Fall 2019 Blog 8:  The Little Things Add Up to Big Things What a blessing to watch God at work in the little things as they affect others and effect things around, to create these big Game Changing Moments! But to be able to see that who have to be patient enough for them to occur, flexible enough to not be on your agenda and attentive enough to witness them; and once you do and give God the glory, you begin to see His bigger picture come into view with each little piece He orchestrates. One such game changing moment happened on Friday morning, due to what the world would call a mistake because it happened as a result of human error! It all started with putting gas into a diesel engine while on our way to the mountains to enjoy a morning herding sheep by a shepherd and applying Psalm 23 while actively herding. Well you can guess what happened, the van died on the side of the road! Bam, just quit as we were about to head up the small country road that would take us to a remote area away from people! It was at that point we discovered it had shut down because gas instead of diesel was put into the tank. What could our reactions been? Mad or upset because our agenda being screwed with, but instead we praised God that we hadn’t gone any further and that within 100 yards, we had a cafe and bar to sit and wait for the mechanic who said he would be there in an hour or so. We made our way over to the cafe and saw that the name was called Liberty and it just so happen that at our table was a picture of New York and the statute of Liberty. We had to have a chuckle and of course take a picture standing beside it.

Liberty Cafe

Hunter, me and Travis at the Liberty Cafe

If you read the last blog and remember the story of our meeting Tamera from Petrinja, President of the handicap association, you would know of our promise that we would check into the possibility of using the camp ZD for their non-faith based camp this summer, after they were denied their request. The campground is owned and operated by Mosceneza Church and one of their elders was with us on this trip and breaking down allowed a conversation with him about that request. He explained the reason why the request may have been denied and a possible solution that could allow it to be revisited and possibly approved. He told us that many groups ask to use the camp and their policy has been deny all requests unless they were from a sponsoring faith based ministry or organization. That is where God showed up and His suggestion came in. If we were willing to sponsor them, the church would grant the request because of their relationship with us. Now isn’t that crazy! I’m pretty sure we would not have had that conversation at all during the course of the day, because we would have been busy with other things and conversations around what has been going on would not have been discussed. Speaking to Daniel was not the direction we were thinking when we were formulating our plan to be good on our promise. He had never even been a blip on our radar screen. God had other plans that included the proper solution and it all happened because an “inconvenience” happened and caused our plans to change.

Broken down van.

We finally got back on the road; no permanent damage and because our visitor Daniel riding with us was a member of roadside assistance, there was no charge! The only cost was in our time, but that was a price worth paying for since God used it to connect more dots. We did finally make it up to the farm in the mountains and got to meet the shepherd and look around the farm. We arranged to have the lesson the next time we’re in country.  It was worth the trip to see all the neat things happening up here in a remote part of Croatia.

Croatian Shepherd

Sheep on the farm

As you can imagine this took up all the morning and much of the the early afternoon and thankfully we had only one other thing planned for the day and that was to drive up to Zagreb and visit the family of the 18 year old HiS PRINT Baseball camper, who had been hit by a bus 5 days before and was in a coma. When I heard of the accident, the day before my coming, I immediately reached out to Ivan’s coach, who I have known for years. I asked him if there was anything we could do! He asked for prayer and for me to ask others to pray as well. I told him I would and many of you received that request. But as the coach and I kept talking I told him I was going to be in Croatia later in the week and he suggested that I come up to the hospital in person and pray, but that he would ask the family to be sure it was okay. The family responded with not only a yes, but would I mind coming to their house and praying there as well. I was grateful for the request and made plans to make that happen.   We arrived at the family home and spent the next couple of hours hugging the parents and praying with them. They requested we sit down and eat, and they shared with us some of the details about the accident. Unfortunately this was Ivan’s fault. He was heading to work at his new job and was riding a moped for the very first time. He ran into a curb and fell into the bus lane, where he was hit by a passing bus. Sadly, his condition had worsened the day before we had arrived and he has never come out of his coma. His older brother Allen asked if we would go to the hospital, so that I could pray for Ivan in person. I gladly accepted, but was denied access since I was not immediate family. Allen begged the nurse and doctor to allow me in, but they wouldn’t allow it. We told Allen to go in and I told our team to spread out in the hall and begin praying.

Allen and me

Hospital in Zagreb

Please continue to pray for Ivan. I will keep you updated as I hear anything. It was a blessing to be with this family during this difficult time and provide a little comfort in letting them know many across the world were praying for their son and brother!

God bless and thanks for your support! HE DID IT! David