At Our Destination

Getting on the ferry to Brač island in Croatia after four days en route felt soooo good!

Dave, Claire and I managed well throughout our whole ordeal that left us waiting for several days in Zadar while our car was repaired. But the real trooper award goes to our sweet little dog, Kaylee! If ever there was a flexible dog, she's it!

Hot weather...different sleeping places...crowds of people...stray dogs and cats...burrs in her fur...no problem for this little cutie! Just let her stay close to her people and she's happy!

Pulling away from Split on the ferry was a glorious sight - and not just because we were on our way, but because it literally was gorgeous!

With fond farewell, we said goodbye to the mainland for now, and headed into our sabbatical. So thankful to the Lord for going ahead of us and preparing the way. No matter what else happens, He's got it covered!

After arriving onto the island, we wound our way through little villages toward the home of friends where we will be staying. At times the road was so tiny we didn't know if we'd make it through! But that's all part of the charm here.

Ahhhhh Croatia...such a beautiful, peaceful, restful place for us. Very thankful to be here finally!

Getting to Croatia, Part 4

The beginning of our sabbatical is definitely off to an exciting start, thanks to events that began Sunday night after we left home.

If you're just joining me, you can read part 1, 2 and 3 to get caught up. And yes, I'll finish the story with this blog post!

After that first night when all three of us slept nearly twelve hours, we spent the next day exploring and enjoying Zadar.

While we'd been there a few years ago, just to visit for a day, this time was much more leisurely, though not by choice mind you! However I'm glad we actually had time to explore all sorts of places within the old city.

The interesting sites were seemingly endless.

Yep...he's right there in Zadar, taking a vacation, in case you were wondering!

We had to vacate the apartment we'd stayed in by 10 the next morning, since there were other guests coming.

No problem! Just find a comfy spot down by the water to wait!

However, as the day wore on and Dave had multiple conversations with the garage about our car's status, it became clear that we'd not only have to spend one, but now two nights in Zadar.

At least it was a pretty walk down the "golden streets of Zadar" to get to our next apartment (found by the same friend of the garage owner's son, who'd found us one the night before!).

That apartment had to be vacated by noon the next day, so off we went to yet another cafe to wait and see what would happen.

It's really not too bad of a way to spend a day...sitting at a cafe with a view to the sea! You just feel a little conspicuous with your bags sitting there too! HA HA!

Though they'd figured out what was wrong, the part they needed to fix the car had to be sent from Zagreb. It missed its arrival time by bus courier on Wednesday morning at 10 AM.

Then missed it at 2. Then at 3.

And the garage normally closes at 4!

We weren't sure if we'd make it out of Zadar again that day as waited, waited and waited.

But here's the strange thing about all of this. While we were looking forward to moving on to our final destination, there was such a sweetness to those days that is unexplainable.

Except for the Lord, and that we knew this was His will for us. What else can you do but submit when you know that??

Then, seemingly all of a sudden, at 3:15, Dave got a call from the garage. The part was in! They said they'd work past closing time to get it done so we could leave that day.

By 4:30 it was finished and we were able to take a taxi back to the garage and meet up with our now-fixed car again.

What they told us then was one last piece of amazing kindness of the Lord.

When they replaced the crankshaft sensor (that's what the computer initially had showed needed to be replaced...a very important part, I'm told!), another sensor showed up as faulty when they put it in.

Normally that sensor (something having to do with the fuel injection) is an "on order" part too, especially since this wasn't a Hyundai dealer, but rather just a garage that works on cars.

If they'd had to order it, we would've been delayed at least another day, if not two.

But their computer showed that they had one of these in their warehouse!! They got it, it was the right one, they put it in, it worked. DONE!!!

We were on our way by 5:30 that evening, and made it onto the 7:30 ferry to Brač island, where we are guests at the home of some friends for the next two months.

And so, finally our sabbatical has officially begun.

Though I think the Lord's idea of our official start was something different than we had imagined!

Getting to Croatia, Part 3

As you've already read in parts 1 and 2, our car died while we were driving through Croatia this past Sunday night.

After spending the night at a rest area, Dave woke up in the morning and began trying to figure out what had happened. The most likely cause seemed to be the fuel filter, since we could only drive a few kilometers before it died again. Dave thought maybe we'd gotten some bad fuel at the last stop that had caused clogging, and thus no fuel was reaching the engine.

A gas station was just five kilometers down the road, but it took us a half hour to reach since it was stop and go the whole way.

I can't tell you the relief it was to get coffee and have something to eat that morning! And it would prove to be a good thing that we did as the day progressed.

With no help to be had at the gas station, we set off hoping and praying the Lord would mercifully get us to a garage somewhere that could help us.

But it wasn't long before we were alongside the road again. The distance we'd make was getting shorter and shorter before it died, and it was taking longer and longer to wait for the car to start again each time.

We saw a lot of Croatian countryside close up!

And a lot of this too. A persistent husband/dad, searching for an answer.

(Yes, it's not beyond me to photograph these momentous occasions!)

After what seemed like forever, we made it off the highway, into the little town of Gospić. At the very edge of town as we entered, there was a garage, with guys working. We pulled in and Dave began to speak Czech to try and explain the problem. Somehow they communicated well enough to understand his theory about the fuel filter being bad.

They took it out, cleaned it, put it back in, and let Dave drive away to see what happened.

He was gone long enough for me to know that the problem hadn't been solved.

What followed is best described in a few quick bullet points:

• Somewhere along the way we found out that it was a Croatian national holiday that day, and the only reason the guys were at the garage was to do a little personal work on a car before heading out to celebrate the day. They were within a half hour of leaving when we pulled in
• After they tried the fuel filter, they made some phone calls to see where we could take our car to a dealer to be looked at since they didn't have a computer to run a full check on it.
• All the Hyundai dealers they called were booked for days and said they couldn't take us.
• The nearest dealer was an hour and a half away. But that dealer was booked too.
• They called a friend in Zadar, an hour and a half away, who said while they weren't a dealer, they had a computer that could detect what was wrong.
• We set off for Zadar knowing it could take us hours to get there by stopping and starting.
• We made it 500 meters from the garage and waited a half hour for the car to turn on again.
• After returning to the garage (the guys were just finishing their other work), they told us they had a flatbed tow truck that could take us to Zadar, towing the boat behind.
• What?? A flatbed tow truck at a little garage in a small town???
• They put the car on, hooked up the boat, I got in the car while Dave and Claire got in the cab, and off we went to Zadar. What a sight we must've been!

By this time, you can't imagine how funny this all had become to us! There was honestly no fear, no stress, no unbelief. It was just so clear by all the "coincidences" in the day that for whatever reason, what was happening was on the Lord's agenda.

I honestly got the biggest kick sitting up on top of that flatbed truck, in the driver's seat of the car, watching the Croatian countryside speed by.

On a national holiday!

Two hours later (took a little longer than they thought) we arrived at their friends' garage in Zadar.

On one of THE hottest days of the year! A whopping 100 degrees. And yes, we were riding without air conditioning!

But oh the kindnesses of strangers we experienced that day!! I will never forget it:

Those garage mechanics who gave their time to us on a holiday.

The mechanic who volunteered to drive us to Zadar.

The 19 year old son of the garage owner who came in on his day off to help, and spoke English!

His friend, Daniel, who after getting a call about our situation, tracked down an apartment for us to stay in that night in Zadar.

The 19 year old, again, who drove us in his family's car into the city to get us to the apartment.

It was a spectacular day of watching the Lord shake and move (yes, He does that!) on our behalf. I will never forget all the ways He cared for us.

Dinner that night never tasted so good, since we hadn't eaten anything besides our gas station breakfast early that morning.

And a bed never felt so good, as we went to sleep early that night in exhaustion, and slept nearly twelve hours!

While it was an awfully hot, very long day, under strange circumstances in a country not our own, you could be tempted to think that somehow we were outside God's will for us.

But on the contrary - in the oddest way, it felt like we were exactly where we were supposed to be.

Even though that meant we had no idea what was wrong with the car, or how long we would be there!

Well...one more part to go.

This is just too long (and good!) of a story to not finish it well!

To God be the Glory!!

Getting to Croatia, Part 2

Heading down the A1 late Sunday night, over a particularly lonely stretch of highway through Croatia, our car suddenly died.

And when I say suddenly, I mean we were driving along at 110 kph (over 60 mph) when  all of a sudden everything just went dead. We lost power brakes, power steering and well...power! It was as if a light-switch had been turned off.

At the time though, the even stranger thing was that just minutes before it died, I had read an email on my phone from my sister-in-law saying that a very dear friend of ours had died. It took me a moment to gain my composure through my tears and then say to Dave and Claire, "A dear friend of ours is in heaven."

And then, the car died.

Dave managed to steer the car (which was pulling our boat) off to the side of the road where we all just sat in shock.

Both from the news about our friend, and the fact that the car had so unexpectedly died. In the middle of nowhere.

Our friend who died was Pam Reeve, the former dean of women at Multnomah Bible College where we both attended. She's had a profound impact on literally thousands of lives throughout her 96 years on this earth. But I would venture to say that most everyone who was impacted felt her mark on their life, whether small or big, very personally. She was just that kind of a woman. How very thankful I am for her impact on me!

We'd known that Pam had not been well for a while, but still, to hear that she was no longer here on this earth took our breath away. Oh how we'll miss her.

(I've written about Pam's impact on my life before - you can see that HERE.)

After trying to restart our car with no success as we sat alongside the road, with cars whizzing by, we decided together that we should spend some time thanking the Lord for this precious, godly woman.

It was a holy moment.

And felt so right. Maybe God had just stopped our car so that we'd properly take the time to honor her before Him. With the enormity of her impact on us, that would seem appropriate.

As each of us prayed (she's had an impact not only on Dave and I, but on Claire as well), I had that feeling of the hymn, "It Is Well" within my heart and soul, both for Pam, and for what was happening to us on this lonely stretch of Croatian highway. And I could almost hear Pam's voice reaching me from heaven, reassuring me that God would be enough, and to have faith! Yes, that's what she would say.

After the last whispered, "Amen", Dave turned the key in the ignition and the car started.

Of course!

We pulled back onto the highway, literally shaking our heads in wonder at what had just happened. It truly seemed that it was a God appointed moment to stop for those minutes. And now we could be on our way again.

Or not!

Ten minutes later, the same thing happened. Not once, not twice, but three times until we finally limped into a rest area where we, thankfully and safely, spent the night, Claire curled up in the car, Dave and I inside the boat.

Oh yes, the story continues on! But it's just too long to tell in one or two blog posts. So...

...to be continued!

Getting to Croatia, Part 1

Though she's got a smile on her face in this picture, it was a quiet couple of hours after we drove away from Frydlant, leaving the Czech Republic and crossing over into Austria, and heading towards Croatia.

Goodbyes and departures are hard, no two ways around that.

But of course, without them, there are no "hellos" to new things either. It's that bitter-sweet of life that makes it so rich.

Dinner at a rest stop somewhere in Croatia felt relieving to all of us. We finally wanted to talk, laugh and just enjoy being together again.

If only we knew at that moment what was just a few hours ahead of us.

Then again, maybe it's just good to eat, drink and be merry (in the Lord of course!)...especially if the eating includes Ćevapi, a dish we always love having when we get to Croatia!

After finishing our meal, we were ready to happily settle in for the last hours of the trip towards our destination.

Shortly after I took this photo in a tunnel (just for fun...no particular significance, except for the fact that now I know I took it with no knowledge of what was coming), I happened to glance at my phone and see an email had come in from my sister-in-law, Joyce.

Tears sprang to my eyes, and I had to gather my composure as I said to Dave and Claire, "One of our dear friends is in heaven."

And then our car died.

...to be continued!

Saying Goodbye to Frydlant

A couple of last photos at home Sunday morning...

 One little furry girl who doesn't want to be left behind...

And then we were off...to our office in Frydlant first, to say some goodbyes.

Are those two of the cutest girls you've ever seen?! I'm so glad Cece and Lia, along with their families, and some of our other dearest friends, came to see us all off that morning.

Oh how hard to wave goodbye from the car window as these dear ones saw us all off on our grand adventure this year.

Claire: headed to college and life in the States for the first time in her life (she's visited, but never lived there).

Dave and I: headed off to our #pattyvision20 trip (if you're on Instagram you know what that is!).

We'll all be gone until next summer.

"Goodbye dearest friends! Tears were in my eyes as you waved us off...thank you for loving us so well!"

With one last look at our lovely Frýdlant nad Ostravicí...

 We said goodbye for now.

We're not gone forever! But it was definitely hard to say goodbye even for now.

Almost There

We are in Croatia!

But not at our final destination. Sunday night, as we drove through the mountains of Croatia, our car suddenly died. Scary! 

It's a longer story to tell but because I don't have great access to Internet it will have to wait. Am blogging from my phone right now in the city of Zadar where we are waiting for our car to be repaired.

Of all the places to wait, this is a good one! We have been blessed by the kindness of strangers along the way, and it's been a sweet time of enjoying God's provision at each step. 

There is a chance we will be back on our way today if the needed part arrives from Zagreb. Until then we wait at cafes with views to the sea!