Poland Day 4, Serbia Future!

Hello folks,

Poland-Day 4

Sorry for the long email update and for missing yesterday. It was a travel day back to Croatia and we were not home in time to get anything out to you. So I have combined a couple of days. I hope you have the time to read and see all that God did in Poland, Serbia as well as here in Croatia!

Tuesday was the last day for baseball camp and the campers were excited to participate in the first ever baseball Olympics. We had to wake up earlier than normal so we could finish earlier and head out to the city of Torun and meet the government official Coach Robert had lined up to visit with us. We broke the campers up into 5 teams with Mario and Robert coaching two teams and the three older Poland Comet coaches coaching the other 3 teams. The teams came up with their own names and they were: Robert coached the Winners, Mario coached the Blue Bats, Christian coached the Flowers, Justa coached the Titans and Valtek coached the Dinosaurs! We had an awesome time and the competition was fierce and we had about 20 parents show up to cheer them on.   After the dust settled and the team in first traded places several times, the Dinosaurs ended up on top with the Flowers a close second and Robert's team the Winners, ended up in third! You would have thought the campers won the actual Olympics and the parents were as excited as they were. The players asked coach later, whether we were going to have another Olympics when we came back next year or would they have to wait for 4 years! Being here and watching the enthusiasm and respect the children and parents have gives more and more energy to coach year after year! God has truly blessed us with this wonderful opportunity and looking forward to coming back here as well as going to other open areas He creates.

Speaking of creating openings, Sis Brandon, Erin and Rachel all went to Serbia on Sunday to meet with two Christian believers who have expressed an interest in HiS PRINT coming and partnering up with them in sharing the gospel in their cities. Dani is a missionary in the town of Kragujevac  and would love for us to come and do a baseball camp or any sort of children's program with him. Srjdan is a believer who runs the Royal Crowns baseball and football club in Kraljevo and he and I have been talking on facebook for the past year to try and figure out whether we can come to help him with a baseball and football camp. So, Sis and Brandon drove over there to check the situation out and to see what the opportunities were for us to do that. They really enjoyed their time with Dani and meeting his wife and several others, spending time encouraging them and learning about their ministry and the history of the area. Shannon, Erin and Rachel spent one whole day with Dani's wife, Wendy, who happens to be from Vermont and she enjoyed having some American guests. Brandon took that day and met with Srjdan to help understand what their needs were and what we could do to help. Helping Dani seems to be the direction we will try and organize and put together, but will have to continue to pray for what we do concerning the Royal Crowns, they seem to be well established and plenty of support from others in America as well as local support.

Closing ceremonies for the Poland camp was a huge success and the kids collectively asked us to come back next year! The parents also came up and shook our hands and thanked us for helping their children and spending time with them. We look forward to furthering our relationship with these people and sharing the love of Christ. After the camp we got cleaned up and headed to Torun which was about a 30 minute drive. We went and met with the city official who wanted to meet with us and he showed us around their city center and hall. We watched a short film about the area and then headed out to get a tour of the city! It was incredible to get the history connected with this city and area, it was interesting to see all the different architecture from the different periods they were built. One of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited and it looked even more so this year than last. It did help to have a tour guide to show us all around.  After the tour we went and had a late lunch at Copernicus Square at a neat little restaurant and enjoyed the fellowship and people watching. Torun is the city where Copernicus was born and he is the astronomer who figured out that the earth was not the center of the universe like believed up till his time. He proved the planets revolved around the sun and not around the earth. I remember reading a book by Lee Strobel called "It's Not About Me." Which talks about our lives should revolve around the son as well and that we should take a lesson from Copernicus!

We headed home and stopped by Coach Robert home to have some ice cream and he wanted to show us around his house and introduce the coaches to his wife and mother-in-law! We sat around and just visited and enjoyed the attempt to understand one another, good thing for Coach Robert we were able to share and laugh! When we got home we cleaned up and then spent the evening just relaxing and debriefing as a staff. Each coach expressed their desire to come back and that they have enjoyed themselves immensely. Later, Coach Robert came back to the school to spend the last night with us and we took the time to pray together again. In fact he came into our room and asked if we were going to pray together and that he would like to do that with us. We started our prayer time with some music reflecting on the words, Spirit of the Living God, Fall Afresh on Me, Melt me, Mold me, Fill me, Use me. I then had Mario open us up in prayer and asked Joe to close us. Robert and I followed Mario's beautiful prayer and then Coach Robert prayed the most precious prayer of confession and desire to fill his heart with Jesus and by the time he completed we were all in tears and Joe had trouble closing because of the emotion we all had from this wonderful Holy Spirit filled time together. After we completed I stood up and with tears in both of our eyes Coach Robert and I hugged! God has touched his heart through Hi S PRINT and Coach Robert looks forward to being a part of it from this day forward.

Got up in the morning and got packed up and cleaned our room and headed out to Warsaw for our trip back to Croatia and Joe back to the states. We all hugged and shook Coach Robert's hand and thanked him for the most precious time we had and the hard work he did to put it all together! We made it to the airport in plenty of time and Joe headed the direction of his gate and we headed to ours. We made it back with no problems and actually I met a man who sat next to me to Vienna and then God had us set together again on our way to Zagreb. We visited the whole way back and I shared with him what we were doing and why. He was very interested and at the end I gave him my HiS PRINT card and he told me he would love to stay in contact. His name was Zach, actually Draszhack, but he told me to call him Zach. He was from Belguim but lived in Warsaw and has actually been to Corpus Christi a few times for work. I told him the next time he came to get in touch with me and that I would show him around Houston. He said he would like that. It was great meeting a new friend and sharing the ministry to open ears! We made it back safely and Sis was there to pick us up and bring us back to HiS HOUSE and man were we surprised at all they had done in the short time we had been gone. They are really getting things done and we hope to have it all completed by November so we can host a missionary and pastor's conference from those around the Balkans! We will see what God has in store for that.

 

Please keep us in your prayers as we complete our last day here. Sis and several others went to the Nursing home and had a terrific visit. The residents were looking forward to seeing them again and wondered we were last year, since we didn't get to visit there in 2013. We were told by Stana the program director that we were such an encouragement to them. Brandon prayed with several of the older residents who were bedridden and that was a special time for him as well as them.  I have one last practice tonight with the cadets and look forward to this last time with them. They are really eager to learn and we are praying for this next generation of Storks. I will talk to you once we get back to our side of the pond and thanks again for all your support! It has been felt, appreciated and needed! Praise God we serve Him who lavishes His love and Grace abundantly! 

Blessings