I am so far behind on blogging, I'm not sure where to begin !! But I'm just going to let the 400+ pics we have taken over the last month dictate how to share some of the highlights. Spring has finally arrived here in Krakow, and after a long hard winter, we have been excited to get out into the sunshine and enjoy life outdoors a little more.

Krakow has a ton of festivals in the city center, with tons of lures for small children like ours! We have been blessed to be able to enjoy some of these with old and new friends:

Can't go wrong with face paint, popcorn, and rides !!!

enjoying a Polish snack with our friends

running up/down the castle hill

riding the tram home -- a fun day with paintings on faces and arms !!!

Birthday party for a friend............the same Krakow Tigers family that we had over for dinner. Kaleb even got to touch a real snake !!!

Our new Krakow Tigers duds !!!

Kaleb's own #7 jersey, and Arin's $10 E-bay find -- a perfect match !!!

Kirstin had the opportunity to visit the Polish Pottery city with some colleagues here in Krakow!!! The pottery was amazing, and the scenery was beautiful........but the biggest blessing was the company of some great ladies !!!

One final pic: the blessing package we received from the kids at our home church, Quail Springs Baptist !!! Thank you for loving us !! We loved every sweet and every card !!!

So far, this only scratches the surface.......

More pics to come soon...............I've got to pace myself, you know !!!............................

Crazy busy.........but lovin life!

Life has been clippin at a fast pace this month!
But we had a particularly great weekend, so I wanted to share. We had a great day of worship today. Albert had the opportunity to bring the message at our Polish church this morning, and he did a GREAT job !! Now, Albert's never felt called to preach............but I think God really used him to bring encouragement, hope and challenge to some people today. He just spoke from his heart.............but God confirmed through several who shared during the testimony time that they really needed to hear what God had placed on Al's heart! Then we had the blessing of worshipping our Lord in our heart language at Compass International Fellowship this evening, felt built up by the body of Christ, and left encouraged by the Word!
Yesterday, our home was filled with lots of opportunity to encourage and witness! We had some friends over early in the day who blessed our kids..........and Mommy too !!! I'm always so thankful for the opportunity to deepen relationships with other believers, and pass on encouragement in stressful times! Then we had one of the football players and his family over for dinner. We had a great time serving them, and had unique opportunities to share testimony of our Lord with them. They have not been open to spiritual things because of past bad experiences, but they received our love and listened intently to our perspective of a faithful God!
In spite of all the rain and cloudy days we've had here in Krakow, we are thankful that the SON is always shining brilliantly!

Loads of Pics!

I finally got all our recent pics downloaded.....................which is quite a feat for this low tech operator! The first batch of pics captures our Easter Sunday celebration! The kids cooperated with pics in the beautiful sunshine, and Arin even put on a little style show for the camera. Since Easter was so close to our 1 year anniversary of living in Krakow, we did a double celebration with the Brownds...the family we arrived on the field with one year ago !! We celebrated Easter lunch with them in their home!

As close as you get to "Angelic"

Hammin it up!

Posing like a princess! (aren't you convinced?)

Celebration with the Brownds

We also took a couple of days to get away together as a family since the kids had some days off of school............and Daddy had no football practice. We had not yet seen the mountains of Poland which are just 1 1/2 hours south of our city, so we took a quick trip down to Zakopane to take in some of God's creation. We had some great family time! During the 3 days we were there, the weather changed every day! The day we arrived was beautiful! Day 2 was a little dreary, but we set out on adventure none the less:

Ski jump

Daddy drools over the food selection !!!

Arin loves to take pics too!

We had decided that we were going to do some hiking on day 3 if the rains held off, but we were a little shocked when we opened the curtains that third day to find this:

We didn't know we were going to get to see Zakopane "winterized", but it was a beautiful day to explore together! We rode the cable car to the very tops of the mountains, and we played in the snow next to a river -- the simple pleasures of life, huh?!?!

Riding the cable car

The final set of pics I have for you on this post is from our 1 year anniversary celebration of living in Poland! It is truly hard to believe that we have completed our first year on the field already. In many ways, it feels like we have just stepped off the plane! This year has been so full and so blessed, it has really flown by! We have seen some of the most beautiful places God has ever created, we have met some of the most precious people He has ever created, and we have been eternally changed by these past 365 days.

As a side note, I am happy to report that we have made a 100% gain in our knowledge of the Polish language compared to what we knew 1 year ago!!! (You gotta count the small victories, ya know!)

We consider our life here to be a real privilege...............to be the hands and feet of Christ's Church amongst Poles!

We decided that we wanted to celebrate by returning to the place where we were first introduced to Polish food one year ago -- U Babcia Maliny! A colleague took us there the day after we arrived in Krakow. Incidentally, we ran into some of the very friends who met us there at that same restaurant one year ago...............Malaysian medical students who had come with our colleague to welcome us to Krakow ---- isn't God good !!! Such sweet memories..............and our days just keep getting filled with more and more !!!

yummy !!!

Pierogis !!!

(Sorry.......forgot to rotate this one -- but i'm almost done and I'd rather get this posted before another week gets away from me)

We love our Charissa, Kiu-Fen, and Ivy !!!

Walking alongside the Grieved

I'm continuing to blog a little bit out of order, but I wanted to address the recent tragedy our country has been dealing with before I backtrack and address other things that we still want to share about.

We been able to have many spiritual discussions with aquaintances and friends this past week in light of the great loss of life here in Poland. We have watched fellow Polish believers whose grief is doubled because they see their fellow countrymen who grieve in desperation, instead of with the hope of Christ. So much of this past week has been nationally focused on praying for those who lost their lives, because their belief system leaves them with NO security in death! They never know if they have done enough "good" to merit a place in heaven, even if you held a prestigious title here on Earth! It has been a good reminder of how thankful I am for the security and hope I have in Christ! Do you have this certainty? It is just as available to YOU !!! There is no greater title than "HIS"................I don't have to earn His love or His favor.......and even in death, I am secure !!! Thank you, Jesus !!!

Albert and I had a chance to be among the people this weekend during the funeral proceedings, since the former president and his wife were buried here in our city. Below are a few of the pictures we captured. It's hard to describe the emotions and feelings we observed, but we are thankful for the enormous outpouring of prayer over this nation! There is power in those prayers, and we pray that the Truths of His Word that we were able to share this week will sink deep into hearts and flourish into life-saving faith !!! Thank you for your contribution to His work this week as you've prayed !!!!

St. Mary's Church - site of the funeral ceremony

Big screens outside televising the proceedings

Memorial for the President and First Lady

Polish Flag with black ribbon for mourning

Funeral procession in Warsaw, projected on the screens in Krakow

Evidence of mourning.... seen everywhere!

Upward perspective of St. Mary's Church -- we look up in HOPE!!

On our way to our Polish church.......supporting our country!

Lots to Process

I am way overdue on blogging, but I've honestly been putting it off because there's just been so much to process. I'm afraid none of it will make sense coming out of my head. So here goes the hard work of processing out loud.

We are walking through history with our host country right now. The tragic death of a large number of this country's leaders this past weekend has been devastating for this nation. The circumstances surrounding the location of the plane crash, the large concentration of all the country's leaders being lost in one day, and the unprecedented void left behind has been very surreal for the people we see each day coming and going. Although we are in the midst of them, it is still difficult to truly relate as a foreigner. We have seen reactions of heartbreak, absolute shock, fear over who might politically take advantage, and even guilt over a lack of support for the president. I have learned alot watching them grieve and process this tremendous loss. We are currently exercising a 7 day mourning period here in Poland. What does this mean? Well, it is interestingly tied to many cultural rituals...........with rules. So much of life here is overwhelmed with cultural expectations and rules. Even in their deepest times of crisis, they revert back to establishing and then maintaining the cultural norms. This is what they know...........and hence, there is security there.

It paints a very clear picture as to why Poles have a works-based faith.

Oh, how I long for them to get a taste of the freedom in Christ. That they would taste and see that the Lord is good! How light His burden can be for them !!!

Oh, to be able to speak their heart language at a time like this!

Which brings me full circle with my greatest struggle here.......the language barrier. With the known difficulty of the Polish language and the abundance of English speakers here in Krakow, it would be so easy to cut my losses with learning the Polish language and be free from this struggle............but my heart just doesn't comply. My heart longs to be able to communicate effectively on a deeper level. But until God blesses me with a miracle, or I've had 5+ years of language immersion (according to the stats)..............I've got to trust that HIS power IS made perfect in my weakness.

So, we continue to learn, become experts in pantomime, and trust that our actions and non-verbals somehow express the love we have for them growing in our hearts.

Here's to another day of being a common vessel..............filled up with HIM, available to be poured out on Poles. Dobranoc (goodnight)