From Romania to Croatia I rode a train for the first time in my life. Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities that you could ever imagine. We made a stop there and it was also the first time that I stayed in a hostel (really sketchy!). The beauty of that city was breathtaking, I took so many pictures. Our team really grew together in adventure and God made so many divine appointments for me and our team this month.
We got dropped off in Croatia and it was so great that I knew a little bit of Bosnian. It helped us a lot. We stopped in Osijek and Tim got the clue “Follow the flags” from God. So we followed the flags and found an internet cafe that let us leave all of our stuff there for free and use their internet. It was so kind of God to lead us there. We got an email about two missionaries that lived in that city. I don’t even know how all the connections happened but we got in touch with them. They came to the internet cafe and said we could stay one night with them. They worked with youth and we stayed at this legit beautiful home with ornate bathrooms, ping pong, pool, big screen tv, foosball, and everything we could want. Even mood lighting in the rooms! They ended up saying that we could stay there all month. God is a good guider.
The next morning we were in for a surprise. The team leaders got together and told us that all the teams were to be mixed up this month in order to get squad unity. We pack our stuff madly with only 15 minutes to do so. I was sad to leave Martha and Danielle, I had never left them before. We get on a bus and have no idea where we are going and what city we are going to. Someone just let us know that’s what bus we needed to be on.
We arrived in Posjuga after only 3 hours. When we get off the bus the cutest old man in the world was waiting for us. His name was Marion, he and his wife reminded me of the old couple from the princess bride. He was so happy and takes us into his cute little truck. He takes us to his church that he is remodeling and so for the next two weeks we helped to do construction on the church. However the whole time my ministry was having a relationship with his wife Bozena. She is such a fierce woman of God who happens to not speak any English. I cooked lunch with her everyday, everything was fresh and organic mostly from her garden. We roasted a lamb, went to a waterfall and drank from a fresh spring. The pastor jokingly said “I’m Moses!” and struck a rock at the waterfall and drank from it.
They really took the time to know us.
We met incredible people there, Marion, Bozena, Alice and Joseph just took us in and showed us God. They supplied all our needs and loved us so much. After all this we went to Pula, it took 3 trains and 3 buses to finally get there. I can’t even remember all the hours it took to get there. It used to be ruled by Romans and so it had the Roman Columns and Coliseums remaining there to this day. We had amazing housing and got so connected to the church and the youth group. There were so many great times there in Pula.
We had a day off and the girls rented a car and went through Slovenia and Italy all the way to Venice. It was awesome. So beautiful, just a map and I was the only one who could drive stick so I drove the all the way. We had the windows down and music blaring and just laughed almost the whole time. We got to Venice and ate pizza, drank wine and had gelatto and made it back to Croatia all in one day. Still one of my favorite memories of the race.
We went back to Osijek for a couple of days and then we all left and went to Vinkovci. We got dropped off by a post office and had to just find somewhere to stay for four days. This is the excitement and mystery of an ATL month (Ask the Lord). Everywhere was so expensive so we were just going to open our tents and stay by the river. We end up finding a hotel that would keep our bags during the day. At the hotel a man comes in to fix the heater and he turns out to be the owner. He started talking to us and offered us a room at his hotel that was within our budget. It was amazing, they ended up giving us another room for free and also threw in breakfast for free. Everyone had their own beds. The breakfast was incredible any kind of egg, meat, juice, fruit, and coffee. We developed these great relationships with the workers and some students around town. I met another young lady named Bozena and developed a really good relationship with her. She took us to this amazing concert and we had so much fun together.
At this point we needed to stay another two nights and the owner allowed us to stay for the same price. So in total we stayed for four nights in two rooms for half of the regular price of one room for one night. Once again God showed that He provides for his children.
After all the different divine coincidences and the people that I met, the amazing food, and experiences I grew so frickin much and our team grew so much as individuals. In hindsight I wish that I wrote blogs about all of the different things that happened and the amazing people that I met. There are so many stories left untold.
