Thanksgiving in Poland

We had the blessing of having 14 at our Thanksgiving table this year !!  We had old football players, current Bible study guys, a couple of girlfriends, and even a little brother join our American festivities.  It was a full family affair to get ready for this feast...........

evidence that our kids do help clean !!  (they will kill me if you mention this photo!)

 

 Girls playing with the dough for rolls.....

The boys did the set up......

 THEN our guests arrived !!!!

We talked about the reason for Thanksgiving, how our family celebrates, and shared what we give thanks to God for from this past year of life. 

  

  

 the kids playing with Kaleb's toys.  Jaś is one of the player's little brother.

  

After consuming the feast, the guys thought it would be fun to see how many kilos they had gained, so they got out our bathroom scale !!!!!

 

 As you can see, the ladies chose to refrain from this fascinating experiment.......

Then the football watching began........

 It's always fun to have first-timers................those who have never experienced a Thanksgiving celebration.  It's fun to see this beloved family tradition through the eyes of one who experiences it anew.  As foreigners living here in Poland, we get to experience many Polish customs and traditions, but the Poles around us rarely stop to see their traditions through the eyes of a foreigner.  It can be very eye-opening when you consider the "why and how" of our established traditions.  We pray that our celebration of Thanksgiving points these Poles toward Christ.  Please pray as we follow up on some poignant spiritual conversations that took place this Thanksgiving in our living room.

We are also blessed to have a team of other American families to celebrate our tradition of Thanksgiving with each year.  This year, the feast brought some sweet tastes of home !!!!!

Football Season 2014

 September and October were busy football months.  The team in Czestochowa, the Saints, made it into the playoffs!!  They won the quarter-finals match against the Panthers in Wroclaw, and we made a weekend trip of it to cheer them on as a family.

touchdown run !!

Coach advising the O-line

Our Wroclaw friends came out to cheer on our team with us !!!

Victory celebration

Congratulatory hugs for our favorite coach !!

Their victory at this level of the playoffs awarded the Czestochowa Saints the opportunity to advance up into the next higher league ---  the A League !!!  It was a hard fought win, so the victory was extra sweet.  Coach Al is so proud of these guys !!  He thinks they have played at the "A League" level for a while and we are prayerfully looking forward to how God continues to open opportunities for Albert to continue to build relationships with these men.

Please pray for these relationships and the spiritual conversations Al gets to have with several of the leaders of this team.  They will be making the trip to Krakow in a couple of weeks to visit with Coach here in our home.  Pray for God's leading!!!!

School starts again.......:(

Although September was a busy month with our mission team, I don't want to fail to document the beginning of yet another school year !!  Kaleb started 5th grade, and Arin 3rd.................wow, where has the time gone !?!?  (Although I'm thankful for the Polish school system that allows my kids to be one grade younger than American schools................I get to keep them home one year longer !!!)

Official first day --- ceremonial !!!

So happy to see our friends again...............summer was a long break !!!

The "real" first day of school.  Kaleb in 5th....

Arin in 3rd.

 Starting the day out right...........with praise to God !!!

Off they go..............amidst the chaos.....

Have I mentioned before how proud I am of these 2?  They tackle school in a completely foreign language...............all day long..............with great attitudes!!   Only God could have ordained such a scary reality where my kids thrive and learn!!!

Another recent God story from this past week !!!  Ania is one of the girls in Arin's class (she is pictured above on the far right in the picture of the 4 girls with Arin).  She invited Arin, on the spur of the moment, to go home with her for a playdate after school last Friday................I said "yes" against my inner selfishness.  You see, Friday was going to be the only evening our kids would have both parents home during that entire week, and Ania lives 30-45 minutes outside of Krakow.  I really just wanted to be home with the fam.  But God had other plans............................

Once I made the long drive to go pick her up (while grumbling in traffic), I got to have a divine meeting with her mom.  Ania's mom and I have not been very close, but she confided in me that they were having marital problems and wanted to know if I had any Christian books on marriage.  God provided me the ability to understand all that she was sharing with me (through tears in Polish), she allowed me to pray for her there at their kitchen table, and I had sufficient words in Polish to be able to encourage her.  She told me that she has not shared this burden with anyone else!!!  Is our God BIG or what ?!?!?!  I was so humbled again that He did not let me miss this opportunity.......in spite of myself!!!  Please pray for our future contact, her absorption of truth in those books, and her marriage !!!!  Her vulnerability was a precious gift..............especially in this culture !!!