God is MOST Glorified. . . .

If you would have told me two years ago that these 4 young people would be singing this worship song in a church together, I would have sadly looked away and said, " I wish it could be true."

This is proof that God is much bigger than you or I! He calls people to himself and when He does and they respond, all they can do is worship Him! One of my favorite quotes from John Piper's Let the Nations Be Glad is:

“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man… Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God… But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of God in preaching… Missions begins and ends in worship."– p.17

These young adults are not worshiping God because some missionary "converted" them to a different way of thinking. They are worshiping because someone brought them into the "white-hot enjoyment of God's glory"! My goal here in Poland is to point to the ONLY ONE who is worthy of worship! I don't want to be known as a missionary, but as a "goal setter".
The goal: to live a live showing that "God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him."

In Poland, the goal is "God is most satisfied with you when you do everything that you need to do to satisfy Him." It is all about works here and to hear these young adults praise His name because of His glory, period, brings tears to my eyes!

I want to thank all of you who have prayed, supported and worshiped along side me during these last 3 years! This video is fruit of many long years of proclaiming God's glory! May His name be praised for ever and ever and ever more! Amen!

Tomorrow is All Saints Day. It is a VERY important event in Poland. Everyone will be at the cemeteries cleaning and setting up candles and flowers and when it is dark they will light the candles and start praying for their dead. Visually, the candles are beautiful, and yet there is a sad, hopeless, void that stirs in my soul. Is this it for this people? They never really know what their final destination is and the dead rely on the living to pray them to Heaven. Tomorrow I will post pictures as I go to the main Basilica cemetery for pictures and prayer for those who are lost and living. I even hope to open conversation with my neighbors about the day. Please pray with me and for me tomorrow.

Have you ever had one of THOSE days?

Read this as if I was talking!

I have been fighting a cold all week. I was laid up for Monday and Tuesday, but got going enough to do a few things on Wednesday. Thursday was almost ALL day and evening of Polish, which was good but helped my already bad headache get worse!

I woke up today feeling better and thinking, "Oh no! It's Thursday! I need to get my car into get fixed!" I drove to my mechanic's and on the way got behind a Tram/car crash. I had to wait in traffic 20 minutes while my oil light blinking and the warning buzzer was making me nervous! I got to my mechanic and he looked put out with me. I did not understand this. He spoke very fast (in Polish) and said, "I told you that you needed to bring your car in on Thursday. I cannot get it fixed until Monday or Tuesday now."
"But it is Thursday." I said.
"What?" he had a very strange look on his face. He got under my car's hood and kept saying things I did not understand. I could tell he was not happy with me. Apparently Poles do not "miss" days of the week. . . EVER! :)
So, I called Dan Hash. He is GREAT with car vocab and I knew he would not let me down. Eliasz told Dan something and then gave me the phone. "Alice, you were to bring the car in yesterday."
"What do you mean? He said Thursday."
"Alice. . . today is Friday."
"What?" Where did my Thursday go, I thought.
"Bad news Alice, you cannot have your car until next week."
"Okay. We will work with it."
Eliasz realized that I was abit "out of it" today so he smiled and started on my car.

It would not be a big deal had I not made plans to go to Wroław (2 hours by car) to see some friends and I know it would be VERY bad to not go. So I am on the train tomorrow! :)

Eliasz took me to the tram stop and I went to Costa Coffee (England's version of Starbucks) to meet Dan and read a book. It was a good time. We needed to unlock my cell phone so I can use it in the States when I am there and that took going to 5 different places! I then went home to face a dirty house and a splitting headache! I also had to try and find a train schedule to get to Wrocław. Never done it before, but we will see how well I did tomorrow when I go to buy my ticket! :)

Okay, so tonight we had an evangelism meeting for high schoolers, and I had to get there by tram. NO PROBLEM! I even like the tram! When it works. . . I got on the tram an hour before the meeting knowing that I would get there 20 minutes early. GREAT time to hang with the kids! A group of guys who looked like they were up to no good got on the tram and were very loud and my "Spidy" sense went up. I kept on eye on them just in case.

The tram was going and then it started to slow down. . . okay a hill no be deal. . . slower, slower, slower. . . STOP! The conductor said, "Sorry, it is broken. It will take 30 minutes." Well, I only had 40 to get to the meeting place, so I got off and started walking.

Then the sky then opened up and it started to RAIN! Not a few drops but a down pour with cold wind! I rn to the next tram stop to get shelter and called Dan because I knew he was on his way and would come this way and could pick me up, but another tram came pushing the broken tram, so I jumped on and hoped for the best.

We pushed the other tram up the hill and almost did not make it. When we got to the city center the conductor yelled, "Everyone off!" Which sounds meaner than in Polish than in English. It was NOT my stop and it was still raining. Good thing another tram was right behind! So I jumped on that one.

I got to my destination and ended up walking around for about 15 minutes because I did not know where the meeting was, but I found it. When I walked in, I heard beautiful music and spent the next hour and half enjoying listening to "secular" music being used as an evangelistic tool.

After the music I was able to talk to a number of my students from MOOSK and MOOSK on I.C.E. It was a GREAT time!

God was with me the whole day! Even with all of this, I knew that He would not give me more than I could handle today. I am grateful for this day!

MOOSK on I.C.E.

On Saturday a new club was introduced to Katowice! It is called MOOSK on I.C.E. What is I.C.E. you may ask? International Club of English! My friend Erin and I use our English as a way to communicate Jesus' love to the youth here in Katowice. Our first meeting was held at the only American looking and sounding place, the "City Rock Cafe". Sound familiar? :)

We had 7 students and a GREAT time! It may sound like something small, but it is not! Four of these students have BIG English exams at the end of the school term which will help determine if they get into the University or not.

I am finding that life living Christ's love is just as important as telling about Christ's love. This is a place where we want to offer students something practical that helps their live, not just fill their souls. I love this group of young people and I love working along side Erin!

MOOSK the 3rd!

I have the wonderful job of showing you one of my favorite things about Poland! Our city wide youth group meeting called MOOSK! This is our 3rd year and the leadership group is being lead by Poles for the first time! It is a GREAT answer to prayer! Everyone was nervous about the first night. People kept coming and coming! Over 70 people came! It was a great night!

Eye on Poland!

As many of you know, I am not a huge fan of CNN, but this whole week CNN International will be highlighting Poland as one of the most powerful forces in Central Europe. It is now at almost 40 million, one of the the largest EU countries. Out of that 40 million, over 6 million are young people! SIX MILLION! Sadly, less than 1% follow Jesus. To them He is a great man of history or a religious icon. These young people constantly go to other countries to make money and they influence so many other countries! I wonder what would happen if more and more Polish young people would come to Christ, what would happen not only to Poland's society, but also to and now spiritually sleeping Europe. Click on the picture for the link to the special videos and articles about Poland.









The question then becomes: "What is Josiah Venture's role in reaching young Poles with the truth of Jesus Christ?"

Glad you asked that! On November 11th I will be in Denver along with most of my Poland team and many others from Josiah Venture. Together we want to share our vision and hope for both Poland and the other 10 other Central/Eastern European countries we are in. I would LOVE to see you there! You MUST R.S.V.P. though! The deadline of coming up for the Denver night though! Click on the next picture for more information and to RSVP!

Just Want to brag!

My brother and sister-in-law put these pictures up, but I just had to post them on my blog too! What a cute kid!!!

Fall Baptism, My Favorite Opoka Activity

Twice a year we (Opoka "The Rock" Church) have baptisms in the Hashes swimming pool. It has become a blessed event since other churches use this occasion to baptize their people too and since all of the churches are so small, it gives us a great excuse to not only celebrate but to also get together and be family at one time, in one place!

This time a wonderful young woman, Zusza (Susan) was baptized. She is becoming a leader in our youth group! I look forward to more time with her!

Monika braved the cold water and being 8 months pregnant! She wanted this, so we invent a way to be "dunked" but not fully immersed!

After the baptism, we had lunch and then after that, the four served us communion. It was a blessed time and I cannot wait until May when we have our next one!

Gramps and Grams would have loved yesterday!

Yesterday I got to do something I know my Gramps and Grams would have LOVED! Picking apples and then making cider! My dear friends and teammates, the Eiflings invited me to Iwona's family home in Skoczów, about an hour south of me. Her dad has an apple orchard and we got the pick apples and then make cider! He had us go to a friend’s house to use his handmade apple cider press! It was a GREAT experience and I got to use more and more of my Polish! While we were "pressing", Daniel and I talked about our grandparents and how much we know they would have LOVED to be here and join in the fun. It was a great experience that I hope to repeat next year! The cider is like drinking pure apples!