Croatia Winter 2015 - Final Day

Folks!

What a trip! Back home on US soil, seeing my bride and son and sleeping in my own bed reminded me why I always come back! ​Not to mention that big ole juicy hamburger I had last night! Sorry for my delay in wrapping up the trip with my last blog. Was hoping to do it from 35,000 feet on the plane but we weren't outfitted with WiFi.

Had a great night's sleep, although short, still on that 7 hour ahead time of Croatia, but it was a very restful sleep. As promised, I wanted to fill you in on the discussions we had with two of the churches around Sisak! The first one was the Baptist church in Petjrina and their desire to have an influence with the youth from that city. They have a beautiful building and have a VBS program that a young woman, Maja heads up every summer. They had 80 participate this past summer and that was a huge success, but her desire is to have a more lasting and constant affect of them! That is where the reason for this meeting all came about. Our AWANA commander at our church in Pearland has been to Croatia in the past and started to investigate how many programs of AWANA were in Croatia. He found out that there was only one! He then began to research how we could help start another one. That lead him to reaching out to Maja and her desire to have one at their church. We met her and 4 other people from the church who are interested in making something like this happen. It was such a blessing to hear their excitement and Maja's energy was infectious! We at Fellowship Bible Church will head up this effort to create a new AWANA program for them at Petjrina. The first step will be to get all the materials translated into Croatian and then to help them set up volunteers which we will commit to come and train to lead a program to reach the young people for the Lord!

After leaving from our blessed time with our brothers and sister in Petjrina, we headed down the road to the brothers and sisters at the church in Moscenica! We were at worship with them on Sunday morning and they allowed me to say a few words and short of preaching, laid out what God had given me to challenge them to reach out to the people of this area. We have been doing this for the past 6 to 7 years and many times it has felt like it has fallen on deaf ears. After the service two of the elders asked if they could have a meeting with us after worship on Wednesday night, of which I agreed to have. When we arrived they were just finishing their worship service for a small group, so we joined them in song. It was a blessed time to see them singing their praises to the Lord! Afterward about 6 stayed to speak with us. They expressed their desire and the need there was to reach out instead of always staying in! They know that the Lord tells them in His word that they are to go out and love one another! They want to walk alongside us while we are here, so they can do follow up when we are gone!! With Godbumps running down my spine and arms, I smiled and said that is our desire as well and we are excited to have them join us! I expressed our desire for them to help us in all of our community projects, Sis shared what and when all of those were! I asked them to help us with the Carnival outreach and to dedicate a person to each carnival game and event with someone from HiS PRINT to show that we are united together! They were excited about helping and ready, willing and able to do it! What an answer to prayer and the Godbumps still come when I write about this break- through! God will use this to develop and maintain a stronger relationship with Him. Sis, Joe and I left that meeting in awe and tears at how God orchestrated all of this and, although it has taken a long time to develop this trust and relationship, it is His timing!

We got back to HiS HOUSE and there was a house full of people to come by to say goodbye and to spend our last night together! It was a blessed time with many of the Storks, Barbara the librarian and Lordan who is the young entrepreneur that Joe is working with closely to start a small business. It was a blessed time with Janko as well and we spent the time laughing and sharing stories of our 10 years coming and talking about the future! We got up early and headed to the airport for the flight home which was smooth and all people and luggage made it safely. I, on behalf of Sis, Joe and HiS PRINT Ministries want to say thank you for following us and your support in prayer and finances has made all of this possible. The people of Sisak, Croatia and the surrounding villages have been touched by your support and we could not do it without knowing you all were here lifting us up in prayer!

We have a lot to do and work out before we head back this summer, June 25-July 18, so please keep the following items in your prayers and if any tweak your interest and you want to know more about, just reach out to me and I will be more than happy to share with you!

Blessings and have a wonderful God filled day!

1-Translation for AWANA program from English to Croatian

2-HiS HOUSE Construction work to finish the new 4 room addition, big meeting room and

   additional bathroom

3-Simion, Christian brother and indigenous worker for the Lord. Needing  financial support

4-Moscenica and programs of outreach. Youth Camp improvements at the youth center at  

    Green Mountian

5-Shipment we have the desire to send at the end of March with equipment and books