Tennis Ministry International www.tennisministry.org - www.tennisministry.com 2008 Mission statement:  Healing the mind, body and spirit of the tennis world.

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January 17,  In the past week, 56 New Testaments with Proverbs and Psalms have been willing received by 31 men and 24 women players.  Had several meetings today with various people who are not players but connected to the tour.  They are assisting me in planning for the upcoming Grand Slam tournaments.  I spent two hours in the evening on the free Internet phone to Hong Kong, arranging my tennis program and also advising some of the young players who are playing tournaments.

January 16, Arrive at 9am.  The outside courts, except the stadium courts, were delayed or canceled for the extreme heat.  I hear it got up to 42C or 107.6F.  The matches were pushed back to the evening under the lights and I finished watching the player who gave me my credential at 2:30am.  Most of my time today inside in the players restaurant or lounge, talking and giving New Testaments.  It is interesting to note that the players feel much closer to me after receiving the Book, and I can only attribute that to a miracle.

January 15, A total of 42 New Testaments with Proverbs and Psalms in various languages has been given to the players in the past five days.   They are well received in part, based upon my years of relationships with the players.  They are willingly accepted and I am able to go over with them how to read a Bible with chapter and verse.  Included with this is a topical index with verses and several other pamphlets on the basics of how to believe.  One player received a New Testament in Croatian and is very joyful.  A German and Polish player went to church as young children, had good memories of church, started playing tennis tournaments thus stopped attending church and are joyful to now get a New Testament and to meet a Pastor.  One player accepted all the material I had in Thai, including a Bible, 5 pamphlets and a Thai music tape of Christian music.  Too many others stories to share them all.  I rejoice!

January 14, Went to church at 9 am with my host family.  Afternoon at the tournament.  The 6pm service with several from the tournament back to church. Have dinner with several from the tournament.

January 13, Sleep in until 10 am, getting rested for the main draw tournament.  Go to the city center to change currency at the bank, purchase a phone card and buy groceries at the supermarket.  Arrive at the tournament at 2pm.  Return home at 10pm.

January 12, 8 am to tournament. I am able to pray with several players for needs. 11 pm return home.

January 11, 7 am to tournament. A players coaches son passed away.  I am able to console the player and pray. 11pm return home

January 10, I arrived in Melbourne and I was happy to see that all the Bibles and pamphlets that I had ordered arrived via ground transport, United Parcel Service.  It is great to see the Bibles in languages such as Serbian, Croatian, German, Finish and many other languages.  They are almost all pocket sized.  Also the printing for the bookmarks and covers  in Hong Kong went without any problems and I hand carried them on the airplane.  Upon my arrival at 11pm it was 36C, 97F.  I stayed up all night preparing the materials to give to the player the next morning.  Upon my arrival at the tournament, I had access to the tournament site but no credential.  I really felt that I should just do what God had put on my heart to do, and that is give the Word of God (Bible) to the players.  I did this for one hour and then a player said I will give you the credential.  And it was done.  I always pray that the correct person is giving me the credential, as that relationship during the course of the tournament is special.  This is the right person, as we have discussed spiritual life and we had not done that before.

January 4, starting to pack my bags.

January 3, Sent out an email looking for a player to grant my request for a tournament credential for the AU Open.

Called a women's tour player who is playing an exhibition in Hong Kong to meet up with her while she is in Hong Kong.

Email people/players who are meeting up with me in Melbourne.

The Bible's have been purchased from the Australian Bible Society.  100 New Testaments with Psalms and Proverbs, English NIV version. I found out January 3 from the Bible society that the New Testaments with Psalms and Proverbs may not be available by the date that I need them, January 11, 2007.  So they offered to substitute the same size book but only the New Testament.  I told them to wait until shipping to my Melbourne housing address until the last possible moment, in case the ones I originally ordered come through customs quicker.

I ordered New Testaments and Complete Bible's in various languages and quantities. 10 German NT & Psalms Sports Edition; 1 Finnish NT;
4 Croatian NT & Psalms; 2 Pocket Greek NT; 3 Hungarian Reference NT & Psalms; 2 Indonesian Bible; 7 Italian NT; 7 Korean NT & Psalms & Proverbs; 3 Romanian Compact Bible; 3 Serbian NT; 5 Thai NT; 8 Japanese NT; 3 Hindi NT.

Ordered several hundred 'Four Spiritual Laws" pamphlets from Campus Crusade for Christ Australia. Each is bilingual in English and matches the Bible language that will be given out.  These are shipped to the Melbourne housing address.
Four Spiritual Laws example

Almost all of these are ordered for specific players on the pro tennis tour.

January07/December06 - Spent almost a week designing, learning the program necessary to design it and then working with the Hong Kong printer for the tennis specific book cover, bookmark and inserts for each NT with Psalms and Proverbs.  To see them take a look at the files below:  I ordered 200 of these which will be hand carried by Pastor Bob Kraft to Melbourne and then put on each Bible individually.

December, 2006 - From the Hong Kong Bible Society I ordered: 6 Arabic NT; 5 Polish NT; 10 Chinese/English Bibles.

Coordinated housing for myself and two others who will be in Melbourne for pro tour ministry.

Solved some problem that I was having with my online credit card program via Paypal.  Communicated and oversaw the payments for the outreach materials and the supporters payments.