A few pictures from the last few weeks

Above: Lizzie and Cameron pet the Massey's neighbor's new little baby goats. These neighbors, Stef and Marica, have come to our church service a few times.

Above: Bekah and Cameron with the little goat

Above: Lizzie and I looking at a seal at the Zagreb Zoo. We went there with Lizzie and Bekah's Mimi (Laura's mom)

Humanitarian Aid Work

We've mentioned before (in newsletters) that we've had the chance to help a number of households in the villages near Karlovac and in the villages outside of Samobor. We're so excited to be able to be a part of justice in distributing food and basic supplies to those who otherwise can not afford it. We believe this is God's heart and we believe because it is God's heart, it is an act of bringing His Kingdom on the earth. It's almost like an act of prayer asking God to distribute justice, kindness, and love in Croatia.

Below are some pictures of some of the people we've been able to help. We continue to help these people monthly.


Below: This woman is neighbors with her sister. They are Serbians from Belgrade and their children rarely if ever help them. This woman's roof is still in bad condition from what happened in the war in the early 90's. We hope to be able to take care of that.

Below: These 2 women are neighbors and are so sweet. The woman on the right is the spunkiest 76 year old you've ever met. The one on the right is primarily very sad because she can't see her daughter and grandchildren in Belgrade very often. Life is hard for these women.






I'm sorry I have run out of time to continue describing each picture in detail. I will in our newsletter at a later time. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of these beautiful people!

Once

Just watched a great movie last night with Laura. For music lovers, it's a must see. This is what gripped me in the movie. You might have heard of it. It's a little Irish film called "Once" that has become pretty popular. The soundtrack is outrageously good...the kind I can't stop listening to. The story line is slightly slow, yet also full of character. They say it was filmed in Dublin in 17 days. The credits at the end of the film lasted about 3 minutes as opposed to a normal 10-15 on a big budget movie. All that to say, despite it's small budget, it's full of life and worth a watch. Here's a link below to the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mIpwx5lA5I

What would you ask for if you could have anything?

The other day Lizzie pooped in the potty for the first time! She has pee-pee'd a quite a few times now, but had never pooped. It was a big deal and as I heard the little, "Bloop" sound in the toilet, I shouted for joy and told Laura what she just did. Lizzie squealed with excitement simply because we were excited. I'm not sure she fully realized what she had done. I cleaned her all up and told her I was proud of her and that she could have any reward that she wanted. It was as though I said to her, you can ask for anything...up to half of my kingdom! What does she say? Chocolate milk.

Ahhhh...the simplicity of children.

What would you ask for? (No, I'm not giving you JACK next time you poop in the potty! Not even chocolate milk!)

Apple is taking over the world

Did you guys see that iTunes is now renting movies? This is greatness for us and as I see it the rest of the modern world. No late fees. No messing with the mail (netflicks or the new Blockbuster thing). Up to date movies that are never out of stock. Never wait for the movie to arrive. Right now iTunes is increasing their movie selections, but it's just a matter of time. This is greatness! Laura and I are especially happy as our local movie rental store, Video Dumbo (yes, that's it's name), is about the size of most American's pantries. Ok...I'm exaggerating, but it is the size of most American's kitchens. It's has a small shelf of new releases in which "new" is relative. We're thankful for the Video Dumbo and it's staff. They are helpful, friendly, and love the girls (Lizzie is often with me with I walk over there). Unfortunately, they just lost my business. They charged me some pretty steep late fees and I'm done with that!

On another note, I've had a 30th birthday and I appreciate all your notes of kindness and love. I plan to do an entry here soon on the blog telling you about some of the celebrations.

Karneval in Samobor

Yesterday we took the family down to the Samborski fasnik which means the celebration of Karneval in Samobor (a little town near Zagreb). In Croatia (and most of Europe...I think) Karneval is a family holiday as opposed to a non-family friendly, adult event in New Orleans. The kids always dress up here and adults do sometimes as well. On Fat Tuesday, kids dress up in costumes and go around knocking on doors and people give out either 'krafne' which are basically donuts traditional around this time or they give kids money (something like $0.50). In Samobor they have 2 weeks worth of a festival and since it was a beautiful Saturday, we decided to dress the kids up and check it out. It's their custom to dress up in costume for this festival (and in general for other events around this holiday). We also wanted to take Lizzie to see one of her heroes, Fifi and the flower tots who were in concert. (Fifi is a popular cartoon character here). Lizzie thought that was pretty cool although she was just waking up from a nap so the pictures (below) don't show her true feelings. Anyway, here's some pics from the day. We had a great time.

Laura and the girls while enjoying traditional donuts called 'krafne'.

Lizzie went dressed up like a butterfly and was precious. Here she is getting a bird's eye view of the Fifi concert.

Here's Fifi and flower tots!

Bekah came dressed like a little flower. Cute, huh!

Here's Lizzie enjoying a krafna. Obviously she loved them.

Dear Americans...

Dear Americans,

Yesterday I purchased gas to fill up my car. I paid 8.39 kuna/liter. You may ask...what the who does that mean? Well, this translates into me purchasing 581 kuna worth of gas. You may still say...you're losing me, James. At the current rate of right at 5 kuna/1 dollar, this works out to a wopping $116. Yes, you read right. You may now ask...James, why are you telling me this? The reason is so that you may decide to be thankful for your seemingly high gas prices in America. Or said another way...stop your complaining! :-)