2022 Fall MLO - Blog 5

 

Fall '22 MiLO - Blog 5 Oh Happy Day! These past couple of days have been days of celebrating one thing or another. We celebrated completing the painting of the rooms in HiS House Saturday morning and put the furniture all back together. We now have a completely functioning working ministry house.

Welcome to His House, ready to receive visitors

We spent the afternoon preparing the house and cafe to host a party for those we have formed relationships over the years from the different walks of life in and around Sisak. We had brothers and sisters from the churches, as well as friends from the different organizations we have ministered to these past 17 years. Members of the Storks baseball club, coach and some of the players; the president and family of the figure skating club and one of the owners of the dance studio. We had a great time for over two hours and had over 30 people come and join us.

Party with those we have developed relationships through the years

Along with the party to celebrate relationships built here, we had the opportunity to celebrate Sharon’s birthday in the evening as well. She had worked so hard in baking all the cakes and cookies and we surprised her with singing Happy Birthday, “Sretan Rodendan” in Croatian. I wish I had a picture of her standing up front of the crowd with me while they sang. She was embarrassed but blessed at the same time.

“Sretan Rodendan” Happy Birthday Sharon.

Sunday we drove up to Zagreb and enjoyed a morning of worship with Daniel and Kate and their family at their church in downtown. We had such a joyful time of worship and studying God’s word. It is funny how God interwove what I shared in the morning devotions with what the pastor shared in the message. The importance of being committed to what you have faith in. The questions I asked our mission team was: Does the faith you have, evident in the life you live?’ Evaluating yourself as to whether you are a minimum requirement Christian, all you want is your get out of hell free card or are you a maximum committed follower of Jesus and will go love others the way He has and does love us! The commitment to serve and love others, not just on a two-week mission trip, but to live it out 24/7 in our lifestyle.  MiLO, Mi Learning Opportunity, that is what we call our missions with HiS Print; the opportunity to grow and take what we are doing here and do it everyday moving forward. To challenge ourselves to learn how to serve and love Him more by loving and serving 6,000 miles away as well as 6 feet away. I took a short video: I didn’t take it for the visual, but listen to the voice in the background. We were so blessed by this angels voice. Brought me to tears when I first heard her.

Angel's voice coming over us

Church service in Zagreb. Totally and fully blessed.

After church we went to lunch in the city center with Daniel and his family. We went to a great restaurant and had some Croatian food and unfortunately, I am not like my bride and take a picture of the plates of food I get, so I don’t have a beautiful picture of the ribs and potatoes that I consumed. I do have a picture of these two little ones that stole my heart and was blessed to laugh and love on them throughout the meal.

Daniel and Kate’s youngest children. They stole my heart!

Kate and Ella enjoying lunch and getting to know one another.

Sightseeing around the capital of Croatia, Zagreb. The tall spires of the National Cathedral.

Janko and I went to coffee and the rest of the team went on a little culture tour around the city before we returned to HiS House and an evening of relaxing. It was a great day of building relationships and loving people where they were and being loved where we are. This mission has really spoke to me in so many ways. I have grown through the time with this team and have been challenged on what God has elevated me to teach in the mornings. Having a MiLO has taken on a whole new meaning. We always said that you are on a Mission, Learning and Looking for Opportunities to do 6 feet away back home what you came here 6,000 miles to do in Croatia. But in my teaching I saw MiLO in a whole new way. It is Mi Learning Opportunity, to be challenged to live out love every hour of every day! To dig deeper into my relationship with him so that I can serve with a towel and not serve for a title! If the faith I have is not evident in the life that I live, I am failing to be His disciple and accomplish what He has left me here to do. I love it when God hits me up side of the head with a 2x4. Not really, but most of the time that is what it takes to get my attention.   Have a wonderful God filled day and remember Jesus loves you and so do I! HE DID IT! Mossman