June 26

Tuesday notes from David.... again, please forgive any spelling errors on the Croatian names! 

It's the end of Tuesday, June 26th, and it's been another incredible day!  Shannon & I had devotions and time together this morning before we headed to the airport.  We got some things done & ready for the group to come, and have been thinking and praying about what God has in store for the group this year, and for the future.  I feel the need for more of a presence here in Croatia, and the opportunity seems to be presenting itself more and more

Several of the Storks went with us to the airport (Elvis, Armon, Jeffa & Manuella) - I took Janko's car.  It was neat to see them all greet the group that came in.  We now have 7 more (six on the first flight, and Katie came in 2 hours later.)  Stefan and I stayed for Katie's flight, using that time to go through the video and talk about plans.

Katie landed around 1:45, and everyone (and all of the baggage) arrived safely without problem.  A group went for pizza, and Stefan, Katie & I came back to the house (they brought us pizza!)  We spent some time rummaging around.  I went through the equipment that was brought today - bats and 2 dozen baseballs for the Storks.  They were so excited to get those balls!  I knew they would be since they were down to the very last 15-18 balls and saving the others for games!  It was incredible to be able to give them those balls.  They absolutely loved the new bats.  They broke their last wooden bat at the game on Sunday, so this gave them some more bats to use.

We went to practice at 5:00.  Bethany came with us and babysat for Leo (Nevan's 2 year old son.)  Chris & Dalton took the Storks for practice - took some ground balls on the field.  

Robert, Dusty and I worked on the stage foundation while the team practiced.  It turns out that the backhoe dug the hole too much in most of the areas.  We were planning to fill in with rock in a wheelbarrow, but there was another backhoe working in the bullpen area.  One of the Storks asked if he could put some rock in backhoe to help - he did a masterful job loading the rocks & leveling the area.  It is now ready for us to build the form and put the cement in.  We are going to check on cost - we may mix the cement ourselves and pour it, or we may hire the job out.  Rusty, Robert & I hit the stage job pretty hard today, and feel a lot better about where we stand moving forward.  We were really blessed by having that backhoe filling back in and creating our beams on the side.

All in all we finished about 7:30, and came back for a beautiful dinner cooked by Christina, one of our sisters in Christ here in Croatia.  She and Marty had gone to the coast, and they came back & cooked dinner for us.  Some of the gals stayed back to work on dinner, too - it was absolutely wonderful!  After dinner we had devotions, and then Shannon took a group downtown for ice cream.  I stayed back and worked on the video and the sound system for Skype.

The Skype is going to work out even better than I expected.  I can make it even bigger than I thought was  possible and still see it crystal clear.  We shot it on the side of Janko's house and watched a couple of movies.  Now everyone has gone to bed, and I'm getting ready to head there myself.  It's about 11:30 and I'm actually going to get to bed earlier than I have so far.

We're praising God, thanking Him, and we're doing it!  We do because He did it for us.  He did it, let's do it!  Loving them where they are, loving them until they ask why.  Our steps, His print.

Keep us in your prayers.  Tomorrow we're working on the construction of the form for the stage, and the gals are staying back to separate the candy & prizes for the Texas Carnival (tomorrow afternoon from 4-6 at the SOS Orphanage Village in Lekenik.)  Shannon is going to check it out tomorrow morning.  Please pray that we will be a shining light to these young kids who have no parents.  We want to smile and love on them, and share the love of Christ.

Thanks, and keep praying for us.

Thank you very much.

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