Blessings overflow......

I got blessed this past week. It was a tough week.................I felt like I was stripped down to nothing, and then, my Savior stepped in.

Arin and I went to the market for some fresh fruits and veggies. She asked if we could get some flowers (like normal), and I gladly agreed! We found a beautiful flower stand with an array of beautiful tulips. I asked the price, and the lady said they were priced by the stem. Arin and I discussed (in English) what we wanted and I told Arin that we could get 3 -- this would be just enough to brighten our dinner table! Arin decided that she couldn't resist the pink tulips (surprise, surprise), so I asked the seller if we could buy just 3 of them. She said that they were normally sold by the bundle............so I asked how much the bundle was. She looked at Arin and I, then put the whole bundle in my hand and responded "nic" --- nothing. I tried my best to convince her in Polish that I wanted to pay her for the beautiful flowers, but she was determined to not take a single złoty from me. I was dumbfounded !!! I didn't even know how to receive this generous gift in such a non-generous culture. I felt that this was a huge sacrifice for her because there were about 15 tulips in the bundle !!! As we walked away in sincerest gratitude, Arin and I prayed a blessing over this woman.

All the way home, I was telling God how humbled I was that He would use the very people that I came to minister to.......to minister to me. When we got home, we carefully unbundled our tulips to prep them for display, and I found that I could only fit about 8 of my blessings into my one and only vase......................and then I lost it.

I didn't even have enough room to contain all of my blessings!

I heard the sweet voice of my Savior saying to my heart, " this is just like Me............I give you more blessings in life than you could possibly contain. You gotta search for some extra 'display containers' for my level of blessings."

I've been chewing on the many levels of this reminder about the character of my Lord this week as I've watched those blessings bloom:

my extra display container -- the Coke cup!

He has been my blessing this past week !! How about you?

Football Camp

This past week, we had a coach come from the States to help with a pre-season football camp with the Krakow Tigers. They met each evening for practice, then mid day on Saturday and Sunday. Here are a few shots from the daytime practices:

We were able to invite 2 other football programs to join in on the weekend camp days, which gave our guys a chance to scrimmage as well. This coach from the States, Don, was able to meet with some of the Krakow Tigers one-on-one outside of practices. He was able to share his testimony with one player, and helped lead Al's weekly Bible study with the guys in his hotel room. Although the weather was very uncooperative, Al and Don had a great quantity of hours to spend with these Polish men throughout the week.

During this time, we also had some other things going on. Kirstin and the kids went to Radosc, Poland over the weekend to attend a training seminar on a new tool for leading Poles through the Old Testament. It was a great time to dig into the Word, spend time with colleagues, and play with lots of English-speaking friends.
We also had some celebrations this past week !!! Kaleb had 2 separate Polish tests at school when he returned from winter break. One was on vocabulary, and the other was on grammar. He did really great on both tests..............so we celebrated by taking him out to see a movie.......in Polish, of course !! Ha Ha ! There's no rest for the weary brain from Polish.

Albert and Kirstin also celebrated 10 YEARS of marriage !!! We had alot going on that day, so it was a real surprise when Albert secretly arranged an anniversary date !! He had the other coaches cover football camp for the evening, and arranged for a babysitter! It was such a sweet time to spend together and look back over the blessings of these past 10 years! We look forward to the next 10 ahead of us !! I wonder where we will be...........