We Welcome Spring !!!!

We had a great week here in Krakow! It was busy, but it was blessed! The coaches arrived here a little delayed on Monday because of the winter storm that hit the States, so they hit the ground running! And their luggage finally arrived on Thursday and Friday !!! They were troopers with great attitudes despite their travelling struggles...............(I think they were able to finally laugh about it come Thursday.)
They worked with the football team each afternoon at a beautiful field here in Krakow. Then they had dinner, fellowship, and spiritual discussion time with about 10-15 of the guys each evening. They also got to help with the flag football program as well. The week ended with the most amazing football upset in the history of the Krakow Tigers! The Tigers triumphed over the 2009 A League Champions, the Miners, in a 24-20 victory on Saturday !! It was so fun for the coaches to get to celebrate that victory with the guys! Here are a few pics from the football camp as well as the game:

Football Camp:

Tigers Vs. Miners 3/27/10

The kids are excited!

Kaleb told Daddy "Congrats, I'm proud of you!"

Prayers Needed!!!

We have an exciting week ahead of us..............and we need your participation! Will you pray? We have 4 coaches who are enroute from the States who will arrive tomorrow to work with the Krakow Tigers this week. They will be doing a football camp with the guys each afternoon, then they will be doing Chronological Bible Storying with them in the evenings. Please pray for good weather, good health, and receptive hearts ready to receive the news of a Risen Savior! Here's this year's team pic...........so you can picture their faces while you pray:

Krakow Tigers 2010

Remnants of Winter......remnants of HIM!

I was so blessed the other day !!! I was sitting by our window as the sunlight flooded in, soaking it in (it's been a while since we've seen the sun)..............and I noticed an odd process of melting going on outside on our balcony:

You see, a couple of weeks ago, we had several days of consistent snowfall which deposited about 8 inches of snow on our balcony. As I was leaving the house one day, I realized that I had forgotten something (which is more common than I'd like to admit), so I naturally called upstairs to Albert on our doorbell/phone and asked him to just drop it down to me from the balcony. It's worth saving another trip up and down 4 flights of stairs. Unfortuately, in order to comply with my ridiculous request, Albert had to step out onto our balcony and disturb our beautifully deposited 8" of snow. Oh, it had looked so beautiful and undisturbed !!!

In these recent days, the sun has emerged and begun to melt our snow. I noticed that almost all of the snow on our balcony was thin and melting.............except Albert's footprints!!!! How strange it looked to me. The very place where the beauty had been trampled on and pressed down was the last remaining remnant when the heat had been turned up!

Then I felt a gentle reminder from my Lord flood my soul like the warm sunshine washing over me: how often I get upset by the disruption of the Lord's activity in my life, especially when I'm feeling pressed down.............doesn't He sometimes mess up "our scenery"? Yet, when the heat is turned up, we see that His imprint is what lasts the longest.............the rest of my piddly contribution just melts away. His mark is the remaining remnant!

Oh, how I love that He uses the simple things to teach me something profound!

Speaking of those snowy days, here are a few snapshots of our family Valentine celebration in the snow! We went sledding and ice skating under the most beautiful blanket of falling snow I've ever seen.

The Winter Wonderland (Park Jordana)

A skating wonderland