It's an Outhouse Miracle!

So, thank you everyone for your prayers, and thanks ESPECIALLY to Michael McEntyre, FBC's youth group, and the John and Jean Cooper Fund administered by the East Tennessee Foundation: the villagers of Sveti George have ten brand-new outhouses. I've needed to write about this for almost two weeks, ever since the project was finished, but I'm still processing it myself. This project has been on my heart and mind since last fall, so I'm going to need a bit more distance from it before I can write about it! Bob is planning to come down tomorrow so we can go over there and check out the situation, so in the next couple of days hopefully I'll get some closure and be able to write about it.


But God has been doing some amazing things in my own life in the past two weeks as I wrap up my year here in Croatia. My last day is July 28th, technically, but this week is the last five-day club Karmen has planned until August, after I leave. So, in many ways, this is my last week, and appropriately, club this week is in Sitnice.

I HATED going to Sitnice last year. That's the village where a baby bit me and a 6-year-old boy tried to put a curse on me and threatened to kill me. After going there for a year, though, that's all over. The kids swarm me when I get out of the car, and the little boy who tried to curse me asked me yesterday if he could go home with me. The kids are still wild, and yesterday a man walked through the yard where club was with one of the local prostitutes over his shoulder...but God has been working there, and more children have accepted Christ there than in any other village.


Week after next, I finish out my work year in Croatia teaching an English class at the seminary in Osijek. Then I pack, put as many of my things in storage as I can part with, move out of my apartment, and leave for Texas on August 5th.

But THIS Saturday, I finish out my year in Europe another way: meeting my brother for a week in Greece!! He's making his first trip to Europe, and since we don't have club next week, Karmen said I could take the week off. I leave for Athens on Saturday night. I don't know what he plans to do for the week, but he said something about a couple days in Athens, a trip north to some Greek Orthodox monasteries, and then visiting some islands. It's been such a cold, rainy summer here in northern Croatia--overnight lows tonight are in the 40's, and it's not getting much above 60 during the day--that I can't WAIT for some southern heat and sunshine!

To WC or not to WC

I was in Zagreb on my way to the notary at the American Embassy on Tuesday when I got a phone call from Karmen saying that her cousin had gone out to Sveti George to dig the holes for the outhouses that the youth group will build there, and someone was there who called himself the "gypsy king," and this "king" forbade the cousin to dig or us to build outhouses. We've already bought the lumber and had it cut out, and the youth group will be here on Saturday!! Karmen is in Zagreb at a VBS, and Bob Hitching was about to drive to England to pick up his wife who's been studying there....

But, bless him, Bob managed to make time to drive down to Croatia "on his way" to England, and we went out to Sveti George with a translator, a Roma named Danijel.

Karmen had given me the phone number of this "king," so we called him on the way and he told us that he doesn't want us doing any good in that village: that's HIS village and HE has a non-profit foundation and HE is in charge. Evidently the truth is that he IS running a crooked non-profit organization, using Sveti George for advertisement, and taking the donation money for himself. He's threatened the villagers and the mayor, and everyone's afraid of him. This is small-time gypsy mafia.

He came down to the village while we were there, pulling up in a late-model Mercedes with two young thugs in tow, and threatened to beat us up and forbade the villagers to talk to us.

They took off, and we called the police, who came out with a couple of officers and a detective to take our statements.

The upshot is that we can't put outhouses here because the villagers are afraid, this mafioso would tear them down, and, more importantly, I can't take a group of teenagers out there to be threatened. It makes me so angry because we prepared everything in advance: Bob had checked with the county, who said we could do anything, we had coffee with the mayor, who was happy to have us help the villagers, we asked the villagers, who really want outhouses. And then this small-time crook swoops down out of nowhere, and the villagers and the mayor are afraid of him, and the police and the county don't really care. So, after the supplies are bought, the workman is hired, and the team is coming, some evil man ruins a gift that those people really need....just so he can exploit them a little more.

Such injustice....and the authorities here really could not care less.

Back from the sea and ready for FBC!

I had a great week at Cinta, and then a great overnight stay in Split to scope out FBC's youth group's excursion there. It was too bad that it was too cold to swim at Cinta: after that one day I wasn't brave enough to try it again! The Croatian men there are indefatiguable swimmers, but you can tell from the hesitation and the high-pitched yelling in this video--and from the wind!--that it was a bit on the chilly side, even for them! (sorry about the wobbliness, btw. I don't know what my problem was!)

But it was a beautiful camp, and I hope to go back someday with an actual retreat! Their outdoor amphitheater would be such an amazing place to sing praise and worship songs!

After my first couple trips to Split, I thought I hated the city because it was so hot that you just bake walking around on the white rocks and so crowded that you get crushed on every side by crowds of tourists. There's so much there that's amazing to see, and so much you have to suffer to see it! :D But my short visit there after Cinta won me over. To get to the tourist office to price boat excursions, I had to walk into Diocletian's palace, so I descended out of the baking waterfront into the pillar entry-hall of a 1700-year-old Roman emporer's retirement home. That night, looking for a particular traditional Dalmatian Konoba (a Konoba is a tavern/restaurant), I wandered in and out of narrow windy stone streets and finally found the konoba that looked like a total dump from the outside but inside had an incredible atmosphere and one of the best plates of prsut I've had in Croatia (prsut is wind-dried and salt-preserved Dalmatian ham, similar to proscuitto). And here was the view from my hotel:
Tomorrow, Karmen and I are going to the lumber store to buy materials for the outhouses the youth will put up in Sveti George. Then, next week, we will be in Zagreb every day doing a 5-day club. A week from Saturday, I'll meet the youth group at the airport!

whew! (first day at Cinta!)

I have a renewed respect today for people who labor outdoors all day. I was on rake duty today, raking all the winter accumulation of sticks and heavy, damp pine needles into piles and sweeping off all the pathways and cabin porches. After a day of that, I have blisters ON my blisters! :) After just a few hours I'm embarrassed to say that my back and arms were SCREAMING, but even so, it's a great job to get to do. Lots of groups have worked at Cinta in the past, and tons of names, dates, and nations are written in the concrete I was unearthing. It was really cool to rake off some old debris and see "Iowa, 1984" written underneath! Plus, Toma and Ksenija were married at this camp, and it was fun to think about that as I was raking the amphitheater where the wedding took place. Anyway, it's hard not to enjoy a job when you can look over your shoulder and see this:

After work was done for the day, I went for a little swim in a REALLY cold sea! I'd seen people swimming all day, but I realized when I got in the water that Croatians must have some layer of blubber under the skin or something that keeps them warm. I will never understand why it is that they believe walking on the floor without shoes will give you a cold, and sitting on the bare floor will freeze a woman's ovaries so she can't have children, but swimming in sixty-degree water on a windy evening AFTER dark is perfectly healthy! No, in five years I'll probably be the same. The thing about the Adriatic Sea is that once you see it you just HAVE to get in, no matter how miserably cold it is...and that sea had been luring me all day! So I swam, and huffed and puffed, and ran for a hot shower! Funny thing was, a little while later I saw a golden retriever rushing into the sea, and HE must have been cold because he was making the same huffing and puffing I was!

As I'm watching the sun set over the bay, I can't believe how blessed I am. You know...only 8 people, counting the owners of the camp, showed up for the work group. The problem is that Croatian schools aren't out yet. But TENNESSEE schools are out...I wonder if FBC could ever bring a work group over here?

Clothes in Sitnice

Today was the official "last day" in Sinice, and instead of having club, we took bags of clothes to hand out to the kids! Here's what Karmen's office looked like while we were packing the clothes up:

The other picture is of us passing out the clothes.

And that's it for my year helping Karmen with Good News Club. We walked around and visited the homes of the kids who come to clubs and heard a couple of wonderful things from the parents! One father said that the kids have been behaving so much better ever since we've been coming, and all the other parents around agreed. Another man said that the kids make their parents pray with them before going to be every night!! That's really the best thing I've heard all year: Club has instigated daily prayer among some of the families.

And tomorrow I am off to the Baptist camp on the island of Ugljan. What I hear is that we'll be helping to install some showers and a septic system. Unfortunately, it may not be quite warm enough for me to enjoy swimming. Mom and I swam in Dubrovnik, but since then we have had some rain storms and a cool front, and I've been wearing a jacket every day since Wednesday. Quite possibly it will suddenly get hot, so maybe there's some swimming ahead, but at least if it stays cool working outside will be much nicer. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to getting to see this camp that I've heard so much about, and getting to do some hands-on work outside. I'll put up pictures as soon as I can!

Rainbow over Sveti George

Yesterday Bob, Karmen and I, as well as one of Bob's daughters, went out to Sveti George to meet with the villagers. Unfortunately, they were celebrating the christening of one of the babies, which means that all the adults--including the pregnant women--were drinking. So, it wasn't really the best time for discussing serious matters. But when as we were leaving, one of the kids asked me, "when will you come back?" I said, "Two or three..." and paused, trying to remember the right case ending for the word "weeks," and the boy said hopefully "days?" It was heartbreaking to have to say "weeks," and Bob said as we were leaving that our visits are the only real bright spot in those children's lives. But after we made it out onto the highway, I noticed a bright rainbow, arching in a perfect semi-circle from one spot on on the horizon to another. Bob said that it was in the direction of Sveti George. Even if they have nothing else to hope in--and they really don't--they can hope in God's love for them.

We went to a coffee shop to wash and to come up with a contingency plan in case the villagers don't dig the holes...which they probably won't. Bob thinks we can rent a machine and a workman for $200, which may just be the way to go.




Also, before going to Sveti George, we stopped off at Joka and Lila's to see the work that's been going on in their downstairs room, and it's really wonderful.
Not only the big room for club, but the two smaller bedrooms are being finished, and also....an indoor bathroom with a bathtub and hot water heaters!!!! I'm so excited for their family: especially now that there's an eighth baby on the way, I'm so happy that their home will be a bit more comfortable.

Pictures at last!

Well, I put my mom on the airplane very early yesterday morning , and by now she's back in Texas! I don't know how it is, but a week's vacation seems more tiring than a week of work! Still, we had a wonderful time, and I really enjoyed getting to see more of this country I live in, especially Dubrovnik and Plitvice Lakes!! Plus, Mom got to meet everyone I know here, visit club in Sinice (the kids loved getting to meet my mom!), and go to church in the Pastoral Center. This past Sunday there was a baptism service there, the first since I've lived here, and three of the youth girls that I know, including one from my English class, were baptized that day. And here are the long-promised pictures:

Dubrovnik and Kolocep:

Northern Croatia, Cakovec, and Plitvice:

Today it's back to Club in Orehovica with Karmen, and also Bob Hitching is driving down from Budapest so we can go to Sveti George and talk to them about the outhouses that FBC's youth group will build. Our arrangement is that the villagers will dig the holes and FBC will build the structure for everyone who has dug a hole. But what if no one digs! I think it's good for them to participate in the project, much better than just giving them a free handout, but I am just praying that at least some of them dig the holes! Be in prayer about that.

Before Karmen and I left for Hungary and Dubrovnik, we had our last Good News Club for the year in Kursanec, and today is our last in Orehovica. Sadly, I missed the last day in Sitnice because Karmen decided at the last minute to have it Monday--while I was away--instead of Thursday. There's a group of Canadians here, and a group of girls really wanted to go to club, so I guess it was a good decision. I'm sad to miss the last day there, but we'll have 5-day club there this summer.

So, after today, Karmen is taking a much-needed rest before we start preparing for 5-day clubs and the groups that will come this summer, and I....well, again, I have to say, what a tough life! I am spending a week at Cinta (pronounced Chinta), the Baptist Union of Croatia's beach camp on the island of Ugljan! There's a lot of cleaning and repair work that needs to be done there to prepare for the Croatian Baptist's retreats there this summer: unless I'm reading the schedule wrong (it's in Croatian) there are nine retreats/conferences being held there this summer, including young families, youth, and a pastor's conference. Mine will be a week of grunt work in the hot sun...but I am REALLY looking forward to working outdoors, being at the camp, having the sea nearby, and so on.