Croatia Fall Trip - Final Day

Wow what a whirlwind of a trip. It is hard to believe the trip has come and gone. Arrived on time last night at around 8 after a stop in Amsterdam and Detroit. I want to tell you all about our last full day in Croatia, but first I have to say that Ezekiel, Zack and Julia’s 2 and half year old, was a real trooper. Going on about 4 hours sleep over a 23 hour span, after being in a different time zone, he was amazing! He never once cried his eyes out or fussed to the point of interrupting anyone, both at the Janko’s or on any of the plane rides. We have all had those not so pleasant experiences when we are sitting near a crying baby or toddler and they never seem to stop and even seem to get louder when the parents attempt to quiet them. Not our little EZ! He was incredible and his wonderful personality touched many a heart there in Croatia.

After dinner with Debbie last night I turned in around 10:30 and was wide awake at 4:30. Got up caught up on some emails, did some reading and then decided to go join Clay and people from our church at a service day at a home for unwed mothers. We cut, carried and stacked wood for over 4 hours and come 1:30 I was beat! Before I let the memories drift to far I thought it best to send you a few updates on our last day on our Fall 2013 mission trip.

Thursday was a special day of spending time with a special friend! Marco, former Sisak Stork baseball player and is now the Vice Mayor of Sisak. Joe and I met him for soft drinks in downtown to catch up and share with one another. It was great to see and spend some time with him and hear the joy in his voice. He has been in office for the past 6 months and is really enjoying his position. He expressed his faith is carrying him through the rough times and when Joe asked him how he handles stress, he said that many times he reads the Bible. He actually asked me if the Croatian Bible that Danko, the blind man who is from the Baptist church was the same as the English Bible I had given him many years before. I assured him it was and he was relieved to hear that. Marco is maturing in his faith and is really looking to God for answers and told us how much influence HiS PRINT had not only on him and the Storks, but around the city. He told us that at one time we were a threat, that many people did not trust us, but that today they see what we have done and the good that we have provided and they like it when we come. Many people know about us outside of baseball and are happy that we come and provide the help when we do. We talked about next summer and doing the Texas carnival downtown and he said we were all set to do it on July 5^th. So next summer HiS PRINT will be conducting our 4^th annual Texas Carnival down in the public park down on Kupa River!! With October Light, Croatian Christian Rock Band coming and the chance to present the gospel to the town of Sisak, we are excited about this wonderful opportunity.  Joe later discussed with him the possibility of HiS PRINT doing a service project in the city, like pay and do the work to refurbish a children’s park. He was shocked that we would even consider that and said he would love to discuss that further with us. So we may be doing a little service project down town as well during next summer’s visit.

We stopped by to see Barbara at the library and say goodbye as well as talk about the summer program at the downtown library and the library in suburbs. They were so excited to have us come back to both places and they will begin asking the children what they would like to learn about from us. In the early afternoon we headed out to Martin’s place to have a late lunch early dinner. IT was an incredible feast of turkey and pork along with all the trimmings, including soup that had the heart, liver, kidneys and no telling what else in the ingredients. Actually was very tasty and it was neat to see the Storks all come together to put this on by themselves. No help from any women. After the dinner, we headed straight over to the hockey camp and had a great time with the younger players first and after ward they asked us if we would come back again. We prayed and shared why we come and they were so excited to be a part of the camp. Didn’t have as many older guys in the camp, but Zack but the 6 who showed up through a touch series of stick handling exercises. After the camp the coach gave us each a nice gift to show his and the teams appreciation for coming and sharing our lives with them. After the camp I shared that we come to share Christ’s love and that I appreciated them listening to what we had to say. We prayed and then broke to head home.

After talking with a couple of the players and the coach, we packed up and headed over to one of the school gyms where the Storks were having their winter work out time. They only get the gym for an hour every Thursday. After they worked out I spent some time with them sharing our desire to see little league baseball flourish in Sisak and that we needed them to commit to see that happen. We assured them that we would help them by getting the coaches training in how to conduct practices. I shared with them our passion for the game of baseball was all wrapped up in the chance to share Christ through it! They listened and were very attentive, but my gut feeling is they don’t know how to make the commitment to keep the interest and involvement we generate through the camps every summer. During the camps we have 35 to 40 Children come who are interested, but after we leave, those players drop off and never return until the next summer. This is our next step is figuring out how we can help them get involved in coaching the younger players and creating a competitive environment amongst themselves through coaching a team instead of playing. Please keep that in your prayers! We know God is at work there on that field, but it sure has been slow moving to get most of these guys to buy in and invest in the younger generation. Instead they tend to make fun of the way they play or just don’t take the time to teach them and that drives them away.

Got home around 11:30, stayed up most of the evening and early morning packing and arranging for the early morning departure for the airport. Below is an email message I got when I got home last night from Marino, the young man from Split, that spent 4 days hanging around us. It helps explain the impact HiS PRINT is having on those we have the chance to spend time with. Have a wonderful God filled day!

David Moss thank you for everything that you did for me, for all the good memories, for all the laughs, all the wisdom, good times, all the people that I've met cause of you... but most important thanks is cause you restored faith... faith in people, the goodness that I believed was lost forever... I believe again... that there are still good people like you and the organization '' HIS PRINT ''... Thank you for the smile that I have in my heart!!! :D God bless you, and the organization '' HIS PRINT ''!     Thanks Marino.