HiS PRINT Ministries Updates

I realize it has been a few days since you last heard from me.  That has probably been a relief for many of you, as most of my updates have been short stories that take a while to read. But since I’m at the airport waiting for Coach Norman’s delayed plane, I have the time to report what has happened these past 3 days. I will try to reduce the words so this is not too lengthy, but to be honest the depth of my emotion cannot be contained in written words, and the words never seem to express the enormous movement of my heart! Thirteen years coming has not dampened my passion for this country and region nor has it dampened the love I have for the people! Thank you God, for this mission and the ministry of H i S PRINT and the continual opportunity to use our steps to leave your PRINT!  I spent Tuesday and Wednesday working on the house and making preparations for the team's arrival! Heidi arrived on Tuesday, 5 others arrived on Wednesday, and 13 more are coming over the weeken...

My long weekend of travel around Croatia was an absolute blessing. In celebration of my birthday, Janko gave me a personal tour of many beautiful and incredibly different Croatian landscapes. Our tour took us from a mountain range to the coast and then back through another mountain range before arriving back at H i S HOUSE late Monday night. I can tell you this:  I saw every imaginable landscape, even one that resembled the moon!  As we were traveling, Janko asked me how many states I had visited! After thinking about his question for a while, I realized that I have been to 47 of the 50 states - I have missed only North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska. Even with all of that travel, I don’t think I have ever seen prettier sights than I did in these last 3 days! My camera was busy taking pictures, panoramics and videos; my mind was full of historical information; my head was struggling to believe that I was walking, touching and witnessing what was built and done over 2,000...

Howdy Partners! Janko (Lewis) tells me (Clark) we are heading out for another adventure on Friday and on Saturday morning we were on the road! Believe it or not our first stop was in Roswell New Mexico. Yep, you guessed it. How? I got pictures to prove it! Roswell, New Mexico, Croatian style! It was funny to see a western set here in Croatia but then again Clint Eastwood went to Italy for the spaghetti westerns. Any of you heard of Winnetou? Played in the early 60’s and their set for the western town scenes was there! Great birthday gift from Janko! I really enjoyed it.  Next we shifted a few centuries and went to a castle and church built in the 1600’s. It set up on top of a mountain over looking a beautiful valley! Then we hit a few overlooks that displayed the beauty of Croatia! It was amazing and I think you can see why people love coming here and we haven’t even made it to the coast and the Adriatic Sea.  Did I mention the Sea. Pula and Rijeka were also a ...

Folks, I’m going to try to convey all that has happened on this day, Friday, June 22. Thank you for your prayers concerning the condition of The Nest after the city added & spread the dirt. It was a great blessing to receive the dirt, but (as I mentioned in an earlier blog), it just may be too late for us to host the European qualifier tournament on July 16.  Your prayers were answered when God, the ultimate Gardner, showed up in a huge way. Thursday was very hot (over 95 degrees) so Elvis spent the evening watering the freshly planted grass seed. As usual, God showed up in bigger ways than we can imagine and sent his ultimate sprinkling system to cover the field in over 10 hours of soaking rain. The weather turned from hot to nearly 30° cooler on Friday and the field was watered! Then, in the early evening, the sun broke through the clouds and the grass seeds received the rays of sunshine that are necessary for growth. We could not have asked for a better scenario and...

Hello Folks,  These past two days have been a flurry of activity and much of it seems to be a blur now that I try and go back and think through all that happened. To top it all off, Croatia upset Argentina in the World Cup and the people of Croatia are in the streets celebrating. With tomorrow being a Croatian National Holiday, they may be out there all night! I will try and hit the highlights so I can keep this to a short story as well as hit the needs for prayer! You guys back home are such a blessing and help keep me upright and moving forward no matter the circumstances. Reminds me of the scripture, "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it;" realizing that every day is a day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it no matter what happens during that day!  My trip to Split, to spend time with the Sea Wolves football team and look over the land that has the possibility of being a sports academy, went much better than I exp...

Hello Folks, Ever felt like you had no say so or any control over what was going on around you? Then top it all off with being in another culture and trying to make things happen at the speed you want it to! It's like fitting a round peg in a square hole! BUT, at least there is activity now and things are moving forward, not stagnant like they were for the past 5 days.  I am seeing progress and am blessed by witnessing it all! The meeting we had on Friday with the Sisak city officials and the people responsible for getting the work done on the field went well, as far as I could tell.  From the looks of things this morning, the point was made that this needed to get moving quickly. I'm still not sure whether it will be done in time for the grass to grow in thick enough for us to play a European Championship. But we were promised that there would be grass. I tried to bring up the point that there was a difference between having a promise that "there will be grass" and ...

Hello Folks, I am going to be heading to Split for a short trip to discuss some possibilities on having the land available to start an academy in the future! This is a great possibility and one that has been discussed over the past 2 months with several people in Split.  We have been discussing via Skype and I now have the chance to go see first hand. I will keep you posted after my trip (leaving Tuesday night and back on Thursday.) It will be a quick trip to meet with some officials as well as Croatian and American businessmen who are interested in the project and possibilities. I am excited and blessed to see how God is working all of this out and seeing His wonderful hand at work!  Last night we were blessed to host a team of missionaries on their way back to Germany after a week -long mission in Kosovo. They are led by a man named Labi (pronounced Lobby), a Kosovo national who is now a pastor in Germany.  Labi leads trips to his homeland every year. They w...

Hello Folks, Spent all day with Elvis taking me around to get most of the errands done and things I needed to buy and get done before the rest of the team comes later in June. We had a blast spending the time together and catching up on life. Elvis is one of the original Storks that I would love to see coaching one of the teams in the future here in Sisak. He has been out of the country for several years finding work in Ireland and on cruise ships, but is ready to settle down in Sisak so we would ask that you pray along side us on that!  I sent a blog back at the beginning of June that showed the blessing of the city of Sisak taking on the projects on The NEST field, locker rooms and club house! What a blessing it is to witness those first hand when I visited The NEST on Friday. After 8 years of getting the field of Weeds, to Dreams, to FAITH, up and running, we have received help and support from the city to make the improvements we have been praying for since that da...

Making it safely back to my second home here in Croatia yesterday I was excited to get settled in after the long flight and day of traveling. The meeting I was suppose to attend Thursday night was cancelled and moved to another night next week, so the little “ i ” reminder of being flexible was already coming into play. But that was just the first of several other reminders (that we are not in control and God is) that occurred since I’ve been here. That being said I think I will break this blog up into two sections and send on separate days so that you can see the pictures and join me in prayer for the blessings as well as join me in prayer for those things that are in need of God’s divine intervention to accomplish.  I did have the blessing of seeing our H i S PRINT local feet on the ground, Lordan, Martina and Elvis, that first evening. They have all helped in organizing both the 2018 March and Summer MLOs! And the evening with Janko was exactly what both of us needed a...

Well we are packed and ready to go for this summer‘s mission learning opportunity, MLO! After spending the last four days packing extra bags for our team members to bring with us, we are ready to go! I am actually currently in the Toronto Canada airport, typing this as I wait for my connecting flight to Zagreb Croatia. This is a new flight pattern that is just now being offered since the airport in Croatia was expanded last year! I am excited knowing that once I land on the other side of the pond I will be in Zagreb. After a full 24 hours of flight and layovers I will be looking forward to some down time at H i S HOUSE.  However, that won’t last long as I have meetings starting tomorrow night after I land and continuing through the weekend. God has really opened up some huge opportunities for us to walk alongside others who are in need of help and we are willing to walk through those openings to see what God's desire is! Speaking of the bags of gear, they are filled with b...

Hello Folks, Wanted to reach out and share with you some really neat things that are going on overseas in Croatia. We are excited to see how God is working through all of this and making the opportunities for us to share His love and watch Him work out details we couldn’t even get close to making happen.  For the past 10 years we have been collecting donated equipment from all over the states and sending to our warehouse in Sisak Croatia to be distributed across The Balkans and Eastern Europe. In the last 3 weeks, we have been busy collecting from several local high schools across Houston as well as equipment being delivered from throughout Texas as well as from across the states. This past weekend we spent our Saturday morning sorting and packing a lot of that equipment to prepare for our big shipment to Croatia, as well as to other countries like Iceland and Peru. This ministry has been such a blessing to be a part of and to witness the community effort that it takes to ac...

Hello Folks, I wanted to share with you a very neat experience that I had recently when the Lord opened the door for me to interview former Major League All Star and Houston Astro, Lance Berkman. H i S PRINT was so blessed with the opportunity to interview former Major League Baseball great, Lance Berkman. He took the time to share his testimony and love for Jesus and spoke directly to the young baseball players in Sisak, Croatia. He spoke specifically about The NEST, the home field of the Storks Baseball Club. Listen to his analogy of how Jesus takes a heart of weeds and through His love and grace makes it into a productive of heart of love. Every time those players walk onto that field, they should remember what Jesus can do with their hearts. The same way they took a Field of Weeds and made it a Field of Dreams, "Jesus can take a weedy heart and make it heart of faith!" Those are Lance's own words. Thank you, Lance, for taking the time out to share you faith!