Team Croatia Missions Trip - Day 6

Day 6, Saturday- We hit the town of Cakovec again for witnessing. Brett took this particular corner. The first few days of weather had been pretty mild, cool actually. It was now starting to really heat up.

We all took a break at one of the cafes in the square for drinks and ice cream. There were tons of these stores that sold gelato, that was more of an "ice" than a "cream" and had wonderful swirls of real fruit and stuff in it.

At least I got a Coke Zero, still wanted it iced, however. This place made we wish we had little outdoor cafes where we could all meet up together every afternoon.

Reuben finishes up his ice cream.

Alen, who was from Croatia, joined us for several of our outings that week. He was a great guy and was a tremendous help in translating for us.

What's up Digger?

Saturday afternoon we drove out an hour or so to have a picnic by this river, enjoy the sunshine, and see a little more of the country. Due to a lot of rain, the river was pretty high, and we had some difficulty getting down to this spot from the roads. There was even some roadblocks set up, where the path was blocked up with rocks and dirt. We thought that warning must not apply to us, so our four vehicle caravan drove up a steep enbankment to the side of the roadblock and we forged on through to the picnic site. If we could drive around it here, it should be no problem getting out. (Do you sense any foreshadowing yet?)

Jared and Justin set up fishing lines.

Cody, the oldest son of the Leslie family.

Justin

Bethanny and Lizzie

Lacey and me

Rebekah, daughter of the Croatian national pastor. I loved how you pronounced her name, it was RAY-bek-ah, and remember to roll the R. Isn't she a cutie?

And here's the group right before we leave the picnic site and head back to Cakovec. This actually could have been an eerie "before" picture . . .as in, this was right before I broke some bones, got stitches, etc. Remember back in Day One, I said stay tuned for drama with the Toastermobile? Here it is. Just after this was taken, we all loaded back up into the vans. The missionary families were in their own vehicles, some of our group went in the Leslies' van, and the rest of us got in the rental van (the Toastermobile). We headed out on the dirt roads that would lead us back to the town we were residing in, but didn't go back the way we came, instead following the river and coming to another roadblock of dirt and gravel. It was a pretty steep enbankment on the side, but we really didn't have a choice but to rev it up and drive up the slope in order to get out to the main roads. The first van charged up the hill and made it to the top of the slope. It was our turn.

We got a good start going, but just as we headed up the slope, the left side of the van sank in the wet ground and all of a sudden, we are stuck with the van leaning over at a terrible angle. It's hard to explain, but it was not a good situation at all. We all kind of froze inside the van, not knowing what to do. The wheels were stuck, so it wasn't going to be moving any more forward, but it felt like it was about to roll over any moment. With 9 passengers in it, if it started rolling, it was not going to be a pretty sight. Maybe what freaked me out more, was when I saw the people in the first van get out and run toward us with panicked looks on their faces. Hhhm, maybe we are in deep trouble . . . I braced my hands against the roof of the van, thinking that if it started rolling I could maybe protect my neck from hitting first. We all kind of didn't know whether to remain completely still or to climb out of the right side of the van, hoping that the shift in weight wouldn't set everything in motion. The rest of the group was surrounding us by now and they told us to climb out as fast as we can. So, we did that. Thankfully, the van did not tip over as we exited to right. After several minutes of discussion, one of the Croatian guys climbed into the van and was able to drive it out of its predicament. We were so thankful that no one was injured and that we didn't have to explain to the van rental place why we were returning a damaged vehicle. We all breathed a sigh of relief and agreed that it would definitely be a story to tell later at home. I know several people have pictures of the whole incident, but my camera was in the van. I'll have to borrow someone's picture and post it sometime.

Anyway, we were able to drive back the other way and made it "home" later that evening.