Friday, July 29, 2016

I think it’s Friday anyway.  Not quite sure at this point.  It’s been a long couple of days to get to this point in our journey.  We left Amarillo at 2 a.m. on Thursday.  8 of our 16 member team left at that time of the night while the other 8 went on ahead to Dallas, Texas on Wednesday.  While those 8 were dreaming sweet dreams in their hotel rooms, the other 8 of us were riding in the “people mover” small bus owned by First Church of the Nazarene in Amarillo.  Susan & Vito shared the driving duties while the other six took a stab at trying to sleep.  We arrived Ft. Worth area about 7:30 a.m. and drove to Euless, Tx Church of the Nazarene where Pastor Zack took over the driving to take us the last few miles to the airport.  Pastor Zack agreed to watch over the vehicle and transport us back and forth to the airport.  What an awesome guy!
We met up with the rest of the team at the DFW airport where we all got checked in, picked up our boarding passes and made it through security.  Grabbing some drinks and snacks/breakfast we waited in the gate area for our flight to be called.  Olivia and Eli are so very excited to begin this journey, whereas Tracie and Hadyn are a bit anxious about the flying.   It didn’t take long before it was time to board the plane and take off.  Seats were switched a little so that Eli and Olivia could have window seats and Tracie and Hadyn could sit where they didn’t need to look out a window. 
It was fun to watch the excitement of the two youngest team members on this flight.  After a couple hour layover in the JFK airport in London we headed off on our “overnight” flight to London.  Some slept well on the plane, others didn’t.  Suffice to say there was a general feeling of tiredness after our short 6 hour “night”.   Once we changed terminals and went through the long security lines in London we only had about 30 minutes to grab something to drink or eat before boarding our final plane of the day.  This flight was just less than 2 hours so before very long we landed in our destination city of Zagreb, Croatia.
Getting through immigration and customs was very easy.  And, all of our 32 suitcases arrived with us!!  Once through all of security we were met by nearly the entire ministry team in this city, along with Teanna and her youngest daughter.  We exchanged our US dollars into Croatia Kuna at a bank in the airport terminal then made our way outside where we split up into a couple of different groups.  Our team is staying in 4 different apartments while in this city.  The five single women (Tracie, Hadyn, Dana, Cindy, and Katie) are staying at the home of the Scotts, missionaries who are on home assignment in the States.  The rest of us are staying in a variety of apartments (airbnb’s) in the city center.  So, the 5 women got into a car that took them “home”.  The rest of us loaded onto a big bus, already full, and headed into the city.  Thankfully all of our luggage was able to fit into the luggage compartment at the bottom of the bus.  The bus was standing room only but it didn’t take long before most of us, especially the women, we offered seats.  In fact, it was insistently offered for Wonda. 
We went quite a distance into the city, dropping off a few people on the way, until we reached the end of the line..a bus terminal.  There everyone unloaded and we went inside to wait for our rides to our apartments.  Finally, the Monteblancos and the 3 single guys left for their apartments and the Hawkins and Sam & I piled into Chris’s car for the ride to our apartment.  We were met by our host, Bruno, who managed this rental, along with 20 others.  He was very talkative and eager to make sure we were going to be comfortable in the apartment. 
Our apartment is large.  It is two bedrooms, two & 1/2 bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen.  All areas are very nice.  It’s all very IKEA.  There are big flat screen TV’s in each room attached to 500 channel cable.  Is this a mission trip or a vacation!?  We have a couple of hours to rest and freshen up and then we’ll be on our way to the ladies apartment.
About 5:15 Brayden and the Monteblancos showed up at our apartment to go with us on the city tram.  The tram stop is about 2 blocks from us.  We met the three guys there and waited for tram line 17.   Then we rode on the tram away from the city center to more of a residential area where the 5 women are staying in their apartment.  We are all here now for a team orientation.  After the short orientation we then got on the tram again…..all 16 of us plus our hosts…and went further away from the city center.  We just went a few stops before getting off.   Then a nice, several block walk to a Croatian style restaurant.  We ate outside on the patio.  We were served plates of salad --- some lettuce, cabbage slaw, tomato wedges and cucumbers.  The big baskets of great tasting bread followed by huge community platters of several different types of grilled meats, mushrooms, potato wedges.  Yummy!

After finishing our meal and waddling back to the tram line we all headed back to our respective apartments.  It’s a good thing we are doing a lot of walking!