Favorites from the week...

My kids hate it when I ask, "What was your favorite thing about...?"  They don't like picking one thing. So I ask, "What was one of your favorite things?"  This post is full of favorite moments from this week. 

We're near the end of camp. My boxes and bags are empty and the extras passed along for Spring camp on the coast. Our last session with kids was this morning. We had 22 between the ages of 4 and 9. We've had a great week with them. It's always a challenge to teach through translation. This week I've been blessed with a fantastic translator in Snjezana . It's also challenging to "teach" kids who already know most bible stories. Keeping their attention is my biggest challenge. We've done some fun activities and games which they seemed to have enjoyed. This camp is often used as an outreach from one friend to another so a few children weren't familiar with the stories. One little girl told me the first day: the New Testament is about Jesus and the Old Testament is just fairy tales. It was fun to see her realization that these stories are true. Three men were saved in the fiery furnace, Elijah was fed by ravens and angels, Jonah surrvived three days in a fish, and the Israelites were given daily food from heaven. :-)

One of my favorite things was watching everyone swim. For some it's their rare chance to swim all year. They swim and they swim and they swim and they sit in the sun and they eat and they swim some more. The temperature is refreshing but comfortable and the high salt content adds buoyancy. 

This morning during the worship service I looked through the crowd of people and saw - Croatians, Austrians, Slovenians, Germans, Americans, and Macedonians. It's my favorite part of this work. The Spirit is so evident. I love hearing a lesson in English, being translated into Croatian, while huddled on the steps an Austrian translates quietly for the Germans. I love singing tunes I know by heart, but the pronunciations call for all my attention.  A lifetime of singing those words in English allows for the heartfelt worship in Croatian now. 

Our team's favorite meal memory will probably the morning without bread. Croatians must have bread with every meal. One morning apparently someone forgot. There was no big bucket of bread next to the silverware trays at breakfast. We could see the confusion, then a bit of panic set in. Where is the bread?  After most had started eating the Cinta van pulled up with a large box of bread - maybe 15 large loaves. While it was sliced out of sight in the bread vultures started to circle. Once it came out of the kitchen there was a touch of chaos as the slices were snatched up.  It was quite comical to the American observer. And, yes, we procured our slices too. 

Zvonko might be my favorite non-Dominic Varazdin church member. ;-)  A few years ago his wife Zlata passed away from lung cancer. It was sad for us to be far away at that time. I'm sure there were many hard days since her passing but the light I see in him is so inspiring. He is a hard worker for God. His story involves a man at work talking to him about Jesus for nearly 10 years before he was ready to listen. He's been a light in his gypsy village ever since. One day last week I didn't need my alarm because Zvonko was there mowing the lawn. Zvonko fills communion trays. Zvonko leads the early morning prayer time here at camp. And, shocking to me, there was Zvonko last night in a video of the younger teens at another camp, participating in silly games, leading small groups of kids in bible study. It's so, so good to see a Christian man still using his life for good, despite heartache. 

Thank you for your prayers for Rachel's food and health. Many of you know I was really concerned about her food here at camp. We have been very blessed with understanding cooks. They've done their best, and while she's not eaten everything they gave her, she was well fed. Only one afternoon did her stomach bother her, and just for a bit. One cook in particular has been really helpful. She's fed Rachel but also helped me with a craft involving their microwave and their freezer. I had one last Kansas Russell Stover box so I gave it to her. I explained that people prayed ahead of time about Rachel's food, and she started to cry. Another unexpected mutual blessing. 

Today was a cool rainy day. About 20 degrees cooler than the previous days here. No swimming today. It poured down rain at lunch time. It's very dry vegetation and rocky here so the water runs quickly. The air cooled after the storm and everyone raced for their jackets and socks and shoes - so as to not get sick - that is still a belief here. We Americans and the Macedonians (about 6 of us) are the only ones left in sandals. It will be great sleeping tonight. :-)

Tomorrow will be our final day here. It's mostly a free day with a traditional fish meal in a the evening. There will also be a baptism in the afternoon. It'll be a good day. Then to Zagreb Tuesday afternoon and the long trek home on Wednesday. Thanks for your prayers - it sounds too cliché- but we really mean it!!