I Hate You! I Love You!

Over the past several days I have hated and loved Poland! I would love to share both with you. Let me start with the complaints.

1. I thought I hated Christmas time at the malls in the US. Not after the fiasco I went though at our mall last Sunday! You would have thought it was Dec. 24th NOT Dec. 1st.

2. Weather that is just warm enough to bear COLD rain and not snow just IS NOT RIGHT!

3. I can log in tons of Polish language listening time when we have a church members meeting because it takes an eternity to get through it. :) We stay until the job gets done. :)

4. People have just been plain rude on the road over the last few weeks. I think the Christmas rude "bug" hits here too!

Things I just love!

1. I went to go pick up a book that I forgot at one of my teacher's home. I knew that I would not be able to get out of there in under a 20 minute "tea drinking time". I got there and my teacher had a table filled with breakfast items. She made breakfast for me! I was there for over 2 hours. This woman displays so many of the qualities that Jesus talks about and yet she does not know Him. She blessed me in a huge way Saturday.

2. Apple is helpful all over the world! I had to get my laptop fixed and they took a month to do it. I tried to be patient because I know that if they do not have the parts, they have to get it from America. Well, I got it back and it did not work! So, I took it back to my "Apple" store and the salesman spent a little over 2 hours with me trying to figure out what was going on, so they would not have to send it back. We got it done and so far my computer works just great!

3. I am blown away everyday by how much people are willing to help me with my Polish. When they hear that I am trying to learn Polish, they get a very sympathetic look on their face and then they help me. I am speaking more now than ever!

4. My neighbors are wonderful! I went up to their flat on Monday just to ask Ewa (my conversational English student) a question and ended up leaving 4 hours later. We had a great time speaking in English and Polish. They have now invited me to come to the second day of Christmas, Dec. 26th to celebrate with them. Another blessing!

5. Our monthly city-wide youth group, Moosk was GREAT! Krista, my teammate is gone for Christmas and the students ran this meeting on their own. They did a GREAT job. They were so nervous doing it on their own, but I can say that it felt like Krista was there. She has invested well in them and if she would never come back (which she IS coming back!), I think the group could go on. Here are some pictures:






So, my life has been very busy lately. I have one Polish test that I took on Tuesday and am waiting for the results and one more to go!

Today I visited a young woman and spent a few hours hearing her story. Our conversation got me thinking . . . How faithful would I be if neither my husband or ANY in my family wanted me to believe? No one is saying anything, but there is a constant pressure in her life to give up and make everyone happy. We even talked about how some of her family fears her rejection because she loves Jesus and they don't want to be left alone. It is a difficult way to live and yet she lives and loves Jesus day by day.

Poland is good! Poland is frustrating! Poland is feeling more and more like home!