Update Friday July 20

Blog – Friday, July 20

History and Baseball was the call for the day on Friday and it was great! The Croatian national team took on Poland to play for the chance to take on Lithuania for the championship on Saturday afternoon. After the morning game where Lithuania beat Slovenia Saleim, Grant, Heidi, Erin and myself walked over to Stari Grad, the old fort to get a history lesson in late 1500 history. Shannon and Brandon went to check on the shipment which was promised to us yet another day! That will make 5 tomorrows since we first knew the shipment was on this side of the pond. It has been frustrating to deal with the government and with a new government in place the rules to seem to have changed yet again but still no one can tell us really what those rules are or how to go about getting anything approved or processed. The history of the fort was neat to walk around the walls and to realize how old it was really was mind blowing!

After we finished the tour we got a call from Shannon saying they had contacted her and the shipment was loaded and ready to be delivered and that the payment needed to be wired to them immediately.Another form of paying for something we are not sure we are paying for. We went home for lunch and some R and R. Two came and went and they called again to say it would be around 4. I couldn’t wait around because of the game between Croatia and Poland was to start at 5. I headed to the field alone and Shannon took the others shopping for home and others waited at the house for the shipment.

The game was one of the best games I have ever seen with excitement every inning and the Croatians had to fight from behind twice to take the lead in the top of the 7th 6-5 after scoring 2 runs in the 6th. Poland smacks a triple to lead off the inning and Croatia pulls in the infield. With no outs the batter hit a groundball to the 3rd baseman and the runner takes off for home. Close play at the plate but the umpire to the called him out. Incredible escape. With runner on first the pitcher walks the next hitter and then strikes out the next. The runners moved up on a double steal and with two outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd, the hitter hits a sharp ground ball to the shortstop side of the pitchers mound. The pitcher makes a diving stab at the ball, gets up off the ground and throws the runner out at first end the game. The team celebrated by running out to the stage we were cheering from to sing and cheer along with us. It was a great moment and the only regrets I have are, that not others from our team were there to enjoy it and that I had run out of battery with my camera!

As I was helping the Storks rake and clean the field Shannon called me to tell me the shipment had arrived. Praise God for the chance to share the presents and supplies with all the organizations we have been involved with. When I got home I went through the Storks stuff and all the football gear to go to Split. 

We went to Coaches for dinner late that night and had a wonderful meal. His wife cooked for the whole team and afterward several of us went to the gym where Croatia and Slovenia were staying to show Josh Hamilton’s story and to watch some other inspirational movie slips. Saleim gave a short gospel presentation and several young men were very attentive and asked Stefan a lot of questions afterward to help him explain all he was talking about. I took the others back to the house and came back to pick up Stefan and take him home and have the chance to speak with him for awhile. Since being here I haven’t had much time to spend with him and we both missed that! Got home around 1 and got to bed around 1:30 and was ready to spend our last day in Croatia hopefully spent celebrating a Championship victory.