HiS PRINT Ministries Updates

Whew! What a flurry these past two weeks have been with all the ministry activities! We believe it is important for the MLO team to take a deep breath and reserve a day for sight-seeing. This gives us a chance to enjoy team time together and understand the local culture. So, on Monday the team members who were in Sisak visited the capital city of Zagreb.  Martina was an excellent tour guide, pointing out historical places and explaining the statues that were located throughout the city. One of the popular places to visit is the Zagreb Open Market. I would like to share with you a beautiful exchange that happened at the Open Market between Stefan and one of the merchant ladies. I asked Stefan to write it in his own words:  Stefan wrote,  “I approached one of the market booths to see what they are selling. There were many souvenirs, of course. The lady that was selling was sitting behind the small counter. I approached her and asked her how the day is going? She an...

I’m kind of behind what is happening and what I am writing about because the pace of ministry and travel has overtaken me. Last week was such a blur and the pace of this week, with sending people home, cleaning up and inventory from the carnival, work around HiS HOUSE and travel with 3 different ministry teams across The Balkans, I’m often not sure whether I am coming or going! Thank you for your patience. I could use your prayers that I would finish strong. I can really feel the toll on my body from the heat and pace and with travel and sleeping in different beds that aren’t always the best, it’s admittedly hard. I’m still blessed beyond measure with all that has happened, and the way God has worked around the team as well as within the team.  Baseball Camp We finished up baseball camp here in Sisak. What a joy it was to hear all the laughter of the children and see the smiles across faces of the coaches and parents. We played our annual Baseball Olympics on the final day...

Blog 13  Have you ever had those moments where you shake your head and think, “What just happened?” Well, it seems I am doing more and more of that these days. Some of it may be because I am another year older and my memory is losing some of its longevity, or that so many things are happening around us that I can’t even begin to put them all down in words. I am just touching the tip of the icebergs in the blogs I am posting and there is so much more going on within HiS PRINT that it would be impossible to put it down on paper and not create a novel.  Stefan sharing his story with baseball campers Just to mention an overview of what has been happening this week: baseball camp where we had over 60 participants from 5 countries, dance camp, drama camp (I challenged Emily, one of our seasoned young women, to put together a non-verbal gospel message presentation, can’t wait to see it), SOS Orphanage visit in Lekenik, Children’s Library Program in Sisak, City...

Well, thank God for small vacations and time away before the craziness began. Debbie and I returned to  HiS  HOUSE on Sunday night and it was a blessing to see many more of our team members in country and settled in. Our visitors from Kosovo and Macedonia arrived as well, and it was such a blessing to watch them all meld together. The team even surprised me with a birthday party to celebrate my 39 th . The  candles actually said I was 645, so I am somewhere between 39 and 645 - I will let you all guess.  No pictures  for that one!   Our MLO team this year includes a bunch of teenage girls, a few teenage boys, and some  young men and women  in their early-to-mid 20’s.  What a breath of fresh air they are. Each one has stepped up in huge ways by helping around the house and asking what they can do next. A huge blessing within the mix of all that is that t wo  of my great nieces and  o n e of my great n ephew s  are here...

W hen God created the heavens and the earth and called it good, He was definitely looking at the coastline of Croatia! Wow, I wish the words and the pictures could do it justice, but they simply cannot. Words fail to describe the extreme beauty that God created, and the pictures fall well short of capturing the enormity of that beauty. For three days I was blessed to have the opportunity to slip away to take my bride and enjoy some time on the coast and some alone-time with each other. It was so refreshing to go from small villages enjoying the sights and sounds of each, to swimming in the gorgeous waters of the Adriatic. Our friends took us to an uninhabited island to jump off the rocks and enjoy some snorkeling one evening, and we spent a couple of nights in the most beautiful apartment and town in Pirovac, Croatia. We caught a small glimpse of heaven in those three days and enjoyed God’s creation that left only wonderful memories and a desire to return.  Here are but ...

That Macedonia/Serbian Swing and the work we did around HiS HOUSE when we returned really did me in and put me down for quite a while with a really bad chest cold and cough. Praise God, Stefan’s mom is a doctor and she got me some antibiotics and has me well on the road to recovery.  I wanted to show you some pictures of HiS HOUSE and all the work that has been done these past several months to try and get it ready and useable for this summer’s MLO. We have 4 projects in the works: HiS Café & Kitchen (Phase I indoor, Phase II outdoor), Solomon’s Porch and the Upper Room. Our plan was to budget the time & finances for each project individually. However, we had to mix some projects along the way to prevent double work down the road. For instance, we really wanted to get HiS Café and Kitchen up and running for the Summer MLO, but since it is below the Upper Room and Solomon’s Porch and there was a leak that was going into the kitchen below, we needed to take care of the U...