HiS PRINT Ministries Updates

God has really blessed H i S PRINT with many relationships and friendships over the years and He has accelerated that process these past few years through deepening existing ones and opening new! Damir has become a dear friend and a valuable help for  H i S PRINT  every year by receiving our equipment shipments. He is also one of the backbones of the Croatia Baseball Federation and Croatia Little League. Over the last several years  H i S PRINT  has been a resource in helping them develop a local Little League program. His desire for Croatia Little League to become a building program for the Croatia Baseball Federation is shared by the entire Little League board. They are building a farm system to get youth involved at an earlier age! This past week we had a chance to meet in Zagreb and spend some quality time together. Please pray for the marriage between those two baseball organizations. What could be a beautiful thing has had some very rough roads! M...

These past few days have been rough as well as an extreme blessing of slowing down and taking an overall view of what   H i S PRINT  has been able to accomplish. Obviously I can only speak from my own experience and observations, but God has shown me more of His vision of what He has in store for us. The last three days I have spent coughing and with a head filled of sinus congestion. It’s a combination of getting run down, cold I caught during the baseball tournament and allergies from all the ragweed that is coming into bloom! However, the time spent with God while alone, as well as with others while well enough to do so, has been such a blessing.  I’m gonna use relationships to help tell the story of God’s divine plan appointments, which will help paint the picture of His purpose for  H i S  PRINT. Janko and I, aka Lewis and Clark, have spent the last couple of days on more adventures into the Croatian nature and culture. Over these past couple of ...

As I’ve been wrapping things up these past few days, I’ve had some time to reflect upon this trip and what  H i S  Print means to me. It’s often hard for me to explain why I spend my summers (and the months leading up to them) in Croatia. While I know the reasons in my heart, it’s so hard for me to verbalize that to others. People typically think I’m going for vacation, even when I explain that I’m going for an Mission Learning Opportunity and that we are constantly on the go with service projects. Without hesitation I still get responses like, “have a restful time!” or “enjoy having some time off!”. While I have had some moments of rest and some limited time off to rest, recover, and recharge throughout the MLO, I never go for the purpose of rest, relaxation, or vacation. As a teacher, God has blessed me with a job in which I get my summers “off,” but I never want to take that for granted and waste that time. My summers are His, just like the school year is His. I’ve been ...

Sitting in downtown Sisak, first with Mouseman & Taki watching that relationship bloom and then me with Miro (one of the Sisak officials) at one of the cafes along the Kupa river, I realize how truly blessed we are with the relationships built over the years! The trust in those relationships, through loving them right where they are, has allowed us to increase the interest of their observation and peak it to the point of asking why! It has also allowed us to tie scripture into conversation and not be ignored! For example, today when Miro began to tell the history of the political situation now and in recent & past history, I was able to point out to him the work that Nehemiah did in Jerusalem, when God called him back to rebuild the walls! He had no idea that was in the Bible.  It was just a blessing to watch God make his soil (soul) more receptive to the truth of Christ’s love! Mouseman & Taki Me with Miro, official from Sisak Through all of that I was remin...

Life at HiS HOUSE from the point of view of our House Moms! HiS HOUSE Moms:  Kim Cissell and Sharon Beal During the heaviest days of the MLO, the population at  H i S  House ranges from 20-30 people. Managing the household gets a bit harried, as you can well imagine!  Sharon Beal and I (Kim Cissell) do the bulk of the house-tending during those busy days. This encompasses all you might expect: grocery shopping, arranging meals, preparing rooms for incoming members, floors, laundry, etc.  Dishes are done by hand so everyone pitches in - we go through dish towels at breakneck pace! There are now 2 washing machines so we keep the clotheslines full of drying clothes, sheets, and towels. The four bathrooms are cleaned every morning, floors swept and mopped, H i S House kept comfortable and welcoming.  The work Sharon and I do enables the other team members to head out to ministry each morning fed, rested, and in clean clothing. They c...

This was an article posted today in City News Sisak that explains our H i S PRINT mission statement to the T! “We use our step to leave  H i S  PRINT by loving people where they are and loving them till they ask why!” Whether it’s 6 feet or 6,000 miles away, God calls us all to love others as He has loved us! Enjoy the article and know that we appreciate your support in allowing us to to do this year after year. HE DID IT! Let’s Do IT! GI „Moj grad Sisak“: “Veliko srce naših prijatelja iz Amerike” http://portal53.hr/gi-moj-grad-sisak-veliko-srce-nasih-prijatelja-iz-amerike/ The English translation is below, but you'll want to click on the link to see the original! Sisak- for the sixth year in a row members of HiS Print Ministries, a christian charity organization out of Texas, America, have been visiting and helping out in various ways our citizen initiative "Moj grad Sisak" and their users. This year was no exception, they went in on broad Sisak area an...

Well, HE DID IT! The European 15U Championship was played out on The NEST in its entirety, with the Championship completed on Saturday! God created a miracle and used the Field of Faith to touch more and more lives. Just to back-track a bit and remind all of you:  on June 25th we had a field of dirt and in 21 days we had enough grass to play the tournament. In my earthly mind I knew there was no way we would play because there would not be enough grass for the field to be playable, plus with any sort of rain we would have mud up to our necks. Well God proved me wrong again, and not only did the grass grow enough to be playable, but several thunderstorms moved through and dumped a whole bunch of rain on the field during the tournament! But with some hard work from the Storks organization and some revamping of the schedule, the tournament was completed and God gets all the glory. H i S PRINT was mentioned time and time again by the tournament organizers in Sisak, telling the teams...

Just like a fog lifting over the land in the cool of the morning when the heat of the sun rises, so does the fog of one's life lift as the warmth of the Son rises, if you stay vertically focused! Relationships! Watching those grow and deepen are undoubtedly why we are here! I have observed God's hand while walking out His plan time and time again! God has us right where He wants us and although I question why 6,000 miles away, I never doubt His purpose which is revealed in His timing!  Walking the streets the other day, I heard my name shouted from in a cafe and out came Miro, a government official I met several years ago! He came and gave me a big hug and asked for my number so that we could get together for coffee! A brief history:  Miro is the government official who was chosen (reluctantly) a few years back to help H i S PRINT when we first moved the Texas Carnival from the baseball field to downtown Sisak. As he walked us around checking on everything for the carniv...

Well, not winning is one thing but witnessing defeated attitudes and negative influences even before the outcome is decided has been the most difficult thing around me! It has been an honor to have been selected to serve as one of the coaches of the Croatia National Team and I have been blessed to be a part of it. We have unfortunately not fared well, winning only one game and losing three, but listening and watching the coaches' attitudes and displays of negative-upon-negative comments and gestures has been disheartening. I have been observing this type of coaching over here for years, but only in small doses. Witnessing it on a large scale (an international tournament with 6 national-level country teams, each team having three coaches) has been very difficult for me. I know our clinics have made a difference and my actions have spoken louder than others' words - several coaches told me so - but we have a long, long road to go! One of those coaches came up to me today and...

Well the Good Lord created a day of rest for the baseball teams and especially for me, by bringing in a thunderstorm that rained out two of the three games today, Tuesday, so I spent the afternoon sleeping away the day! I had gotten up at 3:45 in the morning to take two of our team members, Jamar and Mirla, to the airport for their return flight to Houston and then went by the field on my way home to work on getting it ready after the storms last night! So after a short night of sleep and a couple of hours of work on the field, tamping and raking, I guess He knew I needed the down time! It was a restful sleep and feel much more refreshed than I have in awhile! Field Work This evening I dined with Taki, our visiting coach from Kosovo and what a pleasure that was! He has been so helpful around the field, pitching in where necessary and lending a hand where needed! So I took him out for dinner and some ice cream! Very pleasant time together, just the two of us, along with Mousem...

Over the past three days, as the MLO has slowed down considerably and most of our team of 38 have gone home, I have tried to sit back and look closely at all that has been accomplished. As I mentioned yesterday, however, I spent much of that reflection time doing laundry and working on The NEST. I'll say it again - this has really given me a deeper gratitude for our house mama and all her assistants! You can generate a whole lot of dirty clothes, towels, bedsheets, and you name it with 38 people coming and going. Not to mention all the dishes that need to be washed as well as the food that needs to be prepared. Truly, this ministry couldn’t be as effective as it is without all those hands and feet that are working behind the scenes. One thing this has taught me, as we call these missions trips, mission learning opportunities:  I sure could do a lot better job of cleaning around the house for my bride! It’s only taken me 13 years to discover that; I'm what you call a slow lear...

The past three days have been filled with work on the NEST as well as doing laundry around H i S HOUSE. This have given me much more respect for all the house mamas that are needed to make a Mission Learning Opportunity a success! Thanks to each one of the team members who all pitched in to make it happen. Hanging laundry on the line is not one of my favorite things to do, but I am in good practice now and have a new appreciation for dryers!  Baseball update:  I can honestly say I have witnessed a miracle happen on The NEST! Many of you have been praying for the grass to grow in order for us to host the 15U European Baseball Qualifier Championships! In the pictures below you will see what God did through rain at the right times, temperature drops to a tolerable level, the perfect amount of sunshine, and hard work and dedication of the Storks administration and coaches.  You will see for yourself the drastic change in 21 days!! God loves baseball, especially when it ...