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

Exciting news to share !!!

We have had the opportunity to witness and celebrate the very reason we are here !!! A brother in Christ, Robert, is a Polish believer who is young in his walk with the Lord. His spiritual journey toward Christ began over a year ago when he overheard some of our teammates speaking English at a bus stop. Wanting to practice his English, he began talking with them, accepted the invitation to come to Coffee House, then Church............and now has his name written in the Book of Life !!! Just recently, he asked if he could testify how the Lord has made him a new creation through baptism. So we borrowed the pool at the local YMCA. He was so excited that he invited all his family...........and even all his Facebook friends! He is passionate about his Lord !!!

Praying before the baptism

All of us joining in Praise
thanking his Lord in English

then thanking his Lord in Polish
Dying to the old self

Raised with Christ in newness of life!
Praise HIM !!!!

There's no better testimony !!! This is what life is all about !!

If you don't have it, don't let the sun set before you ask about this most amazing gift from your Creator!!

Fun times in Germany!

We had a rich and full 5 days in Germany with some precious company people. We got the opportunity to share the exciting things we've seen God do here in Krakow over these past 10 months, and I feel like we got more excited ourselves every time we had a chance to share and sum up what we've experienced. We also got to meet some new faces serving along side us and catch up with some familiar faces from orientation days. It was surreal to realize how much has been experienced in this short amount of time apart! In addition to the spiritual renewal time, we had some great physical renewal time in the beautiful winter wonderland of Germany's countryside. Although we have snow covered surroundings here in Krakow, there was something extra captivating about the snow covered surroundings there in Germany. We are certain that pictures could never do this kind of beauty justice, but here's a few snapshots none the less:

We return to Krakow with a renewed passion to see our Lord's name proclaimed here in this city. We are excited to see what He has in store for these next 10 months! We value your prayer support as we prioritize the 24 hours we have each day to invest in the lives here where the Spirit is already working. And there is plenty of blessing to go around here amongst Poles, so if the Spirit is prompting your heart, please come join us on a short term mission trip this year. We can give you info about the teams we know are planning to come! It's gonna be a great 2010!

2010!!!!

Our new year has begun..............with plenty of blessings !!! We hope that yours has been fully blessed as well!!!

Kaleb and Arin returned to school after the new year............only to have another 2 week break! "Winter Break" in Poland ! Don't fully understand it, but we love spending time together as a family, so any extra time with Kaleb and Arin at home is welcomed !! We have been able to do some work and some play !! Kaleb is improving his reading skills and learning some basic math concepts.............and it's always good to get to learn these things in English (at home)!!! Arin is anxious to read as well as her brother (like, yesterday!!!), so we work on important things like patience as well as letter and number recognition with her. :>

We did get to have a parent-teacher meeting with Kaleb's teacher to find out how he is doing in Polish school. And through an interpretter, we were able to find out that he is doing very well! He fits in great, fully participates in classroom activities, and speaks only Polish to his teacher and classmates! Although his phrases are short, she seems very pleased that he is not trying to resort to communicating in his native language! He makes us very proud! We need to begin the decision making process about where he will be schooled next year. Please pray that we will hear clearly from the Lord where He wants Kaleb to be! These are tough, weighty decisions for parents!

During this short interim of school, Arin had the chance to shine in her school program last week! They have been preparing a program to celebrate Grandparents' Day for a few months. Although the teacher was not certain about giving Arin a speaking part (since she only attends 2 mornings a week), she delivered her Polish lines beautifully ! (Actually, she stills recites them around the house regularly!) Here are a few shots of our Angel in the limelight:

Speaking of fun family time, here are more shots of our times together in our Polish winter:

Sledding!!!!

Skiing!!!!

Al is still fully engaged in ministry with the Football guys. We have been able to have several of them over to just hang out with our family in addition to having Bible Study at our place this month. Our new Christmas toy, the Wii, has proved to be very entertaining for both young and old!!! We are thankful for every avenue to build relationships with these special people here!

You haven't noticed that we are up past our bedtime, right Mommy?!?!

We will be leaving Krakow for a few days this next week for Germany. In celebrating our first year of overseas life, our company holds a conference for all new personnel close to their one year anniversary to gather us back together to evaluate and refocus. We will get to celebrate our Lord's work all over Europe, see some old faces from orientation, and be encouraged! Please pray for safe travel, health for our kids, and the ability to give God glory in all that we do !