Fun Days of Summer

 Now that we are settled and finished travelling, we have had about 1 month of "summer time" before school starts.  Although Albert and Kirstin had a short intensive language course during this time, we have also made good use of the time to meet with all our Polish friends and enjoy family time together.

First up, a birthday celebration for Kirstin !!!!  There is a local tourist attraction where you can ride 200 feet up in the air in a hot air balloon that's tethered to get an aerial view of our beautiful city.  We've never taken part in this touristy attraction because it's quite pricey, but we thought a b-day celebration was worth the expense.  It was a beautiful day to get God's high view of our city !!!!

Waiting for our turn..................................

On our way up..........Wawel Castle in the background.

View of the Castle -- half way up......................

We live in a beutiful place!

 

It's sobering to see the size of our city from this perspective.  There is so much lostness..........please pray for the walls to be broken down and a softening of the hearts of these people.

 

 

Kaleb and Arin have been excited about the new beds they got with this home.  They've had "sleepovers" in their heads since we've set them up !!! 

So Kaleb invited his friend Kuba over to spend the night.  We had the whole family over for dinner, but the boys were so excited to finally start their "sleepover" once all the siblings left.

They played Wii.....................

 

(Mom, stop taking our picture............)

And they played outside

 

Kuba's family is a joy to be around.  We love to encourage them in their marriage and in their walk with Christ, and the Polish practice is very good for us. And Kuba is just a good friend for Kaleb.  We are thankful for the time we spend with them.

 

Albert joined in on a mission trip to Ukraine over a long weekend.  The mission team was a group from our home church in San Antonio -- FBC.  Albert got to contribute to teachings about marriage to the couples, purity to the youth, and preached at the local Baptist church that Sunday.  He returned home encouraged about the task of sharing God's love on this continent.

While he was out of town, the kids and Kirstin went on a date night in the city center.  We each picked our favorite food found in the Rynek, then sat by the fountain soaking up the culture while we ate.  I am still constantly amazed at the architecture and history that surrounds us here in Krakow.  I hope these images never get old to my eyes.........................

Our dinner table

Arin with her chicken wrap

Kaleb -- mid Subway bite

St. Mary's Basilica ...storms a' brewing in the background..............

local attraction............how does she sit up there in the air?  Can you figure it out?

Arin decided to use some of her allowance to buy a souvenir.

 

On our way back home, Arin decided that we needed to look in the ear piercing store ONE more time. (We've been contemplating this step for quite a while now.)  After a few changes of her mind, and a call to Daddy to ask if she should really do it, Arin decided that today was the day for her ears to get pierced !!!!!

Here's her apprehension...........................

No, just kidding..............I'm ready !!!!

prepping the site............

Double teaming !!! 

She was so irritated that they told her to count to 6, and they shot those guns on 4!!!! 

Oh, the nerve !!!!

No tears at all !!! Checking em out !!!

Big bro is proud too !!!

All smiles

Our church, Misja Laski, had a grill at one of our member's house.  It was a great time of fellowship, worship, eating, and introducing God's love to visitors that came !!!

Sharing truth from God's Word.

Kids playing

 Agnieszka and Ania

Silly faces by the grill

 

group pic

group pic plus a few of the kids and the dog !!!

 

Our summer has been full!!  And we still have one week left !! 

Kaleb and Arin will be attending the same school as last year, Uczen, but the school is moving to a new building again.  This will be Kaleb's 3rd location with this school.  Although I know our kids do amazingly well with all the adjustments our life asks of them, please pray for a seamless transition back into school, and that this new routine will provide ministry opportunities for our family in addition to our kid's education.

Annual Meeting in Greece

Once a year, our organization holds an annual meeting for all the personnel serving overseas in our area.  This year, we had the remarkable pleasure of meeting with ALL our personnel who serve European peoples...........from all corners of the globe.  We were able to hear testimony, worship, soak up the Word, and fellowship with 850 colleagues!  We met at a beautiful location in Greece.  In addition to our personnel, we had over 300 volunteers come from the States to serve us and minister to us in various capacities from kids VBS to medical care.

We are VERY blessed !!!

The encouragement to stay in the game, commit to the task, and to not lose heart was priceless for us.  What a blessing to hear powerful Bible teaching in our heart language for 4 days in a row !!  And the worship in English was medicine for my soul !!!

Here are a few snapshots from our conference:

Pretzel fun as we pass time on airport layovers.......

Kaleb and Arin ready for the VBS program.

Arin singing with the 7 year olds.

Kaleb's group played the recorders.

We also had some free time to enjoy the beach at sunset with some friends.  It was such a blessing to be built up by brothers and sisters who happen to be in this type of cross-cultural race.

swimming in the Agean Sea !!!  Do you see the rock skipping in the last pic?

After the conference was over, our family took some personal vacation days and stayed at the resort to rest and spend time together.  We swam in the luxurious pools, caught crabs at the beach, and participated in all the resort happenings including kids' club !!!  We even introduced our kids to jet skis as a special last day treat.  I thought the owner of the jet skis was just going to give them a ride, but he taught them how to drive, then encouraged them to max out the speed !!  I was glad I was on the dock limited to taking pictures only !!!

Posing by the awesome pool!

a Greek paradise !!!

Do you think he's a little excited ?!?!?

Off he goes..........................

Arin is next..............

Yep, she's a pro too !!!

Family ride on the banana !!!!

We found a friend who speaks Polish..........who knew?  Well, of course....we find friends EVERYWHERE!  Oh, the novelty of crabs!

Arin is sporting her face paint from kids' club !!!

We had such a blessed week............in more ways than one !!  So many that we may need a few more days to process all the blessings.

Timely Lessons

For those of you who just received our newsletter, please excuse the repetition, but I needed to document this recent lesson from God here on the blog for my future reference. He often gives us these timely lessons that we need to hang on to!

As we begin to settle into life, we have seen some rough days and

unexpected changes about how our ministry may take shape in the months to come.

• The location of our kids’ school will change for this next year, which shifted our search for where to live.
• Kirstin received word shortly after we arrived in Krakow that her grandmother passed away.
• The football team that Albert has worked with for the past 3 years may not be in existence any longer.
• It took 6 different visits from the internet provider before we actually had a signal in our new home to connect with loved ones.

Hardships are a part of life, in America or overseas, but God reminded me of an important lesson yesterday morning. Arin woke up during the 5am hour (the sun rises at 4:15 these days), but she fortunately went back to sleep. Kirstin, however, did not. This allowed me extra time to spend with God, and when I rose to open our living room curtains, I saw an amazing view of the Tatra mountains located an hour south of Krakow!

We had not seen this view since we’ve moved in because of the heat and low clouds. But a storm had moved through just the evening before…….which revealed the most amazing view of God’s creation. Often time, storms bring new perspective……….often a view we have never seen before.

What views are you waiting to see when the storms roll through your life? These light and momentary trials can result in blessings you don’t want to miss.

Getting Settled In

I am happy to report that we have found a new apartment to call home !!  During our first week back in Krakow, Kaleb and Arin got to return to school for the final week of classes.  Well, since it was the last week, there wasn't much going on academically, but they really enjoyed seeing all their friends before the summer break.

 While the kids were at school, Albert and Kirstin searched for apartments.  We had focused our search on an area of the city with easy access to the kids' school.  But on the day we needed to decide on an apartment, we found out that the school location would most likely be changing for this next school year.  So, this news basically nullified about 4 of the apartment options, and left us with only this one apartment that was more centrally located and has the easiest access to public transportation.  It is a beautiful place to call home, and we are excited to make it available for the Lord's use !!!  The best parts of our place are the large living room and outside balcony, which will be great spaces to have people in our home comfortably.................especially those big athletes.

Speaking of athletes, we have found out since we've returned that the Krakow Tigers, as an organization, may be dissolving.  We knew the season would be hard on the team with the new leadership in place, but the problems have spread like cancer and has turned the guys against each other.  Albert has tried to stay distant, so as to not add an additional factor into the problems.  But it is deeply saddening for us both.  7 years of IMB personnel investment in this team may be coming to an end.  But we see glimpses of why from the Lord, and Albert is confident that the investment into these Polish men over the past 3 years will keep him connected to them even though he may not be coaching them on a weekly basis. I believe he has lived out his faith so loudly before these men, that they will know they can seek Him out when the Holy Spirit draws them to Himself.  He will continue weekly Bible studies with the men who want to join him, which is ultimately why we are here anyway.  We are thankful for the foundational relationships that sports has brought to Albert among these guys.  And Albert has had very consistent contact with the Krakow Kings baseball team since we've returned.  They are in their active season, so he has been available to help coach them through practices and games.  God may be opening up more time for Albert to spend with these 25-30 men if the football ministry looks a little different than past years.

Our next task is to nail down language plans.  Since we are now career missionaries with the IMB, there is new funding available for us to have full time language lessons.  This will be the primary focus for our next 3 years.  We are hoping to find language tutors/classes in August once we return from our annual company meeting.  Please pray that we will be diligent students with the ability to absorb the intricacies of the Polish language.

Back on Polish Soil !!!!

We have completed our stateside time and have returned to Krakow, Poland !!!  Our time in the States was so full, I was overwhelmed with all that could be posted on the blog....................so, in response, I never got around to it.  I am sorry.  Maybe I will go back and do an update post to highlight the blessings of that time.
But for now, I just wanted to ask for prayer concerning 2 things. 
First, we are looking for a place to call home here in Krakow.  We have temporary housing set up for now........a hotel, then a friend's apartment on the south side.  But we need to find a place for our family so that we can get settled, set up language lessons, and begin ministry again.
Second, Kirstin's grandmother passed away the day after we arrived on the field.  After careful search and prayer, it does not seem possible for her to return to the States to celebrate this home-going. Please pray for the family as we grieve her loss this week from separate sides of the ocean.

Kaleb and Arin were able to return to school yesterday to participate in the final week of school activities here in Poland.  There was true joy in seeing their friends again.  They had a great day!!! 

Long time, no blog.......

I know our blog is seriously deficient in updates. I apologize. We have made it to the United States for our 6 month stateside time!!! We hit the ground running !!

We arrived on December 20th and simply had hopes that we might kick jet lag enough to be awake for the celebration of our Lord's birth. We did that and had a great celebration both in Oklahoma and Texas with our family.

We got to celebrate Jesus's birthday by singing praises to Him in ENGLISH !! Although He is more than worthy to be celebrated in any language, it was such a treat for us to worship Him in our heart language.

Worshipping Jesus !!!!

Birthday Celebrations for Jesus

eatin' good!!!!

manicures with Nana and Ning

trying out Arin's new Easy Bake Oven !!!!

Then we headed to Texas to see the Hesskew side of the fam!!! It was such a sweet reunion since we hadn't seen any of them for almost 3 years.

Spending time with our dog, Meg.......

Once we returned to Oklahoma, we had a few days to move and settle into the mission house before we headed to Virginia for a Stateside conference for a week.

Then we finally have found a little bit of a routine. We are adjusting back to the American culture, trying to get used to stop signs, big parking spaces, customer service, and southern hospitality !!! The kids and I are busy working through their Polish school books.

The beginnings of homeschool in the mission house......

We've also enjoyed diving into American sports, like Upward Basketball !!!