YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN TEXAS IN AUGUST WHEN.

Well I'm usually pretty glad to be in Croatia and not in Texas in August but this year is an exception. It's as hot here in Croatia as it is in Texas and that's ridiculous! You know the problem? Very few places have A/C and our churches for sure don't have A/C. 

Tonight in church our pastor's little girl walked up to me and asked me, "do you know the difference between the back of my neck and hell (actually the word is Pakao in Croatian and it's not used as a curse word)?" I said, "Nah, what's the difference?" She smiled and said, "about 2 degrees." HA, she's a hoot!

Anyhow, here's an ode to Summer in Texas and in my case Croatia. 

1. The birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground

2. The trees are whistling for the dogs

3. The best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance

4. Hot water now comes out of both taps

5. You can make sun tea instantly

6. You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron

7. The temperature drops below 95 and you feel a little chilly

8. You discover that in August it only takes 2 fingers to steer your car

9. You discover that you can get sunburned through your car window

10. You actually burn your hand opening the car door

11. You break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 a.m

12. Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, 'What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death

13. You realize that asphalt has a liquid state

14. The potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out and add butter, salt and pepper

15. Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs

16. The cows are giving evaporated milk

Ah, what a place to call home.. .
God Bless The Lone Star State of Texas................

Sweet 16 Photos

We have some incredible sights here in Croatia and one of them is a former Hungarian castle just north of us. Anyhow, we headed out there and took some photos of our sweet 16 year old.

Hannah is a lovely girl both inside and out. She's a joy to parent. Anyhoo, here's some of my amateur photography.

Anyhow, love my girl and love being her mom. 

The Amazing Book!

Sitting here this morning reading my Bible I can't help but reflect on what a sure word we have in the KJV Bible. What a gift to be able to read the words of this book and know without a shadow of a doubt that these are the very Word's of God.

It's an amazing Book that is alive and becomes new to the reader with every word. 

Here are some really interesting Bible facts. Did you know.....

• The Bible can be read aloud in 70 hours.


• A number of verses in the Bible (KJV) contain all but 1
  letter of the alphabet: Ezra 7:21 contains all but the letter j; Joshua 7:24, 1
  Kings 1:9, 1 Chronicles 12:40, 2 Chronicles 36:10, Ezekiel 28:13, Daniel 4:37,
  and Haggai 1:1 contain all but q; 2 Kings 16:15 and 1 Chronicles 4:10 contain
  all but z; and Galatians 1:14 contains all but k.


• The system of chapters was introduced in A.D. 1238 by
  Cardinal Hugo de S. Caro, while the verse notations were added in 1551 by
  Robertus Stephanus, after the advent of printing.


•  A Bible in the University of Gottingen is written on 2,470
  palm leaves.


•  According to statistics from Wycliffe International, the
  Society of Gideons, and the International Bible Society, the number of new
  Bibles that are sold, given away, or otherwise distributed in the United States
  is about 168,000 per day.

BIBLE STATISTICS:

• Number of books in the Bible: 66


• Chapters: 1,189


• Verses: 31,101


• Words: 783,137


• Letters: 3,566,480


• Number of promises given in the Bible: 1,260


• Commands: 6,468


• Predictions: over 8,000


• Fulfilled prophecy: 3,268 verses


• Unfulfilled prophecy: 3,140


• Number of questions: 3,294


• Longest name: Mahershalalhashbaz (Isaiah 8:1)


• Longest verse: Esther 8:9 (78 words)


• Shortest verse: John 11:35 (2 words: "Jesus
  wept").


• Middle books: Micah and Nahum


• Middle verse: Psalm 118:8


• Middle chapter: Psalm 117


• Shortest chapter: Psalm 117 (by number of words)


• Longest book: Psalms (150 chapters)


• Shortest book (by number of words): 3 John


• Longest chapter: Psalm 119 (176 verses)


• Number of times the word "God" appears: 3,358


• Number of times the word "Lord" appears: 7,736


• Number of different authors: 40


• Number of languages the Bible has been translated into: over
  1,200

OLD TESTAMENT STATISTICS:

• Number of books: 39


• Chapters: 929


• Verses: 23,114


• Words: 602,585


• Letters: 2,278,100


• Middle book: Proverbs


• Middle chapter: Job 20


• Middle verses: 2 Chronicles 20:17,18


• Smallest book: Obadiah


• Shortest verse: 1 Chronicles 1:25


• Longest verse: Esther 8:9


• Longest chapter: Psalms 119


• Largest book: Psalms

NEW TESTAMENT STATISTICS:

• Number of books: 27


• Chapters: 260


• Verses: 7,957


• Words: 180,552


• Letters: 838,380


• Middle book: 2 Thessalonians


• Middle chapters: Romans 8, 9


• Middle verse: Acts 27:17


• Smallest book: 3 John


• Shortest verse: John 11:35


• Longest verse: Revelation 20:4


• Longest chapter: Luke 1


• Largest book: Luke

RANDOM FACTS: 

•  The last word in the Bible is AMEN


• About 50 Bibles are sold every minute 


• The Bible was written in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic,
  and Koine Greek. 


• Dogs are mentioned 14 times in the Bible, and lions 55
  times, but domestic cats are not mentioned at all. 


• The Bible, the world's best-selling book, is also the
  world's most shoplifted book. 


• The word "Christian" appears only three times in
  the Bible: Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16. 


• There are 66 books in the Bible, 39 in the Old Testament and
  27 in the New Testament. 


• The 66 books of the Bible is divided into 1,189 chapters
  consisting of 31,173 verses. The Old Testament has 929 chapters, the New
  Testament 260. (King James version) 


• The King James Old Testament consist of 592,439 words
  consisting of 2,728,100 letters and the New Testament 181,253 words consisting
  of 838,380 letter (total 3,566,480 letters). 


• The longest line in the Bible is Esther 8:9 - 89 words, 425
  letters.


• The longest word in the Bible is Maher-shalal-hash-baz:
  Isaiah 8:1. 


• The longest book chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119, the
  shortest is Psalm 117. 


• There are 594 chapters before Psalm 118 and 594 chapters
  after it. 


• Psalm 118 verse 8 is in the center of the Bible: "It is
  better to trust in the Lord than put confidence in man." 


• Obadiah, with 21 verses consisting of 602 words, is the
  shortest book in the Old Testament, and the third shortest in the Bible. 


• II John has the fewest number of verses of any book in the
  Bible - it is the shortest book in the Bible. 


• III John has the fewest number of words of any book in the
  Bible. 


• Job is the oldest book written in the Bible - it was written
  by an unknown Israelite around 1500 BC. 


• Malachi, written about 400 BC, is the youngest book in the
  Old Testament. 


• James, written around 45 AD, is the oldest book in the New
  Testament. 


• Revelation, written about 95 AD, is the youngest book in the
  New Testament. 


• The verse in the exact middle of the Bible is Psalm 117:8.
  There are 594 chapters before Psalm 117 and 594 chapters after Psalm 117. 


•  Paul wrote 14 (of the
  27) books of the New Testament. 


• The word "Lord" appears 1855 times in the Bible. 


• The word "God" appears in every book except Esther
  and Song of Solomon. 


• The word "grandmother" appears in the Bible only
  once: 2 Timothy 1:5. 


• The word "eternity" is mentioned only once: Isaiah
  57:15. 


• Seven suicides are recorded in the Bible. 


• In Old Testament times the Mediterranean Sea was called the
  Great Sea. 


• There are 7 different Jeremiahs in the Bible: 1 Chronicles
  5:24; 12:4, 10, 13; 2 Kings 23:30; Jeremiah 1:1; 35:3. 


• The raven is the first bird mention in the Bible. It appears
  in Genesis 8:7, when it is sent out from the ark by Noah to see if the flood
  waters have abated. The second bird was a dove, in verse 8. 


• Almonds and pistachios are the only nuts mentioned in the
  Bible. 


• A chariot imported from Egypt cost around 600 shekels of
  silver (1 Kings 10:29). That would be about $77,000. One shekel was 4 days
  wages. 


• The word "trinity" is not mentioned in the Bible. 


• Methuselah is the oldest man on record: 969 years old
  (Genesis 5:27).

I typed this poem 14 years ago and taped it neatly in the front of my Bible. I love it and read it often.

God's Treasure

There is a treasure,
Rich beyond measure,
Offered to mortals today;
Some folks despise it,
Some criticize it,
Some would explain it away.

Some never read it,
Some never head it,
Some say "It's long had it's day";
Some people prize it,
And he who tried it,
Finds it's his comfort and stay.

God gave this treasure,
Rich beyond measure,
His Word, we call it today.
Let us believe it,
Gladly receive it,
Read, mark and learn to obey.

~A.M.N.

Just Life and Happenings

We've been back in Croatia for 5 weeks and it feels like we hit the ground running. Summer is in full swing and it seems like every day is filled to the brim.

I remember being a young teen and feeling like 24 hours in a day was way too long. I was constantly bored and now, if I could stretch that 24 hours into 48 hours a day I so would. There's never enough time in a day for everything.

Anyhow, since we've been home we've been busy with life and ministry.

We love Summer in Croatia cause that means HIKING! We love to go and hike the nearby mountains, our favorite hike is Ivanščica. It's the highest mountain in the northern part of Croatia and the view from the top is amazing.

We thought we were at the top after taking a new route only to see our destination on the next mountain. That's it in the above photo. Talk about a bummer. 

We took Zoi for the first time and in the beginning she was thrilled but half way up I think she started to regret coming. 

The views are amazing!

We're always happy to make it back down the mountain and fill up and the natural spring. The water is so cool and fresh.

We've also been doing little projects around the house like the little walk way above. I purchased the cement forms while in the states and brought them with me when we came home. This part of the back yard was always a mud pit since it's well shaded. So we joined the back patio and the cement walk way along the house so not more mud pit.

I fully reccomend this product. It's so easy to use and reuse. I love the way the forms can be used to make a curve in the design even though they are square in shape. Give it a try, looks great and it's easy. 

Then we took a trip up to Bible Baptist Church of Debrecen, Hungary and Johnny preached their 17th anniversary. Bro. Zsolt Kovacs is the pastor and he was very sweet, godly wife and wonderful children. The first church plant here in Croatia supports them monthly as national missionaries.

BTW, if your church is looking for a missionary that is actually going to do the work and make a difference Bro. Zsolt is that missionary. He is doing an amazing job of reaching his own people for the Lord.


While we were in Debrecen we stopped at a little historical village along the highway. Apparently when building the highway they found the ruins of this village and remade it. It was pretty cool even though it was extremely hot that day.




We had a good time and it was interesting to see how people loved back then. 

We've also been very busy ministry wise. We ladies are canvasing the whole town of Varadin one house at a time. We're currently doing the neighborhood of Texas, yes Texas and we're well on our way to giving a Gospel tract or John and Romans to every house in Varazdin. Above is my partners missionary Melissa Houston and my Hannah girl.


We also just had our first ladies meeting at the second church plant. We met to pray for our missionary we support and make cards to send to them. We have a good group of ladies who want to please the Lord and I'm excited to see what God's going to do here.








Also the end of June Johnny and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary. I can't believe we've been married 22 years but it also seems like we've been together for ever. The truth is that I've been with Johnny longer than I've been without him. Can't imagine life without him.

Anyhoo, I made him this Sterling Silver guitar pick for our anniversary. He used it and believe it or not it sounds great.

We are enjoying a full ministry life but we love our family time. I can't believe that we're looking at the middle of July already and summer's gonna be over before we know it. We have several more projects in the future not to mention all the church stuff. I'm thankful that we have people to minister to and life here in Croatia is pretty good!

Happy Sweet 16 Hannah

Yesterday (belated) our baby Hannah turned 16. I can't imagine her being 16 for more than one reason. For one thing, where did 15, 14 13 and 12 go? for another thing, how did I get this old?

Hannah was born in our bedroom at home in Arlington on a very hot July day. From the time she was born she was a delight, except for the first week of non-stop crying. 

She was a joy as a toddler. She was always smiling and everyone loved her. We started deputation when she was 9 months old and I'm sure she was responsible for the majority of our support. She was such a bright little girl and she stole many a pastor's heart along the deputation trail.

We arrived in Croatia 2 years short of her 3rd birthday. She was still learning to speak English when she began to learn Croatian. 

Her bright blue eyes and curly hair made for an adorable little girl. 

She loved to help Mom in the kitchen and was always mixing stuff and experimenting.

Hannah was and is always smiling. She's always singing and she has a real song in her heart. She has a lovely voice and uses it to praise the Lord. 

She's growing into a lovely young lady. 

Hannah has been a joy to parent. She has never complained about being on the mission field and she's a huge help. She has a heart for the Lord and for those in need. She has always been drawn to the needy and she has the ability to find a hurting heart and be there to comfort. She feels that the Lord would have her spend her life sharing the Gospel with the deaf. She has already been able to work with the deaf and she's is learning ASL and Croatian signing also. 

Her Dad and I love her so much. We are so thankful that the Lord allowed us to be her parents. We are excited to see what He's going to do with her life. 

                         We love you Hannah,

                                Happy 16th Birthday!!