Some of you may know and some may not, but at the end of last week we ran into an upexpected situation with our ministry in Croatia. For the month of November, we had planned to work the with disabled individuals living as residents in an institiution in Varazdin, Croatia. Almost a week and a half into our ministry, we ran into an obstacle. The manager had not communicated with the owner that she had given us permission to be there and we were more or less kicked out. So Katarina, our ministry contact, planned to meet with the owner on Monday.
Unfortunately, the meeting between Kat (our Croatian contact) and the owners at the institution did not go very well. They said that Monday (two days ago and the day of the meeting) was going to have to be our last day at the institution and we would not be able to come back. We were disappointed and it was heartbreaking to leave the people we have come to love and care for so much. Admittedly for me, it was one of only two months that I really felt like crying when it was time to go. It didn’t help matters that some of the residents were crying.
Since we were not longer able to work there, we prayed about what to do next. As a team, we all felt that we were supposed to take the bus to Vienna. So, we bought bus tickets, left Tuesday night and arrived here this morning. To backtrack slightly, Vienna is where our final debrief for our squad of 52 is beginning the 17th of this month and then the race is offically over on the 23rd and people are flying out from here.
Our team bought tickets to arrive a week early. We prayed about what we were supposed to do while here. One teammate had a vision of a Christian woman wearing red and blue that we were supposed to encourage. Another teammate felt that we were supposed to be working with some type of international church type of thing. As a team, we also wanted to have three days to do a little team debrief with just us to process the year and spend some time in prayer for one another before we part ways after being together 24/7 for 11 months. With this said, we all took a part of the research needing done to coordinate our logistics. Tim booked a hostel and was later informed that the hostel was closed for renovations. I was looking up train and bus information and found something inconvenient but feasible. When I tried to print, the printer showed everything was working properly and gave the green light, but it would not print any transportation information. Teri looked up rental cars and Avis (the cheapest and only affordable car rental) was SOLD OUT of ALL vehicles in Vienna and surrounding areas. Then, we ran out of cell phone minutes and were no longer able to call hostels, etc. Teri had contacted several churches and heard back from none. I was researching online and all internet stopped working completely except for my IM conversation with Tim who was staying in another house with a phone with no minutes. Then, we were informed that our team account had insufficient funds and we would therefore be unable to book anything online. Hmm…. what does this sound like to you? For us, a CLOSED DOOR!
But, we already had our bus tickets and knew of a prayer session at Mercy House of Prayer at 10am in Vienna. SO.. we got on the bus with no plan or place to stay once arriving in Vienna and prayed the God would guide our steps. And He did. We arrived in Vienna at the bus station at 5:45am this morning in the cold, the dark, and the rain. We slowly made our way across town to the closest metro station to MHOP and then walked there with ALL our baggage. Nobody was there when we arrived two hours early and we waited on their doorstep.
When they saw us, they immediately recognized that we were the team that had emailed them the previous day. They invited us in to join them for prayer and were hosptiable even though they were not too excited about us being there. They’ve had bad experiences with teams in the past being high maintenance and more stress than help and didn’t like the idea of hosting a team right now as they are already feeling burnt out. But God is amazing and He can work miracles and change hearts. We knew this place was exactly where God wanted us. Bekah recognized the woman in charge as the woman in her vision and she was wearing red and blue. The rest of the team all felt at peace there and just knew in our hearts that this was the beginning of the ministry God is calling us to in Vienna. By the end of the prayer session, the attitude of the folks there was completely different. We spent some time praying for the people in charge and talked with them and it was evident that God was working. In the end, one woman said that God told her to give us money for our lodging tonight and handed us 110 Euros (that is $165!!). This is nothing short of amazing and a huge blessing for our team!! But also… what has been even more miraculous for us is seeing how God transforms what seemed to be a discouraging situation by our ministry ending early in Croatia ending early into an amazing testimony of how He is faithful if we are obedient, step out on faith, and trust him to lead the way.
I want to thank everyone for all of your prayers about our ministry in Croatia. I am still a bit disappointed that it ended with the owners unwilling to budge on allowing us to be there. However, I am going to continue to pray that God will change there hearts so that vounteers can go there in the future because in the end it is the residents who rarely have family or anyone else visit and they are the ones suffering from the owner’s decision. But, the good news is that Kat, my friend who hosted us as a personal favor to me, is willing and interested in hosting teams of volunteers and missionaries in the future and so I believe that there will be an opportunity for this situation to be redeemed.
Thank you all for your prayers!!!
