It's been awhile! A lot of our most recent trips have been documented on our facebook page. There are a lot of pictures and posts there.
Soon we will be in the air again, heading to Croatia for our 6th mission trip. Rachel, Emily, and I are so excited to get there and get busy. We will be helping with a multi-congregational "camp" (retreat) on the coast. This is something I haven't done in our previous 5 trips. But it is something I'm familiar with since camp is how our family was first connected with the Varazdin church. In 2005 (I think) my dad went to camp on the island of Krk off the coast of Croatia. There the people of Croatia took up a place in his heart, which he also passed on to us.
In about a week we will be doing the same thing. Already the people of Croatia are dear to Rachel and me, we are so excited to share that love with Emily too. It's about time to pack our bags and journey across the ocean. We sure would appreciate your prayers as we work with about 20 kids, and spend time with families from several congregations across the northern part of Croatia.
If our internet is available we will update both the Heart for Croatia facebook page and this blog. It's always an encouragement to know you are out there following us. We'd love to hear from you. For the next couple weeks as you go to bed, remember we will just be waking up starting a new day. We sure would love a covering of prayer to start each day.
Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your support. We appreciate each one of you.
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Thank you for 5 years!
Thoughts from June 29, 2013....
Imagine you are going to travel for 24 hours to the other side of the world to live with a family you don't know for 10 days. During that time you'll work tirelessly, have a different sleep pattern, eat different food, and constantly deal with a language barrier. Then you'll go home and wait a year till you see them again and repeat the process. How many times do you think this would have to happen before you felt like they were true friends? How long till you felt like their home was your home, where you understand the dos and don'ts? How long till you could accurately put away dishes in their cabinets and food in their pantry? How long till you could joke and tease without the fear of misunderstanding? How long till the small talk is unnecessary because there are deep and intimate issues to discuss and pray about? I can tell you, for each of these to be completely true, it was three years for us. We've now been to Croatia five times, three of which we have stayed in the Dominic's home. Each year the greeting phase shortens and the grieving at good-bye lengthens. The work there is equally as important as it is everywhere else, but for our family God has nestled the people of Brezje and Varazdin deep into our hearts. We think of them no differently than our own family. Rajan, Hana, Rahela, and Maja are as important to us as our own children. When we are with the Dominics there are moments of heart wrenching stress as we share our struggles, worries, and decisions; but there are moments to balance of unexplainable joy and laughter as we share stories from the past year and laugh about pointless things like chickens and small bags of sugar.
Many of you probably heard me say this was probably the last year for awhile for us visiting Croatia. We had reached our five year commitment. It was time for something new, someone else, etc. I suppose God got quite a kick out of me thinking I knew the future. While we are always careful to never commit for next year while we are there in Croatia, Ray and I both knew without a doubt our work is not over yet. Time will tell when God will have us return, but for now we are immensely grateful for all who have helped us in the past five years. During that time we have raised approximately $33,000.00 to pay for expenses. Donations have ranged from $10-$1000, and everything in between . We’ve baked approximately 3000 Easter cookies. And we’ve had aproximately 90 different donors. Many of you have faithfully given each year and for that we are especially thankful. Thank you just doesn’t seem like enough so we pray God will give you a sense of gratitude on our behalf and that He will bless you because of your support of us and therefore faithfulness to Him. Sincerely, Ray, Laura, Rachel & Jonathan
Imagine you are going to travel for 24 hours to the other side of the world to live with a family you don't know for 10 days. During that time you'll work tirelessly, have a different sleep pattern, eat different food, and constantly deal with a language barrier. Then you'll go home and wait a year till you see them again and repeat the process. How many times do you think this would have to happen before you felt like they were true friends? How long till you felt like their home was your home, where you understand the dos and don'ts? How long till you could accurately put away dishes in their cabinets and food in their pantry? How long till you could joke and tease without the fear of misunderstanding? How long till the small talk is unnecessary because there are deep and intimate issues to discuss and pray about? I can tell you, for each of these to be completely true, it was three years for us. We've now been to Croatia five times, three of which we have stayed in the Dominic's home. Each year the greeting phase shortens and the grieving at good-bye lengthens. The work there is equally as important as it is everywhere else, but for our family God has nestled the people of Brezje and Varazdin deep into our hearts. We think of them no differently than our own family. Rajan, Hana, Rahela, and Maja are as important to us as our own children. When we are with the Dominics there are moments of heart wrenching stress as we share our struggles, worries, and decisions; but there are moments to balance of unexplainable joy and laughter as we share stories from the past year and laugh about pointless things like chickens and small bags of sugar.
Many of you probably heard me say this was probably the last year for awhile for us visiting Croatia. We had reached our five year commitment. It was time for something new, someone else, etc. I suppose God got quite a kick out of me thinking I knew the future. While we are always careful to never commit for next year while we are there in Croatia, Ray and I both knew without a doubt our work is not over yet. Time will tell when God will have us return, but for now we are immensely grateful for all who have helped us in the past five years. During that time we have raised approximately $33,000.00 to pay for expenses. Donations have ranged from $10-$1000, and everything in between . We’ve baked approximately 3000 Easter cookies. And we’ve had aproximately 90 different donors. Many of you have faithfully given each year and for that we are especially thankful. Thank you just doesn’t seem like enough so we pray God will give you a sense of gratitude on our behalf and that He will bless you because of your support of us and therefore faithfulness to Him. Sincerely, Ray, Laura, Rachel & Jonathan
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