We're here!

Greetings from Zagreb!
It's a hot, quiet day in the capital city of Croatia. We arrived on Wednesday night at around 9:00 pm. I'll back up and fill you in on things so far. We've got time today because it's a holiday here. Some kind of Anti-facist holiday, not sure of the name, but it is somewhat amusing to me for some reason. Of course, if I had been through some of the history that the people here have, I would want a holiday to celebrate too. It's the name, I think. There's got to be something better than that to call it. Then again, we weren't overly creative when we took to calling Independence Day by the...DUH-DA-DA..."Fourth of July"!

All right. Back to our trip thus far.

We spent Wednesday in London. An interesting trip since we had spent Tuesday night in the airplane and only had about two hours of sleep. If only Columbus and others had been wrong and the world flat, we would have arrived while it was still dark and maybe rested some. However, it was 7:00 am and fully light upon our arrival, and we decided to head right into London on The Tube/Underground. A one hour trip each way. We managed to stay awake and find our way on foot around to see St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Parliament building, and a pub called the Clarence where we dropped 40 bucks on some fish and chips. I suppose the experience was worth it. Maybe? :) Oh! We went by Westminster Abbey, but it was 25 bucks just to go in. I'm sure it is worth it, but I couldn't bring myself to pay 50 dollars, not even to see The Poet's Corner. Alex Lucas, I hope you can forgive me! :)

Once we made it back to the airport, we managed between bouts of unconsciousness that bordered on narcoleptic attacks to find our gate and board the plane where we immediately slipped into comas. When we awakened, we found ourselves seated beside an interesting fellow on the plane from London to Zagreb. David was an Englishman, a biker, (he belonged to a club for choppers in Europe) and he worked as part of a support community for homeless people called Emmaus. I never asked him about the name of the group. Don't know if he was a Christian, but he was an interesting fellow.

Niall picked us up, took us by his place to say hello to Tawnya, and then over to a nearby church where we are staying in an apartment above. We've got a room and a bathroom to ourselves, and there are other rooms where we might have the chance to meet anyone else who comes to stay.

Thursday was fairly laid back. We rested, visited with the McSheffrey's (For those of you who don't know them, Niall, Tawnya, and their 3 kids, Connor, Brendan, and Christina), ate ice cream, and organized supplies for the upcoming camps. We also got the chance to see the school Christina attended. It was her last day, and we were there when the final bell rang to release the 8th graders for summer break.

OH... MY... WORD...

The kids literally came jumping out the windows! One lit up a flare and took off running down the street yelling. One had a roman candle, and many had water balloons ready as they came out the door. Things would seem to be quite different here than at either Hidden Valley or Northside. We both wonder what things are like from day to day.

Anyway, back to missions. These first few days have been good to get rested and ready for the camps that will start next week. We've been praying and planning so far, and we've got more traveling and planning to do. So updating from here on out will be shorter entries whenever we have time. We only have a few pics so far from London and we'll try to get some of the McSheffrey's to pose. Love and prayers to everyone back home.