Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Third Day and Pillow Crafts!

I am reflecting for the team today. Where do I begin to share the discoveries and excitement?

The stuffing and fuzz was flying as 54 children crowded into our dining hall after formal English lessons to make cut-and-tie fleece pillows. At first, the girls took up two long tables and when the boys joined in it was amazing. The best part for me was having conversations with the children and learning many new Polish words. I’m getting better at the pronunciation, but on both sides I think spelling the word is key. So the English/Polish learning takes place all day long . Judy and I were very amused to learn what the animals say from a Polish perspective. Our dogs say bark, bark, and their dogs say who, who. When they said their ducks say, fok, fok, we quickly told them American ducks say quack, quack.

The food served by our cooks is delicious and traditional Polish. The main meal is at 2:00 and begins always with tasty different soups. Today our cook painstakingly made little dumpling balls stuffed with ground meat. It was called Kuluski something. Did you know that cucumbers and tomatoes are served at breakfast and almost every meal? Dining with Marta, Benia, Lucas, Marysia, Sonia, and Piotr is fun. They tell us the names of all the interesting foods.

The ski village of Bialka Tatrzanska is charming. It’s just a 3 minute walk past small yards with cows, chickens and sheep to the cukiernia (bakery.) I found treasure there in the best poppyseed roll that Judy and I ever tasted!

Tonight’s game in front of our chalet in this lovely spot was “pass the ring cookie with a straw”. Next was the name game where a folded parachute divided the children into two teams that couldn’t see each other. The parachute was lowered by chant of three, two, one, then one child on each side stepped onto the playing spot. Whichever child named the other correctly, got to take the looser to their side to build a bigger team. Pam and I were tricked into facing off against each other. We had Polish names running through our heads like Marta, Julka, Maciek or Weronika and we were almost speechless and couldn’t think of each other’s name as the parachute was lowered!

Worship begins at 7:30. When Piotr had technical difficulties and the children were bored Judy jumped right in leading If You’re Happy and You Know It. Randy sang and recorded many worship songs on a CD as gifts for all the children! During class his CD came in handy as we reviewed the meaning of the words for the children from sheets Pam prepared for us. I was so touched when the girls exclaimed, “this is the best song ever”when You Are Holy came on the screen as they danced and sang.

It’s fabulous to work and pray as a team!

Delightedly by Diane

Blast Off by Randy

Uh oh...

Never knew this would make me so nervous. I mean, they're just kids, right? Never mind the fact that some of them talk better American than me. Never mind the fact that the skills we're passing along could possibly make a tremendous impact on the direction their lives take - temporally and spiritually. The question of the moment was more along the lines of, "will they like me and did I put enough gel in my hair?"

As it turns out, Emma was the ever useful ice breaker, and thanks to my wonderful wife's organizational skills, we actually had what seemed like a Productive day. The kids in our group, though more advanced, seem willing to learn and put up with my goofy jokes.

The evening rally was a riotous game where one shoe is removed and a ballon is tied to the other foot. Whilst hopping on the shod foot, one must try to step on and pop his opponent's balloon. Much noise and excitement.

Looking forward to tomorrow's class. So Long as I select the right shoes for my ensemble....

Monday, June 27, 2011

The Children Have Arrived!

God is good! We all rested all snug in our beds while lessons of English danced in our heads.
The morning brought us plenty of sunshine, smiles and laughter as we went through all of supplies and craft items. Major reorganizing was needed, especially with the bags that are stored in Poland. Our fearless leader, Pam, made a small request that we open only one bag at a time to go through...we had to hold Diane back because she went head first into trying to get us ready. After reigning her in we got down to business.

The children arrived after lunch. Who could have imagined that doing English interviews could bring so much joy. The children were so respectful, fun, excited and eager to learn from Americans. The excitement continued after dinner when we gathered for introductions and played a ice-breaker game. Diane's team came in second place and Emma (3 years old) got an award for courage as she played with the "big kids".

Please pray for us as we begin our first full day of Christian English camp on Tuesday.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Krakow to Bialka Tatranszka

God blessed us as we worshiped with Piotr and his congregation in Krakow this morning. Singing praise songs in Polish that we sing at home in English made us feel we are truly one in Him. Piotr shared a wonderful sermon. (No, we're not just saying that because it was in Polish! Lukasz, Piotr's son, translated for us!) We were also touched by the testimonies of 2 members of the congregation. One of these testimonies came from Sophie who was with us for 2 English camps up north in Ostroda. God has been working in her life.

After church we had a little more time to explore Krakow and enjoyed a wonderful lunch in a quaint Polish restaurant. It felt like we went back in time as our team enjoyed a traditional Polish meal, and our favorite quote of the day came when Cathie returned to the table and said, "Oh, Emma's eating a fish head!"

We left Krakow at about 4:00 and traveled to Bialka Tartrzanska to begin our camp adventure. Tonight was all about settling in our rooms, enjoying a meal with the Polish team, looking ahead at the coming week, getting the lay of the land, and lugging our many suitcases filled with English and craft supplies. We were all a little leary of opening those bags tonight, so tomorrow after breakfast we will be organizing everything in preparation for the next 2 weeks. The children will begin arriving at about 2:00, and we will begin determining which English class they will participate in. Please pray that we will make wise decisions about placing the students in classes, so that their needs will be met in a way that is comfortable for them. God bless you all, and thank you for your support and prayers.

Saturday June 25, 2011

Arrival in Poland

We have arrived to the beautiful country of Poland! From the air it looked lush with thick forests, rolling green pastures, and little pockets of towns...so different from the grid streets of the United States. Our bags all came with no problem and Piotr was waiting to take us to our hostel in Krakow. It is a charming old building with our rooms at the top of 80 stairs called 24 Guesthouse. Yes! We had to climb 80 stairs to get to our rooms. It seemed a long way up because we were so tired. In order to stave off jet lag we had to stay up all day so we decided to walk to the center of Krakow and see what it was like. Since we had our handy dandy map with a geocache loaded onto a GPS we decided to look for our first cache.( For those of you who would like to find more about this game you can go to geocacheing.com.) It looked fairly simple so we began our walk. We walked and walked and walked some more. The GPS would only work sporadically so we really couldn’t rely on it. So we just kept stopping people and tried to speak a little Polish or find people who would speak English and see if we were going in the right direction. Each time we were able to get a little further. I am sure it was frustrating for Pam, Diane and Josh. I just really wanted to do it and was determined to get the travel bug into the cache. A kind person finally was able to direct us to the bookstore where this cache was located. It was a quaint store loaded with all ENGLISH books….we were looking for a Polish bookstore! We signed the log and were on our way. We got ourselves back to the town and really started to enjoy all the sights, sounds and smells. It was wonderful.
We visited Wawel Castle. It is an amazing fortress that I am sure Diane could tell you all about if I can get her to make a post. Maybe people can comment and try to get her to tell you all its history. She is our walking encyclopedia! We took in the views of the countryside by the castle and listened to a concert on the river. We headed back for the town centre.
We ate our dinner at an outdoor restaurant. I had Russian pierogis. Did you know that pierogis are actually from Russia and not Poland? I didn’t. Diane had a borscht like soup, Pam had mushroom soup with dumplings, and Josh really wanted a chicken sandwich, but was informed by the waiter they didn’t have it. He opted for a chicken salad, but wasn’t too pleased with the dressing. We told him we would find some lody (ice cream) to stave off his hunger. We were just about finished as a cloud burst forth with its bounty of water. It came down and made it quite difficult to remain at our table. Check please!

We got our lody and headed back to the hostel. Back up the 80 stairs! We are all tired puppies…time for bed!

Two More Days!

We met at Pam's house yesterday for a Polish feast. She made pierogi's! yum yum! Diane made the chocolate treats that of course, we ate first. Didn't you know it was the Polish way???
Then on to the packing of all the extra items we needed to take...pillowcases, stuffing, beads, fleece material, glue, scissors, prizes and much much more. It was tough trying to get everything packed five duffel bags and have them weigh fewer than 50 pounds each. It was like a puzzle. You should have seen Randy using the vacuum and special bags to suck out the air so we could have more room in the bags. We should have taken a picture of him laying down on the job! Pam made a joke that he really had a "sucky" job.
I called United Airlines again to see if they could push through my request of getting the five extra bags on at no charge....no luck yet. The person at the other end of the line either really couldn't help or just chose not to. Don't know which! Pray that when we get to the counter they say yes to us. It sure would save a lot of money for the trip.

I have begun my own packing. What a joke! I have taken things in and out depending on my mood and what the weather is here, like that is what the weather is going to be like in Poland. I am trying not to take too much but somehow I keep adding extra things I REALLY need...or think I need anyway. Que sera sera!

Poland is 7 hours ahead of Chicago (FYI)
Someone from the team will be posting each day once we arrive. So either check back each day or sign up to have the email come right to your account.
Please pray for safe travel for us and that we will be able to at least rest a bit on the plane.
Please also pray for the children who will be arriving at the camp. For many of them, this may be their first time away from home.

The next post will be when we reach our destination in Poland!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about Piot (Peter) who is hosting this event. We know he has been working hard on his end to get everything prepared for this mission. We thank him for all he had done not only for the mission, but for our mission together to spread the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Dobronac, (good night!)
Judy

One Week Away!

Pam, Diane and I met at the church yesterday to make copies of what we needed for our English lessons. I can't believe we are now down to the wire. Things are pretty well under control though. The tough part is whether or not we have prepared well enough for this particular age group. The good thing is we are all very flexible and will be able to tweak our plans to fit the needs of this group. I am still cutting out pictures from all the donated magazines for our word folders for the kids to take home. It would be unrealistic to take all the heavy magazines to have the kids cut their own.

I have contacted United Airlines to see if we can get our craft supplies duffel bags through baggage without cost. I have heard it is really hard though. Please pray they say yes, so we don't have any additional expense.

Wheatland Salem Church has duffel bags specifically to pack our things in. They are much lighter than a suitcase. We are allowed only 50 pounds per bag. My lightest suitcase is already 12 pounds empty This will be my first trip of really packing light! I know I will be hand washing a lot of things in the sink! I will miss the wheels from my luggage though.

Is anyone out their reading this blog? I haven't seen any comments come through yet. It would help to know I am not just typing into cyperspace!

The Countdown Begins!

It is less than two weeks away from the mission trip. Our English lessons materials are really taking a life of their own. So many ideas are flying around. I wonder if we will be able to fit it all in. We have been gathering all our craft items to see what we still need. Stick on gems and air dry clay would be great.

Thanks to the many people who have donated pillowcases. We now have all we need. Diane went out and got the spray tie-dye kits, Cathie rounded up a lot of Beanie Babies for prizes, Pam went out and bought the fleece for the pillows and I found more puzzles for the picture frames. Life is good.

I was blown away by a preview of a song that Randy prepared especially for our trip. He played it for us at the meeting. He is so talented! I can't wait to hear the rest of the songs. We are truly blessed to have him on the team.

Cathie and Emma are leaving for London this week. Pray for safe travels for them. They will then meet us in Poland for the mission trip. Pray for Randy too...he will be surrounded by women!

I heard a good homily from Fr. Pat from St. Thomas the Apostle. He said we should go out and evangelize not only in our own country but also to the world. Today is Pentecost Sunday. I hope the Holy Spirit will shine down with tongues of fire above our heads so we can not only teach the English language, but be able to spread Jesus' good news.

Learned Something New

I learned something new today. I was talking with my sister and asked her why she wasn't a follower on the blog....she said "no excuse I just haven't gotten around to it." I was so happy when she did because now I know someone is actually reading what I have been posting. I told her I wished an e-mail would be sent whenever there was a new post. Guess what? Right before you get to the pictures at the bottom of the blog there is a spot to do just that! So submit your email, click on the link when you get the mail in your inbox and every time one of the team members posts to this blog you will get an e-mail...How cool is that! My sister also signed up to be a follower, so now we have two! Whoohoo! So I learned something new today.

On another note, I was so happy when I was able to get 20 pillowcases donated from a good friend for a project in Poland. Now we only need 40 more. I sent out e-mails and made phone calls to all my neighbors hoping for 1 or 2 from each. They all add up! I went to all the dollar stores and discount places with no luck. They either didn't have any or were way too expensive. So if you have any, please let me know!