he wanted to help.)  Janko brought his 'hedge hog' to trim down the bushes and trees (actually, weeds that looked like trees! some were taller than our heads!)  He worked his tail off this morning!  I worked alongside him, and we had a good time.

As Janko worked the hedgehog, I got the shovel out and edged the outside of the stage foundation.  I didn't know if we needed to dig it out ourselves, so I wanted to get a head start.  They've been promising a back hoe, but "the proof is in the pudding" - I thought we'd wait to see what happened.  They proved me wrong - the backhoe showed up!  After I marked out the area and the guys helped me remove some of the stuff from the outside, the workman came in and dug the hole out to the depth that we needed.  We're now ready to build the form, put the grade in, and pour the foundation.  Hopefully we'll be able to pour it by Wednesday, and it will have until Monday to cure and be ready for building.  

I noticed some brick at Janko's house, and asked about where we could get some.  Janko said he wasn't using the brick, and we were welcome to use it.  We measured the sides & backs of the dugouts, with a vision of putting a 4' wall around the sides and backs, and putting a chain link fence up to the top.  I presented that idea to Coach and Nevan.  They loved it - it will give more permanence to the structure, and the sense that the Storks are here to stay!  We will get the brick from Janko and purchase some additional bricks, and they will hire a mason.  The father of Armon, one of the new Storks, is a mason who is looking for work, so we are praying that it will work out that we can pay him to do the work needed.  We are excited about that!

We worked on the removal of all of the high weeds behind home plate and around the batting cage.  Everything looks spic & span!  All of the weeds are gone, and the big pile of brick dirt was removed (the pile was smack dab in the middle of the field in front of the baseball diamond and was a real eyesore at 15' x 30'!)  It has all been taken down level with the surrounding ground, and the pile was moved over to the side fence away from the traffic area.  This is a huge improvement, and opens up a new area for us to do some neat things.

 After I left the field and took small break, I had some private devotional time and thanked God for all that is going on.  I went back over to the field around 5:00 and worked behind home plate to take down a wide area (about the size of an infield) of weeds.  We found a lot of baseballs in that mess!

Speaking of baseballs, the Storks are down to only 20 - and about 6 are water logged.  It is sad that they don't have the money to buy new balls, and they save those wet balls to use in games.  But, they are still playing and asking me to throw those water logged baseballs!  After we worked for several hours, they asked me to throw BP in the cage.  It was very enjoyable to be able to throw batting practice, even with water logged balls, and to watch them enjoy swinging the bat and having fun. 

We went to dinner and walked around downtown.  Marko happened to see me, and gave me a ride back to Yanko's house.  We had a chance to share, and I could see that he is searching & seeking - just not happy with his life.  I just pray that we'll get a chance to spend some time together.  He is supposed to call me tomorrow.  I have this same prayer for each of them - that I will have an opportunity to spend time one-on-one, loving them where they are and loving them until they ask why.  I pray the Lord will use me, and the Holy Spirit will give me the strength to share His love with each of them.  Marko is so dear to my heart, and I look forward to spending time with him.  He asked me to come to Zagreb - he's in Parliament now (in the government) and he wants to show me inside the Parliament and inside the government.  It's a great opportunity, and one that I look forward to taking him up on!

Keep praying for us, and pray for the groups that are coming in (6 tomorrow, 2 on Thursday, and more on Saturday.)  Pray for the shipment - that it stays ON the Atlantic, not IN the Atlantic! - and that we get it through Customs on time.

Thanks for your prayers!  We appreciate that so much, and we couldn't do this without you all and knowing that there are people back home praying for us.  Keep us in your thoughts as well, and we'll just keep giving them Heaven!

Thank you, God - we give You the praise!