Thursday, September 18, 2014

Mission trip from our home church !!

Our home church in Oklahoma, Quail Springs Baptist, has partnered with us in so many ways !!  They love us, pray for us, support us, and SEND MISSION TEAMS to Krakow !!!!  We got to host our fourth mission team from QSBC.  Although none of the 7 members of this mission team had been before, they made amazing connections with our Polish church family and served well !!
Here is a snapshot of the pics I took.  I will post more when I receive other pics from the team members.

The team in front of our church's sign

On the tram

 Fellowship and prep for English Club -- Vox Box

In search of great Polish food after a morning of English conversation 

  Yep, we found it ---- U Babci Maliny !!!

Second morning of English Conversation at Sweet Surrender Coffee Shop



 Visiting the Wawel Castle

Ladies Cooking Night !!!








Ladies' Meeting at the church


Meeting with our Pastor and his family in their home....... 

where he prepared a delicious meal for us!!

Please pray for the contacts they made, the seeds they planted, and God's continued blessing on this partnership between QSBC and Poland !!!
Thank you, Ray, Jennifer, David, Stan, Robert, Michelle, and Jerry !!!  We are so thankful you came to serve on Polish soil!!!

Summer fun !!!

During our last weeks of summer, we spent time with family and friends..........doing fun stuff around town and using the time to cultivate the connections that we have as a result of our kids !!!

Visiting the butterfly museum with Falyn.






 Saying our last goodbye to Sonomi.



Making our own candy at the local candy shop.........





Clowning around with picture boards in the city center.

We conquered a ropes course with Julie and Roksy !!!!





We visited an old castle with the Chochorowski's !!!







Complete with a visit to the ice cream shop !!!!  YUM !!!





Divine Sailing

Sending your kids off to summer camp is a big part of European culture.  But here, they send their small children off for 2 weeks at a time!!  I'm trying to adjust to our new culture, but I just can't bring myself to do that.  So when I heard about a day camp here in Krakow where my kids could learn the art of sailing, have fun, and still be home with us at night, we went to sign up !!!!  All along, God had a plan...........................
At this SAME camp, not one, but TWO of our Polish contacts had signed their kids up as well...................during this EXACT SAME week (the camp runs during each week of the summer). I couldn't have planned it better if I had tried...............really hard.
Patrycja, our newest believer in our mom's group, has a daughter, Zuzia, who went to preschool with Arin.  Because of my crazy Polish school schedule, Patrycja and I have not been able to meet for several months.  But because Zuzia was also signed up for this camp, I got to spend time with Patrycja and we got to serve their family by helping transport Zuzia to/from camp with Arin on a few days.  We also got to spend time with Patrycja's husband, Raphael, and Patrycja's parents...............all of whom do not fully understand Patrycja's decision to follow Christ.
Also, Magda is a single mom with 2 kids, who had signed her son up for sailing camp.  I have had opportunity to witness to Magda on several occasions, but she was not open.  Our paths have not crossed at all lately, so I took this opportunity to ask her how I could be praying for her.  She has been through a rough divorce, and is still feeling like she can manage on her own without a Savior, but her friend, Hiedi, also got an earful of faith talk on our afternoons together watching our kids on the lake.  We actually got to spend a birthday celebration together with Magda and her kids the next week as a result of this "chance" encounter together.
My kids were scared to try something new and different, but it was clear to see God's design in setting up the time with these ladies and their families that week !!  Incidentally, the person who told us about this camp was not even able to sign her son up because the camp was too full by the time she called !!!
Here's some pics of my brave kids, and our divine sailing contacts:




 Arin and Zuzia putting away the sail boats



                                                   Magda and her youngest                                                         


 Birthday celebrations with Magda's kids