do we have to go home :(

Do we have to go home, don't worry family I really do miss you and I will be so excited to come home and see you but it was a sad day saying all our goodbyes to the kids! Its like almost everyone who I have talked to that has been on a mission trip has said, "you will leave feeling like you have recieved more than than you have given". I didn't understand this until today saying goodbye and I now know it is something you can only feel when you have done something like I have done in the past week!

Today camp went so smoothly. Everyone got along, played hard and enjoyed spending time with their new friends. One of our main worries all week has been having enough t-shirts it seems that however many t-shirts that Brad brings thats how many kids are going to show up. And once again this year that proved to be true. We had two t-shirts left over when all was said and done. (I'm guessing God had a little something to do with that)

My favorite story of the day is about a guy we have called Rico Suavea all week. Today after testimony time we had the older kids fill out a comment card about the camp. SO all week long Rico has kinda been a trouble maker and with a to cool for school attitude(this is how he earned his nickname), but today he shocked us all! He handed his paper to dad well dad read it and took it to show Chris when he saw Chris had it he went up to him and said I mean every word that I wrote on that! (well I just heard him say that and didn't see what was written so I assumed it wasn't going to be very nice) Well guess what...I was way to quick to judge!(funny how God can teach us simple lessons at any given time!) Anyways...on his card he had written about how great of an experience camp had been for him, how he thought there was nothing we could do better, and how he really liked when we shared our testimony!!! (talk about a God moment I think most of us had tears in our eyes as we read it!

So the trip is almost over, tonight we will have a big group dinner with the other teams and our contacts here. We are going to UNO's (our fav. place to eat!) And get this because we have a big group we get to sit in the back reserved room and it has AC!!! Then tomorrow we will get up and go down and spend some time at the market here. We are excited about this cause we haven't gotten to go yet cause it run from 7am-1pm and that is when we are in camp. Then we will catch a 2:00 Croatian time flight home, and arrive back in "the states"(thats what everyone calls it here) around 11:00 tomorrow night (don't let those times fool you, remember there is a 7 hour time difference so we will be traveling for a long time!)

Will-Thank you so much for letting me use the ipod this week, I have used it ALOT! Also don't worry your presents have already been bought and our packed Also I am sooo proud of you for staying at the farm for so long!

Love you all so much and cant wait to see you,
Britt

Its been a long day here in Croatia. Camp went pretty well today, I gave my talk during break for both the big and little kids. This deffinatley proved to be one of the biggest chalenges for me so far on this trip! I didn't get much sleep last night and ended up sheading a few tears out of frustration and nerves this morning before camp even started. Also this afternoon I ended up getting sick so Betsy from camp in the middle of the afternoon and brought me back to the room to rest. She was able to get me and antibiotic and take care of me. It was deffinatly a "I want my mommy" moment for me, but Betsy helped me feel better and get me through it. After getting medicine I slept until everyone else got back from camp. And then the team headed out to UNO'S our fav restraunt for dinner, and then Charlie and Barb took all of the teams that are in now up to the mountains to pray over the city! (Very cool, and Great pictures!) But thats all for today...

For tomorrow please pray that all of us can hang in there and make it through our last day of camp! And that I can stay healthy the rest of the time!!! Loving where I'm at, but missing you all!

In Christ with love,
Britt

"Im not giving in"

Todays title is about the group being spilt on the issuse of giving into American tradititons or staying strong in the Croatian culture. For example, the whole no ice thing...two of the restraunt we have been to have actually had it, and of course no suprise here Shelia and I gave in on that tradition. Next there is the issue of AC. Shelia & Chris, and dad & I's rooms are on the upstairs of the house we are staying at, but Brad & Scott are in the downstairs room. Well all of us on the top floor can open our windows and doors and get a nice breeze blowing thru so it ends up being a comfortable temperature. But downstairs Scott and Brad's doesnt get any breeze and stays really warm so of course us girls offered up the idea of going to "Target or Walmart" (Ill explain that in a minute) and buying a fan and then we could just donate it to the church when the week is up. But as Brad says that would be giving in. Now the last story about our "giving in" happened today at lunch, we were sitting there eating out power bars, trail mix and wheat thins when Miroslav(our translator) walks up eating a slice of pizza, so of course we are all like "where did you get that?" So we find out that there is a bakery in walking distance of the gym so of course Shelia and I take off running to get some before lunch break is over. So when we get back Scott decides after he has eaten a green power bar that he has to "give in" and have some pizza.

Next "Target and Walmart"...that is the best way I can think of to explain the two major stores here. As the two big supermarkets here in the middle of town, they are right next to each other and they are the stores that people use to get their grocerys and essential needs. Well when we first got here they were trying to explain the diffrences between the stores and leave it to me to make the comparison that one is "Target & Walmart". Target- a little bit nicer but a little more expensive and the other is Walmart- A little more to choose from but not quit as nice of a selection.

Ok so the last 24 hours...
Last night we had a great meal will Crono, Betsy, and Tayla. We ate at a restaraunt that serves all kinds of meat but specializes in wild game. Out back of the restaraut they have pastures where they keep their animals and then yes there is a building right by the restaraunt where the animals are prepared for you to eat. (Will...I took pictures of the place and animals for you, you would have loved it)! Needless to say I had the stew...and no I did NOT eat any of the meat in it!

Today was another great day of camp! We were blessed with wonderful weather, cloudly and somewhat cool! Everything went smoothly and the kids seemed to be having a lot of fun. Each day someone shares their testimony, today a guy from the "blessed" team (one of the other teams here right now) shared his and the kids seemed to really be connecting with what they were hearing.

Tonight went over to Darco (the pastor) and his families house to eat dinner. His wife and mother-in-law had prepared a wonderful dinner for us. After we got to sit around and talk, and then the rest of the team was going to drive to see his families new house and I walked back with Barb to her and Charlies house so I could go ahead and get a jump start on this thing. But they are just walking in so its someone elses turn to get on here.

Tomorrows prayer request is for me. Tomorrow is my day to share during camp, and even though we all know that I am not shy...standing up and talking in front of a large group of people is NOT my idea of fun! Please pray that the kids will take in what I say!

In Christ with love,
Britt

"No inside is no good ya'll should eat outside"

Ok so let me explain the tittle for today, in Croatia people believe that air conditioning is bad for you and can make you sick. So last night walking to dinner we ran into one of the kids from camp, as we were walking he was telling us about the restraunt that we were going to eat at. While going into detail about the place and what they had to eat, Brad asked if we wanted to eat inside (the inside of most buildings here don't have ac) or outside in the shade. So as soon as Brad says this the kid goes "inside here has ac" so Sheila and I take off running for the door to get into the ac. And the kid says "No inside is no good, ya'll should eat outside" Over the past few days we have been amazed about some of the culture differences from here.

Now to talk about the weather... the last few days have been hot hot! The gym where we hold camp is covered by a big tin roof(which attracks the sun), the rooms we are staying in have no air and we have to walk everywhere you go. SO needless to say the heat has not been helping anything. (I am happy to say that I haven't hardly whined about it at all!)

We just got done with camp for the day. We had a great day and the groups grew today, which of course is exciting. Tonight we are going out to dinner with Crono, his wife Betsy and their sweet baby girl (and yes of course I'm already attached to her). They are our "host" this week why we are here, if we need to go to the grocery or if we need anything we call them. SO it will be fun to just get to sit and talk to them as normally we are busy trying to get stuff done when we are with them.

Another I wanted to touch on was the language here. Every now and then it proves to be an issue at a restraunt, or when an adult trys to stop you to talk but for the most part I would say 75% of the kids can speak English. So every now and then at camp we have to use a translator to explain something but for the most part the kids who understand us help explain to the kids who don't understand. (They learn English from TV, TV here is in English with Croatian subtitles. SO they learn to talk from watching Fresh Price of Bell Air and Full House!)

Todays prayer request is for...more good weather! Today has been overcast so that has really helped with the heat especially during camp!

With love in Christ,
Britt

Ok, so first off let me explain yesterdays title cause some how this part didn't make it to the blog. Our joke/quote of the week has been "We are not in Sudan" We use this saying cause everyone (but especially me and Shelia) are amazed at how nice everything is. And of course after all dads stories from Sudan, Brad keeps telling us girls "This is not Sudan!" Even on the walk over here to Charlie and Barbs (a couple that live here and have internet, so we come over to their house whenever we wanna blog/email) we were talking about how it doesn't really feel like we are all the way around the world in a different country. There are similarities from our country to theirs, but they also have their differences...Ice is a big one...sometimes at restraunts we get cold drink but they never have ice in them. (Mom let me tell you...there will be no better gift than having a nice big cold SONIC coke waiting on me when we get back!)

Now onto our first day of camp, we had a great first day! We had 88 kids in all today! We had 48 young kids this morning and the 40 older kids in the afternoon. Which is awesome! Normally theses are the numbers that they have had toward the end of the week (the camp tends to grow everyday) SO we will be happy to see what are numbers are at the end of the week. All in all from a staff stand point of camp everything ran pretty smoothly and everyone seeemed to really be enjoying themselves. My only frustrating point for me came in the afternoon session, when the oldest group of boys came to my station... they didn't really care what a 21 year girl had to say about basketball, and the come to find out at the end of the sessions they acted the same way toward Shelia (the only other female on the trip) so we will makes some changes from that group for the rest of the week but other than that I couldnt have hoped for anything better!
Now todays big prayer request is for our bodies. We are all worn out and sore and we still have four days of camp left to go. So pray for strenght and energy. Also on a personal note...my knee is acting up and really swollen, as of right now it is more of a discomfort pain but is not affecting me in a major way so just pray that as we continue it will not become a bigger issue!

In Christ with love,
Britt

"We are not in Sudan"

Hello! So we have been in Croatia for just over 24 hours and everything is going great! (just a little jet-lag but other than that no worries) Last night we all got a good long nights sleep. And then this morning got up and went to church, it was full this morning due to the fact that there are 2 others teams over here right now. We have had a great day of meeting people and spending time with our team. Lots of sharing of stories, laughing, and just getting to know one another. And on a very happy note...our louggage arrived today! Very exciting I finally had snack food! That leads us to my most overwhelming moment so far...the grocery store! (and as that has been the most overwhelming moment for me I'm thinking I'm doing pretty good!) The grocery store was frustrating for me cause nothing has the same name and everything was different and if you know me I am a very picky eater so of course I didn't wanna try anything new. But I got some fruit and now that my cheese-its and wheat-thins are here I am a happy camper! Our team just got back from a huge dinner (steak, patatoes, and then bread and olive oil...mom I know your jelious! It was yummy so mom know that I am eating some) Shelia and I have officially be named the official photographers of the group due to the fact that we have been snapping pictures of EVERYTHING and never let our cameras leave our site. And lastly tomorrow is the start of camp, so the big prayer request for the day is that our first day with the kids goes smoothly!

Cant wait for tomorrow!
Britt

P.S. Sorry is there are some misspellings but the computer writting is in Croatia so I cant figure out spell check!

Were here!!!

So after a long 24 hours of traveling we are here! The trip started out great getting thru Nashville was a breeze. Not wait and no lines! Our first flight went well but was a little bit of a bumpy ride in the begining dad turned around a few times to make sure I was doing ok but we all survived. (the flight was'nt crowded at all so we all had our own seats) The second flight was eight hours long but was in the middle of the night so we slept most of the time. But me and Shelia discovered the world a crossword books is definnatly the best way to kill time! Then the last flight this morning we flew from Frankfort into Croatia. And of course no suprise here... NO LOUGGAGE when we arrived! We were prepared for this as it has happened every year so we have enough in our carry-ons to last us for days, so be praying that those show up soon! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers, I will write more later but for now Im going back to shower and go to BED! Love you all!

SO excited about what God is doing!
Britt

PS. Jeannie D, on the airplane today there was a little boy about Jordan's age sitting in front of me and he kept asking for more nana (banana) and it made me think of your boys! Knowing they are praying for me is so special!