Croatia

The church clock is striking midnight outside in Osijeck, Croatia, and the storm that has been pounding my window for the last hour is fading into a pleasant pattering. For those of you who quickly had to grab a world map to discover the whereabouts of Osijeck, join the club. I have been keeping an Eastern European map very handy these days.

This is my first day in Osijeck, and it has already been an eventful day. The Missions conference ended last night and this afternoon I accepted a kind offer from the academic dean of Osijek's Evangelical Theological Seminary. Thus, after a quite pleasant car ride, I am now comfortably set up in the guest quarters for the night.

As we crossed the border into Croatia, I suddenly felt that I had entered a movie. The academic dean got out of the car and began animatedly discussing a matter with which clearly the border guards were very unhappy. The border guards were opening and gesturing at one of the five boxes of books that the dean was carrying back from the conference to distribute to seminaries in Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. Finally, we pulled out of line and parked the car where the dean switched from Croatian to his native Romanian to describe the situation to our other companion. I, of course, speaking neither of those languages, decided to remain unobtrusively quiet. We were there for almost an hour, in which two more guards came up to get proof that the books were donations for seminaries and that we really were at the conference we claimed to be, before the guard let us go. As we drove away, the Dean admitted that although it was a bit of ridiculous situation, as we were not carting alcohol or drugs across the border, they were technically in the right because he had not filled out the proper forms stating they were a donation. Both men had a good laugh that the American student was able to get a little taste of post-Communist borders!

Later on, we were enjoying dinner on a restaurant patio when a fierce storm swept down on us quite suddenly. Large branches were flying across the patio, my cheeks were getting pelted with gravel, and we found it very hard to enjoy our pizza. The thunder and lightning have been truly magnificent! After constant heat, I truly welcome the freshness of a rain.

In the next couple of days, I hope to go visit Vukovar, just south of here, which was a stronghold of violence during the war. It was already sobering enough to see remaining effects of the war here in Osijek, including bullet holes in buildings and a town that looks like it has seen much tragedy.