So
a week and a half before we were supposed to be headed into Egypt, we got
word that our direction was changing and that God had a different plan for us
in October. It turned out that having 83 of 
us in the Middle
East was not going to be the responsible thing to do for safety
and logistical reasons. So with the Middle East delayed a month, being here in Eastern Europe, now with no set destination, we asked God
where He wanted to send us. Through prayer and seeking His voice it became
clear that Croatia
was where our team should head in order to pioneer new ground and find new
ministry contacts and opportunities for future World Races. So it being a
pioneer destination having nothing set up for us ahead of time, we jumped on a
train and via a two day stop in Budapest, Hungary arrived in Osijek, Croatia
knowing not a soul and having no where to sleep for the night. Praying on the
train for God to provide for us and listening to Him for direction I heard in
my head “follow the Croatian flags.” That was it. That’s all I heard. Kinda
silly I guess but we went with it. So we walked out of the station and
immediately saw a huge Croatian flag hung on the front of the station. Well we
are at least in the right place I thought. Our first need was internet and sim
cards to be able to get in touch with our leaders. So about two blocks down the
road to the right we spot another Croatian flag and set out in that direction.
There, just past it, is this little place that a young man has set up with
computers and WiFi and right on the door is a Croatian flag. We are all
starting to laugh about how this is working out and we go in to pay for some
internet time to get in touch with leaders and potential contacts and research
the area. The guy who owned the place turned out to be awesome, giving us
directions of what is in the town and finding out that we are missionaries
makes a couple calls and we end up hanging out with him and some Christian
young people from the area that night. When we tried to pay him for the
internet he refused to take it. He and some of his friends also ended up taking
a couple of us to the super market and buying us a bunch of food and stuff.
Whoa. But back to the task at hand, we need sim cards. A couple of us head down
the street and of course seeing another flag a few blocks down head that way.
We come to a corner and look both ways and there to the right is another banner
of red and blue with whit checkers in the middle flying in the happy afternoon
sun and just beneath it is a T-mobile super center. With more laughing a
teammate of mine says “ha, I like this game” and in we went to buy sim cards.
We followed the flags back to the internet shop and ended up meeting with some
other missionaries working in Osijek who offered to put us up at their youth
center and we have been working with them here in northern Croatia since. It
turns out that they are part of a union of Churches in Northern
Croatia and we have already made some great friendships with
churches in the area who need help from us and future WR teams. Stepping off
the train with nothing but a crazy idea from God that we will find what we need
and what He has for us to do, we have so far been blown away by the provisions
He has made. We didn’t have plans and arrangements getting off the train but He
did. Yeah, God knows the plans He has for us and it’s as simple as listening to
Him and Following the Croatian Flags.
