Happy Anniversary!

How do two people know they love each other? You could say that if you stay together 18 years that means you love each other, but that wouldn't prove anything. Commitment and duty could hold two people together even without love. So how can you tell that two people love one another? I think the answer is you stay together 18 years and you still desire to be close to that person. I think when you feel incomplete when that person is not near. I think, no I know this is what Tori and I have. Today is our anniversary. We have been married 18 years today. Today Tori has lived with me as long as she lived with her mom and dad without me. I can honestly say we have true love. For when we are apart we long to be together. Tori is my completer and I am truly incomplete without her. Outside of the Lord Jesus she is the love of my life. I don't tell her enough that I love her! She is my friend, helper and completer! She is a gift from God to me! People talk about a match made in heaven, and I can say that we are! God knew what He was doing when He put us together. Tori is a proverbs 31 woman. She has followed her husband to the ends of the earth as I try to follow God! She does not complain. She is committed to the will of God! I love her and today I want to wish her a happy 18th anniversary!

I wrote this song for her on Valentines day. I'm not a song writer, but it expresses how I feel about her.

New Hobby!

Well I gave up on rollerblading. I'm to old to take those falls. It was hurting to bad. Golf didn't work out, because it is way too expensive in Europe. Then I tried tennis, and realized my knees really are bad. So now I have taking up fishing. I can say that this sport is my speed. I sat and waited and ate. Boy I like that. My wife thought it was funny because I took more food with me than fishing equipment. It was nice out at a small pound, very quite and peaceful day. I even caught my first fish! Well when I was a boy I went all the time and caught many fish. Let's just say this is my first fish in Croatia. I would have done this sooner, but it takes and act of congress to get a fishing license in this country. You actually have to take a test to get a license. However, I was able to bypass the bureaucracy and i finally got a license.

Today was my big fishing day. It's a good thing that the stores are still open because if they were not my family would have starved. I did catch a fish. In the picture he looks big, but in reality he's about 3 inches long. He swallowed my hook, and I'm not happy about that. I had to perform an operation to save the hook. The operation was a success, but the patient died. Sorry if there are any fish lovers out there. Well 3 inches today maybe 4 tomorrow!

Almost Finished!

For over two years now we have been translating the New Testament into the Croatian language! Yesterday, Bro. Rich and I met, as we do every Teusday, to go over the text that has been translated. We were able to cover the last 4 chapters of Revelation! When we read the last Amen, we just stopped and praised the Lord!

We have one more step in this process. He will begin to read the new translation at home, and I will do the same. This will be done fairly quickly. Then we will get together to fix anything we find. It then will be sent to Myra Noel and she will format it for us and get it ready to print. Then Bro. Treadwell in India will print it for us!

I cannot begin to tell you how excited we are! Our people need a Bible that they can trust! Just yesterday Brother Rich and I found a major mistake in the other two Bibles that are supposed to be translated from the correct Greek text. In Revelation 19:8 the KJV says, "for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints". In the two Croatian Bibles and I might add the American Standard version they read: " for the fine linen is the righteous acts(works) of the saints."

My robe is because of His righteousness, not because of my righteous works!

This is one verse out of many to illustrate to you the need of a Croatian Bible. It will not be long now and we will have a Bible in the hands of our people to emphasise Jesus' righteousness and not man's righteousness!

Camping fun!

We have three children, and have been married almost 18 years and we have never been camping, until now. Yes for the first time in our marriage we went camping. I must say it was really a lot of fun, well kinda? I didn't like sleeping on the ground, or listening to our dog cry all night, but other than that we had a blast.

We only stayed a day and a night, but for us that was enough. We spent our first camping experience on the river Mura. This was a beautiful spot, out in the middle of nowhere.

We tried our hand at fishing. Didn't catch anything, but I was able to loose about 15 hooks. I'm not sure why we didn't catch anything. It could have been the can corn I was using for bait, yes we forgot to buy bait or it could have been our dog who couldn't stay out of the water. I knew we should have got a chihuahua.

I can say we had a great time and we'll probably go back sometime in the next 18 years!

If you are wondering why there are no pictures of Tori it's because she wouldn't let me post any.

Praise the Lord!

Last night I got a call at 3:30 in the morning. Whenever the phone rings in the middle of the night you always think the worse. So I stumble around looking for the phone, and my good friend James Rasbeary was on the line. For you that don't know him he is the Pastor of the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Wylie, Texas.

Anyhow he told me that we don't need to worry about our rent payment on the church building! Their Church raised it all and then some! He can call me at 3:30 every morning with that kind of news. He told me before that he was going to try and help with 500.00 of our payment, but his giving people had other plans! Thank you, Thank you Lighthouse Baptist Church!

I might say Brother James was not trying to wake me up at 3:30 in the morning, normally the phone is down stairs, and he was going to leave a message.

All I can say is praise the Lord! Last week I was in the valley today on the mountain top. I can honestly say that I thank the Lord for both places. The mountain tops wouldn't be so great if there were not valleys!

A little success!

I guess there are many ways to judge success. Today I got a little taste of success and it was so nice! The day has been a little difficult. I've got a 1,500 rent payment do on the church plant in Varazdin. I thought I still had a month or so, but I was badly mistaken. This must be paid by Monday, and because of these burdens I was a little down, and found myself walling in self pity. By the way that's a bad place to be.

Being Tuesday it is soul-winning night for brother Rich and brother Alen. I go on Thursday's and Saturday's with brother Alen. This week brother Rich is on vacation and I'm watching both works. About 3:30 I get a call from brother Alen asking if I'm going soul-winning with him. Now I wasn't planning on it, and to be honest I didn't feel like doing much of anything. But now here I am with Brother Alen on the line, who by the way I trained to be a soul-winner, pleading with me to go soul-winning. How could I say no? I couldn't say no, so I went.

There was a time I had to encourage him to go, and now he was encouraging me to go! This was my taste of success! When your converts have grown to this level then you know that you have succeeded somewhat in the ministry. On my way home I just praised the Lord about it! For He is good! By the way I still don't know how we're going to pay the rent, but the depression was gone! Amen! And Hallelujah!

Baptized 3!

Last night was a great service at our church. We had two scheduled to be baptized and ended up with three!

Two months ago I led Emil and Nikolina to the Lord, and Nikolina agreed to be baptized this Sunday. Emil said he was not sure about the whole thing but he would think about it. As we prepared to baptize Nikolina, Emil said I want to be baptized. Later he told me that his chest began to pound and when he surrendered to obey God he had peace. I explained to him that that pounding is called conviction, because the Holy Spirit lives in him now. What a joy it was to baptize them.

The other man, Andeko, has never been to our church. He called out of the blue this week and said I want to be baptized! Brother Rich met with him led him to the Lord, and he was baptized this Sunday. He's asked me not to place pictures on the internet yet, because of his family. He is in his 3o's and lives at home. Please pray for him as he grows in grace. He said he would be back at church on Sunday!

The joy of the whole thing was that Nikolina decided to obey God and because of her obedience two more obeyed. It was a joy sharing this truth with her!

All I can say to the whole thing is praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why are the kids laughing? For many of them this is the first time that they'd ever seen anybody get baptized without sprinkling. They were tickled to death. Now all of them want to get baptized. Some of them have been saved, and we will try to get their parents permission so they too can follow the Lord!




This is sister Nikolina! Thank God she obeyed the Lord!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday! This is when the mission field gets a little difficult. I'd like to be with my dad today to celebrate his birthday with him. I'm just glad my dad is a good christian man who loves the Lord! He knows why we are here, and stands behind us in what we are trying to do for the Lord. We both know that in heaven we will have much time for fellowship as we have all eternity there.

I just want to use this post to say Happy birthday to my dad. I don't tell him enough, but I love him and I'm so thankful for him. He taught me much while I was growing up. I learned how to be a man from him. I must say he is a man, not a sissy. I learned character from him as well. Many times I remember him getting up early to go to work and put food on our table. He worked a hard job as a welder and in Texas that's doubly hard because of the heat. But he always worked, and did not live on welfare.

While I was a teenager, he got right with God and started going to church. What a great decision that was. It wasn't long until the whole family got right with God, and now I'm on the mission field!

Well I thank God for my dad. Happy birthday daddy!

Full time Soul-winner!

In Europe most towns have a square where people go to shop or drink coffee. Our town is no different, and the square has been a great place to pass out tracts and witness to anyone who will listen. In the town, close to the square, you will find big display cases on the side of the buildings. It has been my desire for sometime to use one of these for our Church. Well praise the Lord God opened a door so we could use one of these display cases.

This case will be a full time soul-winner! Yesterday my wife prepared a beautiful graphic, and we had it printed at a local photo shop. It looks great! The graphic says, God's gift for you and then it goes into God's wonderful plan of Salvation!

The location of our soul-winner is equally impressive. It's one building down from the main Catholic Church, and it's on the path directly to the big Catholic book store. It almost looks like God knew what He was doing.

Next to our full time soul-winner we are going to put a nice graphic with information about our Church. It will be great advertisement. People will see every time they walk by that there is another church in town!

God is so good! All I can do is praise Him for opening this door for us.

Great Sunday!

Yesterday we ended our 10 week program for the children, and God blessed. Many kids where there and two of their moms showed up. This has been one of my goals from the beginning. I'm praying we can reach some of these Gypsy families through their children. Ljubica, Rich's wife, did a great job organizing everything. The children sang, and recited the verses they've learned. It was such a joy to see them up on the platform singing and quoting God's Word! Who knows the next Gypsy Smith may have been up there.

Our work with the Children will not stop here. I'll begin leading a children's church for them next Sunday.

Since we have begin working with these children it has been a battle all the way. Many of you that follow this blog know what I mean. One little girl in the van asked me last night, "Can we stay an extra hour." I wish adults had that attitude for church.