Easter Celebrations with family !!!!

 

In the past month, we have had two sets of special visitors to Krakow !!! The first set was Kirstin's parents.  They came for our Easter break !!!  We made lots of memories together !!

 

We celebrated Easter -- the Resurrection of our Savior !!!!

 

We played together !!!!!

 

 

 

 

Nana and PawPaw got to be here for the kids' school program !!!!!!

 

 

Then we travelled to Germany together to visit Tropical Islands Water park !!!  We needed a warm place to go !!!!

While the weather outside was like this.......

 

We enjoyed this inside the dome.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we celebrated a very important birthday --- Nana's !!!!

 After our tropical get-away, we returned to the winter wonderland of Krakow ......

 

We had a great time.............took a thousand more pictures...........and made great memories together !!  We hope they get to come see us again soon !!!!

Pictures Galore.......winter fun !!!!

Here are the pics I promised in the last post.  For the latest happenings and where God is working, please don't miss the last update here on the blog.......(it's below this one) !!! 

In February, Albert had a chance to sponsor a trip to the mountains organized for the kids.  They needed additional men, and Albert had no language lessons that week, so we he knew this would be a special time to spend with our kids, and a great language immersion trip for his Polish !!!  He was thrown into the deep end from the beginning...............his roomie, the trip organizer, only spoke Polish !!!  It was a special time for the 3 of them. 

 

this was skiing day......

a walk in the mountains....

sledding.....

the whole group in the Tatra mountains.....

beautiful scenery........

 

During this same week, Kirstin stayed home for language lessons, but the university organized a day trip to the mountains for all the students to go on horse-drawn sleigh rides.  Below are some of the girls I spent the day with:

it was so picturesque......

 

We enjoy spending time with friends at an outdoor ice skating rink here in Krakow.........

 

below is the only non-blurry picture I got......(they skate too fast for my shutter speed evidently).

This is Kaleb, playing chase on ice with his PE teacher, who happened to be skating there that night as well.

 

One day after school, and a nice snow fall, we took the kids to a ski slope about 40 min from our home.

 

We have been blessed with fairly good health during these winter months, which we never want to take for granted.  We are thankful for the many memories we make enjoying this amazing creation called WINTER !!!  Coming from the southern US, we never truly knew what it meant to have 4 complete seasons.................and we make the most of every one !!!!

Winter Catch-Up

I can't believe this blog has not been updated since December !!  Who is the slacker in charge of this thing anyway?

I have written so many blog posts in my mind, but evidently, they never quite got realized.

 

Life has been moving at such a fast pace this winter.  And there is so much to share in the way of praises and prayer requests !!

Albert and Stephen have added some new regulars at their weekly Bible study!  Some of the new faces are athletes and some are just other men from our church or other ministry contacts.  Please pray that there would be an open environment for everyone to participate each week and that the truth of God's Word would sink deep into their hearts.

Kirstin has a Polish friend who is asking for direction as she begins a weekly Bible study in her home with people from her Catholic church!!  The church is supportive of her study, and we are so excited to see a hunger for being in God's Word within the Catholic circle.  Pray that God's Word would speak so loud and clear !!!

Kirstin successfully completed her first semester of language study at Jagellonian University !!  It was an intense study, but full of learning and opportunities to speak truth into the lives of classmates from 7 other countries.  Albert has prayerfully decided that he will move from tutor learning to the same university program with Kirstin beginning at the end of February.  The intense schedule may be close to craziness for our family to tackle, so please pray for the logistics to work out to allow us to attend our classes while managing to get our kids to/from their school each day.

The new believer, Patrycja, from the mom's Bible study, has been dealing with another faith-tester this week. Her mom, as well as her husband, Raphael, were both admitted to the hospital with blood pressure dangers.  Please pray this trial would find her faith stronger.  Pray for Kirstin and Kasia as we minister to her and her family during this time.

Our teammate, Stephen, has been asked to take the head coaching position of the Krakow football team, the Krakow Kings.  This is the team that formed as a result of the folding of the Krakow Tigers.  We are praying that this leadership role will help form the foundation for this young team to be grounded in moral and fair play..........................something that was lacking under the most recent leadership with the Krakow Tigers.  Albert will be helping him as an assistant coach as time allows.  As the winter wears off, the Krakow Kings Baseball team will begin their season.  Please pray for Albert as he invests in these young men, and dives deeper into spiritual conversations to discern where the Spirit is working.

This weekend, Albert will be in Czestachowa (a smaller Polish city NW of Krakow) doing a football camp.  Pray for opportunities to finish spiritual conversations started by him and Stephen during their last visit.

Last, but certainly not least, we need to get you caught up on the pictures that come along with the fun of life..............

 

Here is our weather today....snow covered and sunny!! Absolutely perfect!

 

Last night, we braved the snow storm to visit a family from the kids' school for the celebration of Donut Day in Poland.

This is Arin and Pola, one of her classmates.

Pola's mom made all these by hand.... 

 

Sledding at our local hill !!!  This time we had the added fun of some ice slides.....

Iced stairs........ fun !!!  (and bumpy)

 

It's a race to the bottom...... 

 

I have a few thousand more pics to upload..............but that will be for a later post -- ha ha!!  I want to get these praises and prayer requests out to you.  Thanks for your support in prayer............we appreciate it more than you can imagine !!!