In small town Croatia, picking chestnuts is an autumn staple. Yesterday, I (Jeremy) had the opportunity to take a group of 5th through 7th graders from our church out chestnut picking. We've been meeting weekly ever since the school year started. When I asked what sort of activities they would like to do as a group, chestnut picking was one of the suggestions. Chestnuts grow inside a very well protected pouch which usually requires a knife to open. Most times there are three chestnuts inside each pouch. Early risers often find a bunch of chestnuts on the ground in the morning, but when we arrived in the afternoon most of them were already opened. Undeterred, one of us would shake the trees while the rest protected their heads. Once the chestnuts fell the kids raced to open the pouches as quickly as they safely could. I asked one of my friends at the church to go with us. Božidar (literally "God's gift") led us to a place where there were a lot of ch...
Serving in Croatia