HiS PRINT Update - Day 1,096 (Just Kidding)

Hello Folks,

Wow these past few days have flown by with a flurry of everything but snow! The last few days have included traveling to Split and back (4 1/2 hours one way), 6-7 round trips to the airport, and ministry activities across the board! In fact Monday's Morning Devotion felt more like a huddle when every one broke and headed off in different directions. If it wasn't for those morning times together as we start the day, I am not sure we would see everyone throughout the rest of the day! Currently we have 19 MLO Team members in Sisak and 5 more traveling from country to country doing football camps (24 total); in the next several days the team will grow to 33 here at HiS HOUSE! 

On the Road Again ... on Sunday I headed out at 4:30 a.m. to the coastal city of Split. I was going to see the coaches and football campers and to pick up Jeff Sutherland, a dear friend from FCA who I met over a year ago. Jeff had taken an overnight bus from Italy to visit us here in Croatia and see HiS HOUSE! Elvis, a Storks alumni and current volunteer coach, blessed me by riding with me on the day trip. Elvis's birthday was on the 30th, and this time together was my present to him! The blessing was all mine, but when we returned home late that night Elvis sent me a text that said, "Mossman, thank you for this day! Spending the whole day with you coach, doesn't get better than that. Thanks for everything: good talks and lots of laughing! You really are like a father to me! Love you!" I can second that, "It doesn't get any better than that!

When we visited the football camp it was neat to see the different jerseys representing equipment donated from across Texas! There were about 30 campers and I loved sharing with them the love of Christ and the opportunity He has granted us to help the over 50 football clubs across the Balkans. There were several players at the camp who had traveled 14 hours from Osjek, a city on the eastern side of Croatia! They were taking in all that they could in the small amount of time that we had on the fields! 

Taki is a young man here from Kosovo.  He has blended in well with the rest of the team. Taki is a young man on fire for the Lord and is a baseball nut who Michael Johnstone connected to us! We are excited to have him join us. Taki is soaking up like a sponge in everything we are doing, on and off the baseball field!

Taki from Kosovo.  He is here to learn more baseball and be encouraged in his walk with the Lord!

Lordan, our HiS PRINT Croatian, invited us to a concert on Friday night. Lordan is a gifted musician and was playing keyboards in the band. It was such a pleasant time of enjoying music and time together at the concert. We enjoyed it very much! They started with Amazing Grace and ended with Highway to Hell! The only sad part of the whole evening was that more people were enjoying the Highway to Hell than the Amazing Grace of God. But that is why we are here, to show them that Grace is much better than hell and that God wants them to jump off the highway to hell and get in pace with Grace!

Blessings to everyone and hope all is well! We started baseball camp, dance camp, library program and shopping for the food pantry items to be delivered in the next couple of days. I have asked that several others chime in on what is going on in their ministries so we can hear from them what God is doing through them and the ministry! Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! 

HE DID IT! 

David

Library Program (Heidi):

The library program started off with a bang yesterday. I was nervous for a few days leading up to the program, because I kept walking by the library seeing no advertisement displayed in the windows. However, God provided the advertisement, and we ended up with 23 excited children ready for a new STEM program in the Sisak Children’s Library! Yesterday’s challenge was called Huff and Puff. The kids were given the challenge to create a house for the three little pigs that could be strong enough to withstand the force of the Big Bad Wolf’s breath. We had a variety of materials for the kids to use (cardboard, straws, q-tips, plastic cups, toilet paper rolls, popsicle sticks, foil, etc.) as they worked in teams to plan their model and then create. The kids were a little younger than usual and hesitant to start, but our team and translators were a huge source of encouragement and got them started and excited about their models. They had a blast testing their houses against the “Big Bad Wolf,” and the group who created the tallest and strongest house earned “Texan for a day” and took a straw cowboy hat home with them!

As we moved on to the smaller suburb library in Sisak, I reminded our team that we would either have a couple of kids or no kids at all since more and more families are moving away from that area of Sisak. Regardless, our plan for ministry remained the same—love on whoever shows up! We had a wonderful time laughing and building with a mom and her two children, as well as the librarians! Since we only had a few kiddos I asked the team if they wanted to participate in the project. Things got pretty competitive as everyone worked to build the tallest house, especially the architect and engineer of the team! 

Tonight Rock and Sharon will be presenting the topic of NASA at our new Petrinja library. We visited them once last year and it was a huge success! We are very excited to go back tonight, and we can’t wait to see what Rock and Sharon have prepared for their program!

Dance Camp (the Winters girls):

Emily and Rachel, assisted by local girls Ana and Clara, began the week’s dance camp on Monday. They were surprised to find 21 kids, including many boys, eager to learn the choreography. You can see from the picture that they were ready for a break at the end of the 2 hour class! The class will continue every afternoon this week, and will culminate with a performance at the Texas Carnival on Saturday night.