A Weekend of Influence

This past weekend I had the privilege of sharing time with some tomorrow's church leaders. If they are any indication where the church is going, my heart rejoices! We had 115 people attend this annual conference. The subject and theme of the conference was "Influence". I like to call it "Investment".

It was not a typical conference though. It was not 3 days PACKED with lecture after lecture. Rather it was 3 days of talks, discussions, coffee and worship. Saturday evening was a wonderful worship experience nothing more. There were 3 separate sections and each was unique. As I went through, I saw these young people relax and bask in our Father's love. Many of these leaders have homes that are not the kind of influence that you would want a young leader to be living under. This was a time to rejuvenate and recapture passion!

The big question for the weekend was: "Who has influenced you and who do you influence?" It was an interesting subject. Our visual was dominoes. We even had a human dominoes contest! It was great! I got to see many young people whom I have known for years and it was great to use the Polish that I do know!

I have always said that I have just changed countries, not philosophies of ministry. Josiah Venture truly believes in investing! This weekend proved that to me.


I am back now studying very hard. I have about 12 hours of classes/tutoring and about 6-8 hours of study! Whew! That's a lot of Polish!

I am going to be sending pictures of our leaders to my email list and would like for those of you who care for Poland's youth to consider "adopting" a leader for one year. This would only entail praying for this young leader at least once a week for a year. If you don't get my email and would like to do this go to my website and email me!

A Week of business

This week has already been very busy. I am studying very hard and trying to get ready for our annual National Leader's Conference. I am excited to go although I wish that it was closer than Warsaw. I AM excited to see many friends and to see God move in the young people of this country.

I made the decision to change to a lower Polish class. It turns out to be a great choice! The teacher seems to have a passion to teach Polish. It is not just a job for her. I sat in class and actually understood what she said! It was a great feeling to be in a class where you don't feel completely stupid! My teacher has also agreed to tutor me a bit. I am excited at this prospect! Tomorrow I meet with my other tutor, Pani Basia. She is an older lady who speaks NO English and we get a long just fine. She remindes me of my grandmother and I love spending time with her. Basia is not a believer and I can not wait for the day when I get to explain in Polish, why I am in Poland!

It is snowing and I feel like I am in Colorado! The first day of spring and you wake up to SNOW!!! Yeppie!

Well, I ask that you pray for this weekend. Many students come to the conference to rest from the spritual, emotional and mental stress of their lives. Please pary for the next two days! We leave in the morning and every year, something "goes wrong" to prevent us for getting this conference going.

A week of downs . . .

This week has been a tough one already! I have not understood my Polish classes at all and am feeling stupid and silly. It of course is the lie that satan wants me to believe. It is hard work right now. I am not motivated to do ANYTHING once I get in my flat. It is a real chore to even do the dishes this week.

This weekend, the women of JV are having a prayer weekend. Boy, do I EVER need it! I am feeling drained and a bit homesick this week. I know it will all pass and it is part of the transition process, but it sure is hard as you are going through it!

So keep up the prayers for me, dudes! I can sure use them right now!

You Shall Have No Other gods . . .

On my way to my Polish class I pass the Bacilica. A new statue of John Paul II was errected last year. It is a huge, coppery looking thing and is to the right of the enterance of the church. Candles are always a glow at the foot of this statue. The other day as I was on my way to class I got stopped at the light which is at the same corner. Two girls about the age of 6 or 7 were on their knees with their heads bowed and hands folded. You could tell that they were pleading to whomever they were praying to.

It was a very sad picture for me to see. Here is a new generation who is being raised to love the religion of the Church and who knows if they understand who the SOURCE of that church is. It gave me new passion to work hard to learn this language called Polish. Generations are growing up knowing the religion of "God" but not the PERSON of God. I then started to listen to Pastor Nelson's I Peter sermons again and wondered how many of we prodistants do the same thing as these two little girls. We "pray" to the person or thing that we think can help us but do we go to the ONE who is our only hope?

Are we raising a new generation in America who knows just religion or are we raising them to REALLY KNOW God?

Just something I am thinking about.

The Beautiful Women of Josiah Venture

When we were in Rome we were told to not allow ourselves to get distracted by the beauty and fashion. I really don't think that happened because we are a group of beautiful women! Inside and out! Just look at us! Wacca Wacca!

To Polish my Polish

Please pray for me this week. I am going to different classes to see which one I need to join. Please pray for wisdom in which class to be a part of. Also, I am needing to find a good tutor. I have two options and I need to figure out which one is the best for me.

To Boldly Go . . .

Have you ever tried to purchase something and neither one of you could really understand what the other is saying? I am not needing cheese or sugar but a wireless modem. Can anything be harder that that? Not only do I speak very poor Polish but I know NO technical words at all! The wonderful TP (the internet company) lady, Magda did not speak any English. So here we are staring at each other wondering how we can do this exchange. . .

I used my very limited Polish and pointed at the modem which is called a "Livebox". Okay, yes I want one. Cool. We got that right. I then had to get the owner of my flat on the line so that he could give permission for me to sign a contract with the company for his flat for internet serivce. Great! He was wonderful and we got it done.

Magda kept on typing on her computer and I was wondering what she was doing and then she showed me! POLTRANS! It is a Polish/English translator on line and she was trying to figure out how to say things. We laughed as she put things in and it made very little sense in English, but I got the gist to it all. It was like the episode in StarTrek TNG where Captain Picard is trapped on a planet with an alien who only speaks in metaphors. Picard knew the words, but had to figure out the meaning. That is how it was for me last night. It was great fun! It hope Magda had a good time too. She was delightful and helped me very much! So here I am blogging because I got to communicate with a wonderful Polish woman via POLTRANS!

Fire! We got FIRE!!!

Okay, so here I am trying to clean up my place. It is just like moving in again. I got here just over 2 weeks ago, but have only had time to unpack and pack for other trips, so when I finally got home, I started to clean and unpack box after box.

I am watching "Criminal Minds" on iTunes and during a very intense scene I start to smell smoke. . . electrical smoke. NOT GOOD! I look around and WHOA! flames are shooting out of one of my wall sockets in my bedroom! I was so glad to be home at this time. I got the flames out and ran upstairs to my neighbor to get help. What do you do to a 220 volt plug that is burning up?

He came and turned off everything for me. We still have the screw in breakers in most flats and I don't know ANYTHING about this! He cleaned it up and patched it all up for me. What a wonderful way to see the neighbors again! My flat is a MESS and my Polish neighbors have to come in to see my mess AND deal with fire! Ahh!!! :)

So everything is now okay. My neighbor is checking with his company electrician to see what needs to happen and then he is going to help me fix it. God is good! The whole place could have burned down had I not been here!

So that is my story! Hope you enjoyed it. As you can tell I am "speaking" this blog rather than writing it! :)

Rome, Land of Emperors and Martyrs

It was an incredible experience to be in the same place were Paul and Peter where.




(These are the lovely women I get to work with in Poland! Iwona is not here due to her recent delivery of her first child.)







To walk the same streets where Christians were used as human torches for Nero.













To stand in the Coliseum and Circus Maximus where so many brothers and sisters died for their faith.












There are so many emotions that are still going through me about this place. I hope to blog more about it as time goes by.

I am pleased to report though that I am back on line at my place! The Internet is up and running!

Would everyone PLEASE check this blog out?

So, I have been harassed by a fellow JVer that her blog is NOT on my list!

HERE YOU GO BRIT!!!!


GO VISIT BRIT'S BLOG! IT'S GREAT!!!!!!


CLICK HERE