Summer 2026 - Blog 4

Summer Blog 4

God has put together a stellar team of faithful followers that He called to be a part of this year’s team. I shared with them an acronym to help us remember Togetherness Elevated Above Me!  What a blessing it is to witness these past 20 years the teams God calls together to leave HiS Print with all those we meet, including many times meeting team members on the mission field for the very first time. Another blessing God has created is that every year we many different churches represented, with only one goal in mind and that is to elevate Christ always! This year's team has 11 members from the USA from 7 churches, 2 team members from Croatia from two churches and 2 members from Ukraine from one church; all representing Jesus as our savior.

Devos this year started indoors because of the heat, but once the weather turned to the low 70’s in the morning, we were out on the porch.

One of the most memorable and touching moments we have every year, every morning is our team devotions around the table on Welcome Porch or in the café if the weather does not cooperate. It’s a time we have praying together, reading God’s word, studying and breakdown what we have read, while sharing what we have learned. It is a refreshing way to keep God at the forefront and to keep the team together in unity as we walk out into the world to share our faith. Having this time with brothers and sisters from other churches and countries makes it all the more special.

Team From Gracac Croatia

Sasha and Marina from the Ukraine

There is always a lot that goes on behind the scenes before we go and share time at the library, camps or with families. We make individual bags for every participant in the programs and camps and we go for lengthy shopping trips to pick up necessary food and supplies for families. It is a full team effort and I am always blessed by each others participation with no complaints and the togetherness of arranging and inventory of things left over for the trip back to our warehouse here in Croatia where we store all our carnival games and supplies for next year.

Bags designed by the team for the participants in the library programs and baseball camps. We have some great artists and I know those bags will remain in bedrooms for months if not years.

Camp this year was one of the hottest times I have ever led a baseball camp overseas or in the states. I was director of the baseball camp at Rice University for 10 years, ran camps for Texas Baseball Academy for 13 years and then been overseas here in Croatia for 20. The temp for two days was 104 degrees and the television was telling people to stay inside and that it wasn’t safe to go outside. We always have camp here in Sisak at 5:00 pm to try and avoid most of the heat but that didn’t help this year. So we were not sure how many we would have come and participate but knew we would hold the camp even if it was just two or three. Well at 5:00 we had over 40 kids show up in spite of the heat and warnings and what a blessing it was. We made sure they stayed hydrated and took plenty of breaks.

40 Campers ready to play and giving us the opportunity to share Christ's love with them despite the heat of over 100 degrees.

The campers got after it and had a wonderful time and so did we.

The library program seems to be growing with more kids involved year to year! It wasn’t as big as we had it many years ago when Barbara was the librarian and she would do a month's worth of advertising to share with the kids in the city. We did reading like we do every year. We read a Croatia children’s book, at least attempt to do it! And the kids read an English book to us. They would always win if it were a competition, because their English is much better than our Croatian. However, if we were in a funniest home video contest, we would win by causing the most laughs.

Brody, our youngest member of the HiS Print team brought his Croatian out and did a fantastic job.

My Bride, was very humble and vulnerable in participating with the reading. She doesn’t come every year, but stepped right in and did a much better job than I would. I even come every year.

A student from Croatia always is picked to read and this young man did an absolutely remarkable job.

After reading we always have a fun activity for the children to participate in and we tie in the message of Jesus’s love into it after completing. This year we did the floor is lava and they had to rescue a bunch of bears with cups and popsicle sticks. The next day we did leaping frogs and then catapults and finished up with stomp rockets. You want to see a lot of kids get excited, help them put together a stomp rocket and jump on a 2 liter coke bottle and watch the rocket fly! It is such a blessing to plant these seeds of love in these little hearts and see what the Holy Spirit will do with it.

Attentive Library kids listen to the instructions for the activity

Save Those Bears like Jesus Saves Us

Frogs up up and away

Stomp those rockets high up into the air

WE built this stage in 2011 for several events we hosted on the field. Today it is the foundation for the inning by inning scoreboard and wall ball behind. Every person who walks from the clubhouse, concession stand or locker room walks right by this sign.   A Field of Weeds….Dreams…to Faith!  What a testimony to what God has done here these past 20 years.  Blessed beyond measure.

Field or Weeds…to Dreams….to Faith!

God bless each of you and thank you for your prayers!  HE DID IT! David