Tuesday, October 04, 2005

august.september2005

[Elgin, IA] Home…finally! It’s good to be home with family…so good. I missed them. So I’ve spent my time with sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, mom and dad, friends, and designing a bit. I’m doing some work for a company in Florida…that has slowed recently with the storms, but I’m still staying busy. Having seven siblings, four nieces, six nephews, two parents, and high school friends keep me busy. I can’t believe I have only two days left…I can’t think of it now or I will cry.

At the Baptist church in Elgin (where I grew up) I gave a presentation about Croatia and sang a Croatian song. They seemed to enjoy it; asking really great questions. My church has been praying for me every Sunday since I left in January. It’s hard to believe how much they love and support me when I haven’t lived there for almost eight years…like parents I guess. As much as I love my family, my church, the community, the landscape, my love for Croatia and the nations grows. I can’t explain or rationalize it. America has so much to offer, and my family is precious, but I find myself excited at the thought of going back. I think of all the devastation in New Orleans, but am thrilled at how much we’ve donated and sacrificed to help the victims, even bringing families to Iowa to give them apartments and a chance at a better life. This is it! This is the life Christ calls us to live. Yesterday I received an email from a friend in Croatia, and I was reminded of all the depression, poverty, and pain in the rest of the world as well. His email is very, very interesting (it’s below in blue). How will they get hope? Who is going to volunteer there? Or to other places that are not as welcoming or grateful, which won’t bring glory or attention…no TV interviews, no medals…just a smile from God “This is my beloved Son (or daughter) in whom I am well pleased.”

[Minneapolis] My sister Traci picked me up at the airport, and I spent Saturday with her and her family, driving around prior lake Minnesota and eating hamburgers at a little lakeside restaurant. I was overwhelmed at how wealthy the U.S. is, as I saw the perfectly maintained homes, school, parks, playgrounds, vehicles, etc. etc. Traci and Tom have the perfect American dream…two beautiful kids, a new home by a lake, two cars, hammock, campfire pit, playground equipment in their backyard, deck, garden…even a little pond in front. Wow. Part of me thinks I should be saving my money for this life…for my children someday. I have nothing to offer right now… ministry, especially missions, will never provide this lifestyle. But somehow, I’m really content with that. My “dream” is a little different. And God is continually giving me the desire of my heart.

[Loren] My parents met me at Traci’s and we drove to Rochester, Sunday to see Loren, my nephew. We met him and his dad’s family at TGIFriday’s. During the drive, Traci briefed me on the extent of Loren’s injury and his physical and mental condition, so I was prepared to see him. She showed me pictures from his first few days and a current photo… I was so afraid I’d cry when I saw him, but I was fine. He was in high spirits, wheeling himself around in his electric wheelchair. He asked how I was doing, and looked great, as if he could just get up out of his chair and walk. That will never happen…only a miracle from God. Loren has damaged nerve strands in his spinal cord that can never be repaired. Only through surgery in the future will he have a chance of using his fingers. He can squeeze with his hands, so he could pick up his glass of coke and chicken pieces. So he talked of life at the hospital, therapy, his friends and family who had come to visit him, and his buddies from the military. He had only been back in the U.S. for two weeks. He had been in Afghanistan with the National Guard, taking food and supplies to afghani towns in the mountains. He had caught his foot on his bathroom doorway that morning and thought he had broken it. He said it freaked him out, that he could break his ankle without feeling it. “That’s not good…not good at all.” So we finished eating, talked a bit more, and had to leave. I left him some Croatian chocolate and a card. I had written a prayer for his life and for healing. Whew…that’s so hard. I cry and cry for him still. I ask God “Why?” Why not heal him, why this when he is so young? Is it to bring him to you? At what cost will you allow the world to destroy someone in order for them to admit they need You?! God reminded me of the cost He had to go to for us…for our eternal existence with Him, and I was humbled. This world has cost him his Son’s life. This life on earth is temporary. Loren’s spiritual, emotional, relational healing is more important to God than physical healing right now. So God’s ways are higher than our ways.

[Washington DC] Back to the U.S.A.! Already life was chaotic…I had forgotten where to meet my friend Katlyn, I had misplaced my bank card, and had no way of calling her. After frantically wheeling my million-pound luggage to the nearest email center, I discovered she had suggested meeting out front. I threw five euros at the computer guy and apologized for not having any U.S. dollars, and ran outside. there she was!! It was SO nice to see Katlyn. It felt as if I had never left. Stefanie Grettenberg joined us in the car when she returned from searching in the airport for me…my tall Iowan DC sister. We ate a heavy ihop breakfast at 8pm…now I know why Americans tend to be overweight…the food is so good!! then we drove to my old house to meet my roommates Brenda and Erin, then the rest of the weekend was a whirlwind… Friends were great…I enjoyed Irish music, NCC (church) friends, Ben & Jerry’s, great conversations, and warm fuzzy feelings from seeing lots of people I love.

Ann and Chris welcomed me back to their house in Alexandria, with little Ava and Lily …they've grown so much! It’s hard to believe I was a nanny to Lily for three months when I first moved to DC and now she’s three!

My Jane’s coworkers gave me such a warm welcome, talking with me in the break room for over two hours. I snuck in Friday afternoon to see them. I couldn’t stop smiling…. In two years, they had become like family and I had missed them. They always encouraged me, supported me, and surprised me with their generosity. If you remember they gave me the money for a plane ticket in January to go home to see my family in Iowa before flying to Croatia…how sweet! My family still talks about that. These are friends I wish I could take with me in life wherever I go…

[zenavlja] july 11-17th…youth camp 2! This was a great time of meeting Slovenian youth and seeing God move in their lives. The speakers were from the U.K.. One 21 year old came, Jernej, wanting to come completely off heroin. During this week he was so encouraged, his whole countenance changed. He had listened to my ipod one night…I had testimonies on it of a woman who prayed with drug addicts and they were instantly healed from heroin addiction when they committed their lives to tollowing Jesus. He was so encouraged!

It was exciting to see so many commit to following Christ and pray for more of the Holy Spirit in their lives. I was praying for all these young people. I felt old and responsible taking care of others. I wanted something new, deeper intimacy with God. Then He touched my cheek…I could feel his face touching mine…I stood worshipping for what felt like an eternity. “Don’t leave me, Jesus…don’t ever leave me”, I whispered. Oh, the agony of separation! I couldn’t bear the thought of it. The love of God calls to the deepest recesses of my soul. I wonder sometimes if human love goes this deep…

[martjanci] Petra’s family again welcomed me in and fed me for a week while I finished up graphic design work for the missionary couple there. I packed my bags and said a sad goodbye to Petra, my dear friend.

[pag island] youth camp 3! Pag island is on the coast of croatia, so it was a long trip. First a hot sweaty two hour drive to Zagreb (thanks to the missionary from new zealand for the lift), where I met up with my friend iva and her family. Iva has been on staff with step in Zagreb for 7 years, and I had met her a few times when she had come to osijek. She is the only catholic leader, so it was good to get her perspective and heart for her nation which is 90% catholic. So a few hours later we headed to the center of Zagreb, where we met up with the others from the camp. I saw tihomira, another step leader from osijek, and we attempted to catch up on our summers so far…hers in Bulgaria, mine all over croatia/slovenia. Six of us left in the van at 1am and arrived at pag island at 9am…exhausted. I tried to catch up on my 3 hours of sleep the night before, but no luck. I was a wreck until I had my big fat bijela kava (coffee with lots of milk). Ah….coffee. pag looked quite different than I expected. It had lots of little hills, rocky and desert-like with green scrubby bushes dotted around the landscape. Iva assured me that where we were staying wasn’t so barren. She said the wind is so severe that nothing can grow on these foothills.

[novalja] So we arrived! Novlaja is the small town on the island of pag where we were to stay for the week. We picked up marina (from osijek) at the bus stop near our house …yay! It was so good to see her! She had a good trip…about 10 hrs by bus in total. Marina and I had coffee together in osijek a few times. She had come to Step once…so we caught up and headed straight to the beach, which was a cement dock area where we laid our towels. A sand beach with tiki bars was a 100m walk, but we stayed near the house. We swam and swam which I actually enjoyed. It’s much easier to swim in salt water…I can actually float! There were sea urchins to beware, but other than that, the whole week was good. Only two days of rain and lots of bonding time.

We had lots of activities…juggling, swimming, games, “culture night”, crafts, kitchen tasks, a dance party, and drawing class…this class was great fun and had a wonderful teacher (me). we went out on the town one night. I guess pag island is the most popular place in croatia right now, so the “strip” was crazy with people. We got ice cream and watched break-dancers in the square.

Every morning we had Bible studies from Mark. Of course I was in the English speaking group with Iva, Patrik from Hungary, and Ema. Iva and I took turns leading the group in discussion of the text and applying it to our own lives. our group bonded a lot that week as we shared the best and worst moments of our lives, and what God meant to us in those times. Ema’s dad was a Baptist pastor and they had lived in Minneapolis for two years.. She said she cried and cried when she had to move back to Croatia from the U.S Marina shared a lot with me…her frustration with her priest in her church, the politics of the Croatian Catholic church, but her strong belief in God and desire to be a part of something bigger. She committed her life to Christ Thursday night. She is so excited to follow God and has been emailing me about her journey with Christ. She is reading her Bible and went to mass for the first time in years. She wants to go to my evangelical church when I get back to Osijek in October, and study the Bible with our Step group. She has talked to all her friends about it, and she said Tijana will come, too. She already has plans to have a Christian concert and events for students. Very exciting! I just have to learn the language and life will be perfect there! It was hard to say goodbye, but I knew I would be seeing my family soon, and couldn’t wait!!

The drive back to Zagreb was breathtaking…the sunset, the mountains, the sea, the villages…my heart was full, overflowing from my eyes in little drops. Creation is so majestic…reflecting God’s beauty… I was sad that my family couldn’t share this time. It was really magical…I am so blessed to see and experience such glimpses of Heaven…so blessed.

[Zagreb] a few days of catching up on sleep from our 8 hour trip back. So nice! Iva’s family was really wonderful to me… Her dad was a sweetheart; telling of his travels around the world as a sailor, the economy in Croatia, and his life now, doing business around the world. We had great food including vegetables, cereal, and fruit… the foods I had been deprived of for so long! I went to mass with Iva three nights and we prayed together and had long talks about following Jesus…she had been to a conference in pastoral counseling with a Catholic group that used to be with YWAM (I did YWAM in New Zealand and Fiji in 2002)

Iva’s dad and brother got my massive luggage to the airport just in time; measuring, weighing, sweating…what an accomplishment! I was just 4 lbs overweight (my luggage, that is…), which was overlooked…whew! iva, her dad and I had one more kava (coffee) before I headed to my gate. Iva is now in Dublin for grad school, so I won’t see her when I return. It’s sad…I have enjoyed her friendship immensely.

[A Croatian's Perspective on the USA]
"Last two weeks, every day I can hear how glad Europeans are by accident that hit New Orleans... They enjoy looking others suffering (isn't it sick?)... Here are some comments that I heard and read in last couple days...
"The best thing would be that L.A., New York, Boston and all bigger cities get under the water, so that U.S. becomes poor as Africa is"
"I would like that whole U.S. gets under the water. Stupid Americans, I'm so glad finaly something happend to them"
"God is finally punishing them for everything bad they did last two centuries"
AND SO ON...
So I decided to express my opinion, which I consider very valid.
First, here's something to think about.... Most of Europeans think that the United States of America is just a large BAD country, which has money so much that they can do whatever they want with it (includes killing people around the world and taking their goods)... Well, The United States DO have a lot of money, but not because they're always complaining to something and drinking coffee when they're on work, but because AMERICANS (Folk od the US, not all "Americans" - includes Mexican, Brazilian etc.) really DO their job good! They don't get money from heaven and waste them as we think they do, or as sometimes we (Europeans) DO... I always thought Americans were bad, lazy, nasty guys, with big stomachs, but I realized that the true is quite different, and that in the most sitations, we - Europeans are those who are lazy, nasty... (but not with big stomach(s)), of corse .
I KNOW that lots of you still think everything worse about the United States, but what I think is,that that's so unjustified! We are too jealous and that's all... Instead of hating them (Folk(s) of the U.S.), let's try to be like them, or even better, because we can be better (although that's not so important)...
First of all... if we want to be like them (Or be BETTER, because most of you would say now "I don't want to be like a stupid Americans), we have to know what they are... I heard so many times that we're complaining to Americans because they don't know where Croatia or Hungary is (or some other countries)... Okeee... that's not good, but, who of you know where Oregon is? District of Colombia? Who knows what's the capital of West Virginia? Who's capital is Olympia? What's the GDP per capita $ of Massachussets? I don't think lots of you know that... so, it's not fair when we judge them about those things...
Back to the States; US consists of 50 pretty SMALL countries (most of us know that) (The largest one is California, with only 35 mil. people! Comparing to some European countries, that's not too big, Poland is even bigger, and there are Spain, France, Italy...who are much bigger that Poland!), which are UNITED. UNITED, those NOT SO BIG COUNTRIES became HUGE, and can literally RULE THE WORLD.
Those countries are not so soo sooo rich... They are rich, but UNITED they become richer. In Europe we have about 20 countries that are potentially richer that any US state... we can use that potential by unificasion (European Union really helps already in that, but that's not eanough). We need UNITED STATES OF EUROPE. Country with no borders, UNITED strong country, with no wars... with practical,transparent and progressive economy, and first of all - without corruption. United, Europe can become rich and developed as the States are... and once, maybe... we can become even richer by making some Union with USA... Imagine.
What's the point? The point is that this what is written up, IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE, or even less APSURD! It's already happening (European Union, NATO...), but sometimes, WE are do one who are PUSHING THAT DOWN! How? BY REJECTING ENTRANCE IN EUROPEAN UNION, BEING QUITE ABOUT CORRUPTION, WAITING FOR MONEY FROM SOME GAMES LIKE LOTTERY and QUIZZES, NOT BEING CREATIVE (Always waiting for someone else to something)... ETC.
Think about it. There is no neccisity for hating Americans. Why? Because they're pretty much like us. I'ts up to us what we'll do with what we HAVE, and WE HAVE SO MUCH... TO DO.
Unity is what makes them strong, and unitiy is what we need.
They can be our exemplar, and not the object of hateness.
e need to create THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE, and THEY can help us.
God Bless All Americans and Europeans. :) (And others of corse)
Europe and America - friends forever.

ENGLISH VERSION: (It's quite bad... hope, you'd understand it)
If in the world were only 1,000 people in the world:
If we could whole population of the world put into one village of 1,000 people, we would ger this kind of village;
There would be:
570 from Asia
210 from Europe
140 from whole America
520 would be women
480 men
700 non-white
300 white
700 non-christian
300 chrtistian
890 heterosexuals
110 homosexuals (65 men, 45 women)
60 would posses 59% of all world's goods and all of 60 would be from the U.S.
800 would be in the houses without elementary conditions to live
700 would be illiterate
500 would be underfed
10 would dying
10 would be borned
10 of them would have computers (Those would be from USA, Europe, Japan, Canada and Australia)
10 (yes, only 10) would posses degree (diploma)
If we observe the world through these facts, neccesity for acceptance, understanding, compassion and education are obvious.

Think about this: If you woke up this morning helthy, but a bit sicker then you usally are, you're more happy than ONE MILLION PEOPLE who won't be live next week.
If you've never passed through the war, seclusion of captivity, agony of torture, bites of famine (hunger), you're more happy than 500 mil. people on this planet.
If you can go to the curch, without being afraid for your own life, you're more happy then 3,000 mil. people in this world.
If you have any food in your refrigerator (fridge), if you have any clothes, if you have some plave to live in and bed to lie on, you are richer than 75% of whole world's population.
If you have account in bank, money in your valley and some change in little box, tureen or somewhere, you belong to the 8% of the most richest person in the world.
If your parents are still alive, besiedes that, if they're still in marriage, then you belong to small group of those who have that.
If you can read this message, you're blessed double - because, someone was thinking about you, and because you are not in the group of 2,000 mil. people who can't read. (Who are illiterate)
Someone once said;
Work like the money isn't important. Love like no one ever hurted you. Dance like no one looks at you. Sing like no one can hear you... Live like the heaven is here, on the Earth.

e:n mylr - robi




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