I gave myself the job of chronicling our trip to Croatia. Assignment; take photos of my sisters Monica, and Leigha as we put on a Conference for Children's Minister's in Croatia, and keep a journal of our adventures. Now I am going to share both journal and photos with you :)
Before the trip we met many times to talk about what we thought we were supposed to speak on. We would compare notes on what we had heard from the lord as we prayed. I just heard, "Love", Monica heard specifics about managing volunteers and ideas for amazing kid's activities, and Leigha heard
" turn the hearts of the fathers to the hearts of the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers" Malaci 4:6
Monday morning the day of departure; Rick Sizemore called us at 6 am and asked us to leave earlier so we could beat the storm to DC. This was a great idea because soon after we left our families were snowed in. It had just begun to snow when we left Lucie Monroe's Coffee shop in Christiansburg at 8 am.
I had a money freak out on the way, having forgotten that it was President's Day and my local bank was closed. I called and got some help accessing my account by atm by a very kind lady at my bank. This turned out to be an even bigger blessing because it cost less to get money out of the atm in Croatia and London then to convert dollars to other currencies their.
I pasted the itinerary in my journal before we left. It was handy to refer to as we checked in;
There was snow in Dulles as we waited 4 hrs for our flight time. We were delayed an hour as the plane was de-iced. We sat back with coffee and excited conversation.
Our flight to London on Virgin Atlantic exceeded our expectations. They pampered us, and we made friends with the sweet stewardesses with darling accents. When we got tired we each settled into an empty row of seats- the flight was only 1/3rd full!!!
Us with flight loot!
We arrived at London an hour late at 8:30 am and passed through maze after maze of tunnels, to our flight to Zagreb, Croatia. But even after the maze and a delayed flight, we were two hours early so we had a lovely coffee break before heading off to Croatia.
Our drive to Branca's house looked a bit like this;
upon arriving we play with sweet children, and we eat a feast of a lunch prepared by Branca. Tara shyly draws a picture of the three of us. We immediately warm to this loving family of eight. We talk into the evening with Branka about her vision for the children's ministry conference we are holding for her staff.
Leigha shares the Malaci scripture with her as the direction we received of teaching for the Conference. Branca tells us that after a time of prayer and fasting she received the same exact scripture. We all have this feeling, that will repeat itself many times during the trip, that we are all linked as the family of Christ. That we are all the same.
Next, Days 3 and 4; touring Croatia!
