More Pictures

Friday:

I am writing this about 4:00 p.m. local time (9:00 a.m. in Amarillo). Jet lag is working on me. We stayed up until about 1:00 a.m. to get good and sleepy. I went to sleep immediately and slept all of about two hours. I then woke up and simply could not go back to sleep. At 4:00 a.m. I came downstairs to the living room and read and studied until 6:30. Then I went back to bed and slept until 10:30 a.m.

Todd went out an bought us a traditional Croatian breakfast, a meat pie in a pastry called burek. It was very, very tasty. After everyone was ready to go, we drove out through some of the villiages in the area. The country is truly beautiful. I can only imagine what it looks like in the full bloom of spring. Here are some pictures I took this morning as we drove around.



Wine is part of the culture here. Almost every family has a klet, a little house out in the country where the family has kept their personal vinyard for centuries. This is the vineyard of one of Todd's best Croatian friends Branko.


Here is our group standing under the deck of Branko's klet looking down on the grape vines.



Here are a couple of barrels inside the klet.



This is Baka (grandmother), Branko's 70-year-old mother out working in the mulch/manure as we drove into the villiage. Baka has had two hip replacements but still works hard every day.

The rural Croatians are extremely hospitible. Todd is very close to this family and used to rent a house from them. We were quickly invited into the house and special food was prepared for us. We ate homemade salmi, shumpa (smoked ham, their favorite delicacy), homemade bread, pickled onions, pickles and boiled eggs.



Here's a picture of the table and Anna, Banka's wife serving her homemade bread. Talk about hospitality! I'm sorry these two pictures did not come out better.

I'm going to stop for now because we will be going to the seminary in a short while to begin my lectures in the book of Titus for the Croatian pastors. Pray for us!

Soli Deo Gloria!