July 4 Catch-up Update from David

Note from Debbie Page... get a cup of coffe and settle in for a long read! David sent 11 audio files catching us up on the last few days.  You won't want to miss anything, but you'll need a bit of time to get through the entire update.  I've copied the pictures from Shannon's Facebook page.  Again, please forgive any spelling errors (and send along the corrections if you have them!)  

Well, it's hard to believe that it's been since Sunday that I sent you anything. It's been a long time - we've been so busy with so many different facets of the mission going on.  Four of us moved out to Nevan's mom's house out in the country near Petrinja. It's definitely out in the country!  No WiFi - only chickens, roosters, dogs, bugs and farmers!  We did have electricity and indoor plumbing, so that was good!  Dalton, Chris, Brandon and myself went there.

Brandon has been a great addition to the team.  He has been a missionary here in Croatia back in the past - he was here for about 8 years and left in 2008.  When he & I matched up in Houston and got a chance to share, he was excited about joining us.  Brandon has been an absolute gem - a hard worker, and has gotten to know the boys here.  Everyone has been great.  It's been a great experience with having a lot of new people this year:  Sharon & Rock Beal, Bethany Moore, Brandon Hoyback - it's been absolutely wonderful to have them all a part of it.

I guess I need to start with what we did on Sunday.  Sunday we went to church at Moscenica.  We were going to try to split up, but since crew due to arrive on Saturday was stuck in Paris, Shannon had to take the big bus (the "Big Red Clifford Bus!") to Zagreb to pick them up.  The rest of us squeezed into the two cars and went to church in Moscenica.   We had a nice time sharing and encouraging the people there.

Afterwards, I came back home to work on some things and Shannon took the group to the Stork Village (this is a neat place to view the biggest population of storks - a very neat place to visit!)  They got to see a lot of storks, storks feeding their babies...  that kind of thing.  There are a couple of bed & breakfast inns there - things like that.)  They had a nice time.

I spent some time with Stephan and Mario while the group was gone to the Stork Village.  I got ready to leave for church at Bethel, and the Stork Village group got home just as I was about to leave.  Rusty switched cars and joined me for church at Bethel Village.   It's an older church, but it was so neat to see some young dads with their sons there.  There were some youth and some guys in their 20s.  Up to now we had only seen an older congregation at that church.  Milosh, the Pastor, did the sermon.  He spoke in Croatian, but would occasionally turn and look at us and give us a quick summation in English.  We had communion with them, and then he had me come up to share what was going on with the mission. I explained to them what we had with the nursing home, library, business workshops, baseball camps.  I asked them about coming to help us & share with us in the Fields of Faith (the event that we will have with the European Baseball Tournament.)  They were excited at the opportunity!  It was neat to see the smiles on their faces, and I gave them encouragement and told them that their brothers & sisters in Pearland & Houston send their greetings and their love.  We are going to continue sharing this message with all of the churches and other places, and hopefully will get them all to come out to Fields of Faith.

After church we went home (after ice cream, of course!) and spent some time together.  We've been having great devotions every morning - a chance to share in the Word, and a chance for everyone to share what is going on and how God has been influencing them & the things that we've been doing.  It's been great.

Monday morning we got up early and got the group over to the field to start the stage & locker room projects.  That's been a struggle - getting the materials (wood is not something they build with here, so it's been a bit more expensive than we anticipated.  Please keep praying for finances and support!)  The field looks great - they've been cutting it.  There has been no rain, so the grass/weeds have not been growing quite as fast.  It's been very dry and very hot.  We've been in the mid-90s.  

I've been driving around left & right.  I've missed Zach Kleebo - he was our driver in years past, but now I'm having to do that.  Shannon is doing the driving for the women, and I'm doing the driving for the guys and all of the projects we have going on.      

We have felt our share of attacks and have felt our share of disappointments.  We've been faithful to praying.  We have had to make adjustments... on Tuesday we  found out that the shipment will have additional cost to get it released; we went from building a stage out of wood to building a stage out of cinder block with wood decking and wood pull-out drawers for expansion.  It's been one thing after another that has been frustrating, but it's been neat to see everyone realizing that the answer is in prayer.    The answer is in turning it over to God and lifting these struggles.  He knows already what's happening, but it's depending on His strength and His spirit.  The Fruit of the Spirit comes to mind:  the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control that is in Ephesians 3.  Just being able to pull upon that and realize that in tough times the Spirit speaks through us and we allow His spirit to speak through us - that's when we say even more, that's when we speak His truth, and that's when we become more of a Footprint for Christ.

It has been great to see the camaraderie within the team during the devotions, and see them pray during difficult times.  It's been wonderful to see the open hearts of the Storks, the open hearts of the library staff (Barbara, the Director, and her staff have been wonderful.)

The Library Program has been ideal.  I haven't had a chance to go very much, but I did get to go today and watch Rusty "do" the cowboys.  That was a lot of fun!  We did some dancing with cowboy music and that kind of stuff.   Mardee did NASA yesterday - they built rockets with Alka Seltzer and shot them off at the park.  We had a lot more boys yesterday, and some boys today.  I would say we've been averaging about 20-30 kids each day with several adults staying to watch.  On Monday Sharon Beal did the talk on Texas History.  Dalton has been doing a lot of work at the library - handling the Power Point presentations and behind the scenes work.  The girls have been going, but I just haven't been able to go until today.  It was very enjoyable to go and listen - and have fun.  Tomorrow Bethany and I will be speaking:  Bethany will be taking the Cheer leading and I'll do the American Football.  The library  programs have been going alternating times on different days of the week (10-12 a.m. on Monday and Wednesday, and 5:30 -7:30 p.m on Tuesday and Thursday.)

The building projects are coming along.  We have all of the building materials for the stage now, and the guy is coming to build the walls with the cinder block.  He has been a joy to be around!  Even though it's been tough travelling from place to place, it's been neat to meet the people in the shops and telling people about what we're doing.  Building a stage on a baseball field - they just didn't get that concept!  We've been able to explain that we're doing a Fields of Faith Outreach with Christian Rock Bands and evangelists, and a time of just fun and sharing.  We're excited about that!

I met a hockey coach at one of the hardware stores, and he's excited about the idea of us bringing a hockey coach.  I think Zach is a hockey player (he's been here before) - he may be called into duty to do some teaching in a winter hockey ministry!

I also met a guy today while I going to order the brick for the stage who was one of the original Storks! Mario is his name, and he was a Stork back in 1994 and played for 2 years.  I invited him to come to the tournament on July 17.  We're trying to organize an Alumni Game for all of the Storks who have played since '94.  I'm going to give Mario a tee-shirt and try to get him to come & have a good time, laugh and make some connections.  The alumnus are the reason The Nest is there - they had the interest in baseball and brought the sport to Sisak in 1994.

It's been a pleasure spending time out at Nevan's mom's house.  She has not been there (his father passed away a couple of years ago and she has been out working on the coast.)  Nevan & Mya live on the other side of town closer to Janko's.  We've been out in the country by ourselves.  We don't get out there until pretty late, and we sit around and joke.  It's a guy's house, so we've been playing cards and cutting up - having a great time!  We come back over to Janko's house around 7:30 in the morning (it takes about a half hour to get from the country house to Janko's.)  We have group devotions and start the day with prayer and sharing in God's word.

I'm excited about what we've been doing and what we have planned to do.  We have the library tomorrow, the building projects (stage is on-going & locker rooms are finished.)  We made the lockers open-concept instead of individual - not wanting to isolate anyone by having a limited number of lockers.  The Storks have been cleaning up - they've had a better response to what we've been doing.  We want them to have an attitude of Respect, not an attitude of Expect.  That's been our prayer and our love of sharing & love of coming has been to share Christ's love - Love them where they are, and Love them until they ask why.

It's really been neat walking around the city.  After coming here for 7 years, you run into people that were either in camp or who you have met through various times (Rat Man is the owner of the ice cream shop that we frequent and Mouse Man is his son) - it's a joy to see those people and be blessed by them.  Hopefully we bless them as well.  Seeing smiles on their faces, walking around the city, sharing with the Storks, sharing with the Cadets...  it's all been amazing.  The camp has been incredible with 25 new kids coming to the camp.  Several of the campers also came to the library presentations!  I've seen several former campers - in fact, I saw one today riding his bike.  I waved at him, and it was neat to see the smile on his face as well.  It's our steps, His print!  We've come to Love them where the are, and Love them until they ask why.  Janko's home has been absolutely wonderful.  The group has been terrific - but not without our struggles, as many of you know.

In case you have not heard, we shipped much of our equipment over here at the end of April.  We were told that the shipment would be here in Sisak on June 17, but ever since it's been one problem after another.  It actually did not even leave the New York Harbor until June 15 (when it was supposed to have arrived in Croatia on June 17.)  We found out this week that our shipment is landing in Slovenia and we are going to have to pay and additional $1,200 to get it out of Customs there (they are calling it an "Administrative Fee.")  We were told by our shipping company that we had an all-inclusive fee (door-to-door) of a little less than $5,000.  Now we're getting this administrative fee, and then it will go to Zagreb where they may choose to make us pay another Customs fee.  We're looking at a lot of additional money that was not expected or planned for.  It is disheartening, and sad.  We could not have brought all of the shoulder pads, football helmets, all the carnival gear, prizes, children's books & Christian books that we brought for the library,  the beads and activities that we brought for the nursing home - we could not have brought all of that on the plane with additional bags and additional baggage fees.  All of the additional baseball bats and equipment - it was just too much to get here without shipping.  So, we did the shipment and thought we had everything worked out and were a bit blindsided.  But, we're maintaining faith and making God more significant than ourselves realizing that He has a plan and a purpose, and it is all about Him, not us.

That doesn't mean that it's not hard, doesn't mean that it's not difficult, doesn't mean that we're not disappointed.  However, we don't lose faith.  We step out and stick our necks out like a turtle (that was our devotion the other day!) and realize that we have to jump into the deep end, just like a child jumps to a father.  Sometimes the father isn't even looking, but the child knows that the father will catch him.  That's what we're doing.  We know we are here for a purpose and a plan, and that is to share the Gospel.  I think after being here 7 years I see a lot more open hearts.  The harvest is ready, and there is a lot of fertile ground.  There is a lot of soil that has been toiled, and a lot of rocks have been removed.  With Saleim coming, with the rock bands, with the European Championships - to be able to speak to the kids from Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania as well as Croatia - their families and others from Sisak... I just feel that God is going to turn this into a Harvest Field.  We're just excited to have this opportunity, and we're excited about what God has planned.  We are just excited about being a part of it.

Please keep us in your prayers.  Keep the shipment in your prayers - that we will be able to get it out with very little or no difficulty.  If we don't get it out, we will not have enough prizes and fun things for the last carnival that we have planned during the European Championship Tournament.  We're trying to get all of the books to the library, the games/beads/activities for the nursing home.  Please keep all that in your prayers, keep us in your prayers (pray that we have strength and that we get enough sleep) and if anyone is ready to come with us next year, we're ready to have you!

Thanks for your patience.  I'm sorry that I haven't been able to get the information to you sooner.  Being away from it for several days I'm trying to catch up!  Take care & God Bless.

David