Where is Winter?

Up until about a week ago, I was complaining about our cold rainy days. If it is going to be cold, let it SNOW! This week has shown some of the most BEAUTIFUL "Coloradoish" fall days here in Poland. Not normal for November! I have seen blue skies for days now! Last night as I was driving from the office, I snapped this photo. I almost felt like I was in Colorado without the mountains! I was sad that I had to include the traffic lights, but the colors were wonderful!

It is amazing how God gives me small gifts like this each day that I live in Poland. I was listening to Francis Chan (Crazy Love and Forgotten God) yesterday talk about how much the Father loves His children and that just as our earthly fathers, God wants the best for us (even when the best is painful sometimes) and he loves to see his children enjoy him. Yesterday, I was enjoying him as I kept looking in my rear view mirror until the sun fully went down. By the way, this was at around 4 p. m. The darkness is settling earlier each day, yet , my heart is full of joy! Keep it coming Lord! Show your handiwork in your sunsets!

And the Wall Came Down

Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall and the beginning of my journey into Eastern Europe. I remember sitting in our TV room at John Brown University in shock as I watched this historical even which I NEVER thought would happen. Little did I know that this event would later chart my life in Poland.

Polish Union leader Lech Walesa, lead union strikers in Gdansk, Poland to rebel against the might of Russia. Their passion and their courage to stand up against the USSR and sparked the start of the freeing of Eastern Europe. Tonight he got to start the domino wall that was set up along the line of the Berlin wall. It was amazing to see his face as he pushed that wall down.

There is still captivity in the hearts of the Polish people, though. Today the European Union shows that there is 6 million young Poles (15-29 years old) who do not know Jesus. They might be religious, but as I have found, most are religious in identity only. Each camp I have been to, I am finding more and more religious agnostics. Their country is free, but their hearts are not!

My prayer and my dream is in the next twenty years, the walls in the hearts of the Polish people will fall just as they did in 1989.

And So The Darkness Begins

We had the end of Day Light Savings on Sunday. I was thrilled to have an extra hour of sleep, but now, the sun sets a whole hour earlier. That is around 4:40pm now. This time every year I am reminded how much a really dislike Polish winters. This is the time when I am stretched and pulled and I see God strengthen me in ways that I do not see when the sun is shining.

I have a meeting with one of my favorite people tonight! At the mall and with COFFEE!!!! Life is good even when it is dark! :)

Faces of Poland 2.0

This summer I had a wonderful time meeting and working with Polish and American youth. It was an amazing time. I learned so much about this generation, storytelling, and God. I was sidelined for a time with my fractured shoulder, but I also got a front row seat at watching both Polish and American youth learn more about each other, God and themselves. Thank you for praying!

Here are the faces of Poland 2.0!

Wonderful Meetings

I noticed that it has been a little bit since I wrote. I have been more than blessed by getting to watch the Broncos play. I am right now typing and watching the 3rd quarter of MNF. Someone here told me that the Broncos are now 6-0, so I know we won, but I don't know the score! WHAT A GAME!!!!

Anyway, I have had two weeks of meetings with young women and our youth group. It is exciting to see Majka become our youth group leader and to walk along side her as she is leading and loving our youth group. Last night we talked about clothing and why do we wear what we wear. At first glance, it may sound stupid, but then we went into our identity in Jesus and the heart that is more important than the clothes we wear. It was a great discussion!
For the past few weeks I have been meeting with Ania. This young woman has come from a really rough background, and yet her heart is bright with the love and strength of Jesus. Tears filled my eyes this Sunday as she completed her declaration of following Jesus, by being baptized. Our time is filled with drinking coffee, talking about life, learning how to study the Bible and prayer. I love this young lady! What is great too, is it is mostly done in broken POLISH! She understand enough English so when we need it, we break into it.
I must confess that I am still struggling with Polish, but little by little am getting it. I just wish I could wake up tomorrow and speak fluent Polish!!

A Little Bit of Home

I miss football! It has been a part of my life in America! Poland has no idea how wonderful the game is! Slowly but surly I am trying to introduce my neighbors to this American past time!

Yesterday the Broncos played the Cowboys and won! What was even more wonderful was that I got to watch the game LIVE with my family! They were in Denver and I was sitting in my flat in Poland! We were able to watch the game together (except for my bro, Bill. He got to go to the game, the bum :) ) as if we were in the same room. There was a two second delay in their game feed so I saw everything before them. It was fun to just sit there and talk about the game with my dad. Something I miss. How did we do it? Well, it turns out that ESPN has an international cable station and the games are live on Sundays and Mondays. That means though I had to stay up until 1:30am but the game was well worth it!! Thank you Broncos for making the game so exciting! I hope to see more games, but the Broncos are not on the "gotta see" list. The only reason why their game was on was because of the "Almighty" Dallas Cowboys. Broncos 4-0 and still NO RESPECT!

Language Blunder From the Other Side!

As many of you know, my neighbor is a doctor and teaches at the English speaking medical school here in Katowice. Her English is not the best outside of medical terms and her "American" students are from Asia, but they have US citizenship. Their English is not very good either. :) You can imagine the class.

Well, the other day she told me about how she made a very funny English blunder. She had a few American students with her and got busy with a patient, so she wanted the students to go and study. So she told them, "Please to the restroom and wait for me." The students looked at each other and then walked away. She could not find them in the break room because they went to the bathroom! "Rest room" in Polish just what it is, a room to take a rest, our break room. The bathroom here is called the "toilet". We laughed and laughed at the blunder and she will never send her students to the "restroom" again! :)