In March, we had a mission team come to Krakow during their Spring break to help us with a new church plant. We have a vision to plant a new Polish Baptist church this Fall, but there is lots of ground work to find those who are searching to find a place to belong and grow spiritually. One avenue God has opened up for us to find spiritual seekers is through English. This is where this mission team played a part.........
They served as native speakers for university students learning to teach English, and they helped us host a 5 day English intensive course on American culture. Each evening, we taught about our home culture, then pulled that topic toward spiritual discussions.
This team really invested in the Poles that God brought to these meetings. They spent their free time meeting with contacts and building spiritual bridges !!!
In the university classes, the students brought us Polish snacks for our break time. They served us so well!!!
In our evening language course, they spent more time in small groups discussing culture and spiritual topics. We were all amazed at how open these participants were to talk about faith......not very typical in our culture. But these volunteers made them feel loved and valued!!!
We covered topics like Easter, birthday traditions, immigration, and other celebrations.
Most evenings, the team went out to eat with their new friends.....and got to see some neat places in our town with locals !!!
Our final debriefing time together was testimony that God had worked in the lives of Poles as well as our mission team volunteers!!!
Kirstin continues to help teach kids' Sunday school at our local church. The lesson in March was about serving others, so we prepared snacks for our entire church body. The kids LOVED serving!
As the sun emerges, we are discovering hidden treasures in our neighborhood! Here is a bike/walking path behind us that runs along a river. It's amazing to here the calming rush of the water in the midst of our big city !!!
As a spiritual follow-up to our English intensive course, we are meeting monthly in a local coffee shop to have English discussions about spiritual topics. This is another avenue for us to find where the Spirit is at work among Poles.
As of April 2017, here is our current Team Krakow. Mark and Susie Edworthy are our team leaders. Logan is a college student here for a 4 month semester assignment. Matt and Shelby Meyer just joined our team and will complete their first 3 year term here with us !!
God is raising up workers for the harvest!!
Will you pray for us?!?!?!
